Newcastle Parkrun is Launched

18 JAN2010

After last weeks run was cancelled in newcastle, Saturday saw the first ever Newcastle Parkrun held on the Town Moor in the city centre. Overnight rain made the course suitable for the race to go ahead this week, but the very windy and wet weather made for very testing conditions!

9am saw a small but keen group of runners (43 in total...and one dog!) gather together on the Town Moor to tackle the 5km route. Very windy conditions and rain made the course less icy but there were still some sections of the course that care had to be taken on to avoid the icy patches that remained.

Michael Dawson (Morpeth Harriers) pulled well clear of the rest of the field from the start an came home in a time of 16.02minutes followed by Vaughan Hemy in a time of 18.00minutes. Angela Hibbs (Chester Le Street) was the first women home in a time of 18.38minutes. Full results of the run can be found on the Newcastle parkrun website.

Newcastle parkerun race organiser, Niyc Pigeon said after the run "The hope for Newcastle parkrun is that it will continue to grow over the coming weeks and months. We hope that Newcastle parkrun can offer runners a unique free timed 5km run to fit in with their training, or simply for a bit of fun, whilst building communities at the same time"

Niyc goes on to say that "The Newcastle parkrun has been a long time in the making with about six months of planning going into getting the run set up, in terms on deciding upon the park and getting permission, setting out the route, and risk assessing the course. The parkrun wouldnt be possible without the volunteers and so building up a good base of helpers is vital". Each week volunteer responsibilities are allocated and the course is set up on the morning of the parkrun event. They are always in need of more volunteers and interest is able to be expressed by emailing newcastlehelpers@parkrun.com

The timed 5km run takes place every saturday morning at 9am and entry is free, you just need to register on the parkrun website before 6pm on the friday evening. You then just need to take your printed off indivdual barcode with you on the morning of the run. With the same route being used each week, it makes for a great way of monitoring your training and fitness over a series of weeks.

More information of the parkrun event in Newcastle and other parkrun events can be found on the official parkrun website.