Starting a parkrun

“I started running at the end of the 80’s. After a couple of marathons, half marathons & a few shorter races I went back to my first love, football. I dabbled with running over the next 20 or so years but it wasn’t until the kilo’s starting to show that I decided running was the only way to keep my weight under control. Throughout 2004 I started plodding my local streets & pathways on an infrequent basis, which culminated with me running in the 2005 City of Manchester 10km race. It was very apt that it started & finished at the home of my favourite football team, Manchester City. Also at the end of that year I took part in a 10 mile local race, the ‘Stockport 10’. The following month I ended up joining Stockport Harriers. One year later I found myself organising this race with a group of club members, after it was in danger of becoming another of the many races, which had fallen by the wayside.Over the next three years we organised the clubs races to quite a successful level.

In 2008 a local runner, Bob Downs, from a neighbouring club, Wilmslow, had started organising a free to enter event in a local park, which I occasionally attended or helped out at. This was one of the many ‘parkrun’ events that have sprung up throughout the country, which allows runners to test themselves on a fixed 5km route. These are held every Saturday morning and are growing in popularity. Bob’s event became very popular over the next year or so and it was on this basis that he approached me with the idea of starting a complementary event in the hope that it would lure some of the Bramhall runners, thus keeping the event at a manageable level as well as giving runners a choice of parkrun events in the area.

Over the next few months and with the experience of organising the Harriers races, I started planning this new event. Firstly, where to run? The Harriers are based in Woodbank Park in Stockport and it is attached to neighbouring Vernon park. The two parks are very different, with Woodbank being flat with wide pathways, ideal for fast times and lots of space whereas Vernon is a different kettle of fish, lots of crisscrossing narrow paths, ornamental features and hills. So the first decision was, do we utilise the hills or try to make it a flat fast event. After much deliberation and measuring, it was found to be impossible to devise a simple course without encountering some incline or decline. Ideally this should not be any more than two laps. Also the feeling was that the hills reflected the terrain of the area and so should form part of the route. I also had the notion to try and keep separate, as much as possible, the parkrun event from the Harriers club. Yes we would be utilising the club house as a meeting point and somewhere to store the equipment, but I wanted to keep the run away from the track and stick to the ethos that this was a run around a park (or two in our case) and was separate from Stockport Harriers. In the end I had to concede this point in order to keep the route as simple as possible we would start & finish on the track.

On top of all the measuring activity we were now in discussions with the powers that be about the finer points of starting an event. Equipment list were drawn up which included laptops, software, timers, tokens and signage. We also needed volunteers! Now having organised races before I knew what sort of effort was needed to get people to help out. Bribery & threats were the main weapons in my arsenal.... The thought of getting up every Saturday morning without fail and putting on an event started to bring me out in cold sweats. I realised early on a team of us would be needed and started to approach people. Alan Dilkes the Stockport Harriers club secretary had been in on the idea from an early stage and we were eventually joined by Tom Snaith who lives close to the park but is a member of Belle Vue Racers and Sue Holland who runs for both the Harriers & Goyt Valley. Others also became involved on a frequent basis and we now have a core team of regular volunteers, but best of all I get a lie in once in a while.

Our first official event was held on the 22nd August 2009, after a trial run a few weeks before. Everything went well from the run point of view with nearly 60 people turning out and eventually we got our heads around uploading up the results. We had been shown the process of how to record and upload the information the week previous and it all seemed so simple, but when you’re trying to remember the steps you need to take and you’ve got an instruction manual full of images and information that doesn’t sound or look like anything you were previously told, things can get a bit fraught and nerves a bit frayed. It was with great relief when the message came up, ‘You have successfully updated the parkrun staging tables’ and cause of much celebration. (It was Hot Vimto all round!) We’ve now held well over 30 events and apart from Boxing Day last year, there has been a Woodbank parkrun every Saturday. Also we’re quite proud of the fact that during the bad weather we were the only parkrun in Manchester that managed to put an event on. It did involve changing the course on occasion, without the hill and running over the grass instead of sheet ice. We now have regular runners who meet up for their sporting fix each week as well as for a social chin wag. If you fancy coming down and giving us a try you’ll get a warm welcome and lots of encouragement. We also tend to have Jaffa Cakes to bribe you with! Come & say hello.”

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/woodbank/Home.aspx