Parkrun.

[Karl Cadman]

Hiya all,

 

 

I have been apporached by the Sports Development Officer (SDO) in Hockley about starting a Parkrun in the Rayleigh/Hockley area - it is still very early days and the plan (if at all) would be for a start early next year. He has already secured a £1k grant,and I have applied for a further £400 via the Sports Active community fund. I am keen to push this event on, especially as it would be a lot more local than the other events and would gain momentum very quicky, I think.

 

Parkrun (as a group) are looking for £3k as a start-up fee from the group, and the SDO in Hockley is aware of this and has other funding options. After the initial set-up Parkrun will then continue to support the event forever. I assume the initial fund is to support the timing equipment, etc. and again I think this maybe something (once we have it in our possession) could be used for some of our other races, perhaps ?

 

The initial thought is using the playing fields behind Grove Road (Kirste 5 start field) and go onto the back of Connaught Road, still within the confines of Grove Woods, etc. but this whole thing is in very eary stages. it needs to be a route where there is sufficient car parking (and the school have said we can use part of their car park as overflow from Grove Woods carpark if necessary). Other ideas were to use Cherry Orchard Country Park, but I feel this is too waterlogged, and has insufficient car parking, etc. Anyway, open to suggestions for any possible HQ and route.

 

I don't really want a three lap course (like Southend Parkrun) but would suffer a 2 lap course, and have started mapping a course.

 

Anyway, my real question is who would be interested in joining me as part of a core volunteer group to get the whole Parkrun up and running in this area. It is a regular Saturday morning event, so would need some commit initially, but as the word spreads and more people get on board I think it the volunteer list would develop. I want to have a meeting with the SDO next week if possible to see just how viable the whole event would be.

 

This is not general knowledge yet, and I want to keep it a bit low-key until we are a lot further down the organisational process.

 

 

 

 

regards, look forward to hearing your suggestions and comments,

 

 

Karl