New Horncastle parkrun aims to attract athletes from far and wide

But that wasn’t the case with Horncastle Running Group’s new parkrun, and it was very deliberate.

Parkrun is a free, community event where you can walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate on the 5k routes, with events taking place every Saturday morning all over the country. There are also junior events over a 2k course, and in both the 5k and 2k, there is no time limit and nobody finishes last.

So when Horncastle Running Group opted to create an event of their own at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School (QEGS), the hope was that it would give not only local people the chance to take part but also those who take part in as many parkruns nationwide as they can, or even those coming to and from the Lincolnshire coast for the weekend.

But as the Group’s co-founder Robin Harrison explained prior to Saturday’s opening event, there was a danger that the first event, held last weekend, could have been forced to be cancelled had too many people known about it.

"It sounds strange but we didn’t publicise it much in advance,” he said.

"The reason is that there are dedicated groups on social media that alert people to new parkrun events, and there is then a sudden clamour to get to them and it’s actually resulted in runs being cancelled due to the fear that there will be too many people and not enough facilities and volunteers to cope.

"So once the first one is out of the way, we’ll then hope for a good turnout each week.”

Among those who could take part are known as ‘Alphabeteers’, who aim to complete parkruns that begin with each of the letters of the alphabet. Events are known by their venue rather than town, so the Horncastle parkrun comes under ‘Q’ for Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School.

Robin added: “There are only two other ‘Qs’ on the list, one at Quakers Walk in Wiltshire and another ‘Queen Elizabeth’ in South-East London, so we hope with us being a fair distance from those ones, we’ll attract quite a few ‘alphabeteers’ from further north!

"We also hope that a lot of people will see us as an option when travelling to and from the coast at the weekend. Saturday is known as ‘changeover’ day locally, where those who live at places like Skegness often get away inland and lots of other people are going in the other direction.

"It could therefore be the case that people will want to drop in and do a parkrun en route in either direction. We’re on the main road between Lincoln and Skegness so it’s well placed.

"There aren’t too many other parkruns locally – there was one in Skegness that only lasted about 14 weeks and there are some in Lincoln and near Boston but they’re located on bad roads with lots of speed cameras and so on, so we hope ours will be a bit more accessible!”

The weekly parkruns will take place on QEGS’ school field, with Robin adding: “We’re very grateful to the Horncastle Educational Trust who have been good enough to let us use the field. It’s not the best course but it has things going for it and we’re expecting an average of around 2-400 runners each week.”

That certainly proved the case in Saturday’s first event, as 203 runners/walkers took part and everyone achieved a PB time in almost perfect weather conditions.

The next event will be this weekend and to get involved as a volunteer, contact Robin or fellow event director Laura at Horncastle Running Group.