Third Rotherham location for parkrun

Parkrun, the charity that coordinates thousands of weekly 5k events for participants of all standards, has launched a third location in Rotherham.

Waverley Lakes joins long standing Saturday parkruns at Clifton Park in Rotherham town centre and at Rother Valley Country Park. In Rawmarsh, Rosehill Victoria hosts a junior parkrun on a Sunday.

By transforming local green spaces into a weekly hub for physical activity, parkrun lowers the barriers to entry for residents who may have previously lacked a nearby community-led exercise option.

Running across the world and organised by local volunteers, the weekly 9am events are free to participate. You only need to register once, regardless of how many different events you visit and whether you intend to walk, jog, run, volunteer or do a combination.

Waverley Lakes parkrun begins at Olive Lane on the Waverley development, with the potential for a post parkrun drink at Serve Coffee.

Built on the site of the former Orgreave Colliery, Waverley is a growing community with over 1,800 homes, a primary school and a local high street, Olive Lane, alongside the Advanced Manufacturing Park which is home to leading global businesses. The site also includes 300 acres of lakes and parkland with Highwall Park designed to run through the centre of Waverley from Olive Lane to connect with Waverley Lakes.

Waverley Lakes joins a rapidly growing network of over 2,200 events worldwide, reflecting a post-pandemic surge in the demand for free, inclusive outdoor social spaces. Beyond the 5k course itself, the expansion introduces a vital infrastructure for social prescription, allowing local healthcare providers to recommend the event as a proven tool for combating isolation and improving mental wellbeing.

Around 20% of parkrun participants consider themselves inactive at registration and new data and research revealed on Social Prescribing Day has shown how parkrun is saving NHS England money in the treatment of key health conditions with 7 in 10 Britons also backing GP’s to socially prescribe parkrun to patients.

Elizabeth Duggan, parkrun’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Over the last 20 years parkrun has grown from a weekly community running event into a major public health intervention, helping reduce the burden on the NHS but, we can and want to do more to support the government’s ambitions for a more preventive and community-based health care system.

"The parkrun community is changing, with an increasing number of participants registering as inactive and from lower socio-economic groups and we’d love to see our parkrun practice and social prescribing model integrated into the new Neighbourhood Health Centres which are initially going to be targeted in the country’s more deprived areas.”

parkrun website

Images: Parkrun / Harworth Group