For many people in Sheffield, there’s a parkrun on your doorstep

It’s about getting out into our brilliant local parks together, said Dr Jo Maher, GP advisor to the city’s Move More activity promotion project. And not necessarily belting round after a 5K person best time in your go-faster shorts.

“We want to celebrate these spaces after coming through a pandemic,” she said. “But we also want to raise awareness of parkrun and boost attendance.”

Nationally, the parkrun organisation has seen a downturn in people attending the 9am every Saturday 3.1 mile run since the 16 month closure of the events during the pandemic lockdowns. Sheffield has held up better than some areas, said Jo.

However, the city’s parkruns are currently running at around 70% of the attendance for pre-pandemic events. (The small Sheffield Castle run at Manor Fields is holding up best at 79% of early 2020 attendance, whereas the popular runs at Hillsborough, Endcliffe and Rother Valley parks are only just above ⅔ of spring 2020 levels).

“My feeling is that some people have got out of the habit of taking part,” said Jo. “Now, we want to see more people at parkrun.”

Data collected by parkrun and Sport England since early 2020 shows that outside activity by people in the UK polarised, with less active people going out less, and many already active people running, cycling and walking more. But the idea in some people’s minds that parkrun is for already fit young professionals is not the case, Jo stressed.

“Anybody and everybody can go to parkrun. You see all different walks of life, especially you see people from your own community because for many people in Sheffield, there’s a parkrun on your doorstep, and most are accessible by public transport.”

The emphasis nowadays is for people to run, jog or walk round the course, with no pressure to run the whole 5k, and that, along with the likelihood of meeting people you know means newcomers, especially women, find it easier to attend, she said.

Parkrunner and sports science academic Prof Steve Haake says parkrun is: “A community event with a 5km run in the middle of it.” Chair of the international parkrun organisation’s research board, Steve added: “The first thing people say on our surveys is they get an amazing sense of achievement from taking part, and the next thing, from over 70% of participants, is that their mental and physical health has improved since they first started coming along.” And the research shows that volunteers seem to get just as much benefit as runners.

The Make the Move Day this Saturday will see NHS staff celebrating their new city-wide link with local parkruns, as part of the Move More activity strategy (launched 10 years ago after the London Olympics). The association with Move More across Sheffield is a UK first for parkrun, said Jo, and other cities are already getting in touch to see how health professionals can use parkrun to improve local public health.

Sheffield is ahead of the game with our ‘social prescribing’ networks, Jo added, where reception staff at GP centres can direct patients to staff linked to local community groups offering ideas for meeting other local people, getting outdoors and taking part in exercise. This idea does not replace normal GP appointments, she said, but for many people, particularly those with mental health problems, this might be a more effective intervention.

“A huge recent study by the NHS’s National Institute of Health Research showed that when we spend time outdoors with other people, our sense of wellbeing improves more than any other method. It’s better than taking tablets.”

Simply putting on your trainers and going for a run is a very effective personal health strategy when people are short of cash, said Jo.

“To take part in parkrun, all you need do is turn up.”