Starting to carve a niche for itself in the parkrun community is the one at Bower Park, Aspatria.
The weekly event started in September but is building a nice regular weekly following – with some surprising visitors already sampling the delights of the rugby union club’s course.
Mike Graham, 74, is one of the volunteers who have done their bit in helping to organise the Saturday morning event.
He says: “Geoff Toogood organises the event and a number of us act as vounteers to help out on the day. It’s proving to be a popular attraction and it’s surprising where people come from to take part.
“On Saturday for instance a chap from Dunfermline got the train to Edinburgh and then to Carlisle where he stayed overnight. Thenh it was down to Aspatria for the run and back home.
“We also had a chap from Liverpool who came and after 20 minutes was on his way back home again.
“I believe they are just like the football groundhoppers who tickoff different grounds across the country.
“The parkruns have become very popular and I think there are around 1,000 now across the country so people are trying to tick them all off. It’s a nice hobby – keep fit and see different parts of the country.”
At Bower Park the 5k course takes parkrunners round the first team pitch grandstand, behind the sticks and then round the second team pitch, back to the club house and then round to the grandstand again. That is completed five times.
For those of a competitive nature times are recorded and course best for the different categories are logged.
One of the local athletic celebrities has had a run round the Bower Park course as he return to active running.
Joe Ritson is 64 now, and just back in action after illness, but back in the early 1980s he put together back-to-back winning performances in the Lakes Marathon.
“He ran very well and I’m looking forward to seeing him back again,” says Mike, who also has his own return pencilled in for March.
A keen runner, he’s currently sidelined recovering from a hernia operation.
