Running club set up in park (From Chelmsford Weekly News)

Running club set up in park

4:23pm Wednesday 23rd January 2013 in Local Sport

A WEEKLY running club has been launched in Chelmsford by five avid runners.

The founders of Chelmsford Central Parkrun met for the first time in Central Park, at a free 5km run along a course set up for runners of all abilities.

Parkrun is an umbrella group which arranges free runs for people of all abilities.

The Chelmsford group was set up by Len Marten, Gerry McGovern, Sue Smith, Sarah Davies and Tracy Rayner, who got together after finding out they all wanted to set one up in the city.

Mr Marten said: “We all wrote to parkrun asking when one was going to be set up, but told there wasn’t one being organised.

“Sue asked them to put us in touch with one another and here we are.

“We’ve had to approach the council and Active Essex for funding; plan and tune the routes, train and we even ran the Ipswich Parkrun to get a bit of experience.”

The route will stay roughly the same each week, although some alterations will be made when necessary to cater for other events being held in the park, flooding or similar issues.

Runners of all ages and abilities are welcome to join the group.

Mr Marten said: “We’re repeatedly reminded not to call it a ‘race’.

“I’ve seen people pushing off-road pushchairs round the same course used by running clubs and children running with their Dads.

“It really is great to see and even for those thinking about starting to run its a great way of meeting like-minded individuals.”

For more information, visit www.parkrun.org.uk/chelmsfordcentral