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Community run alters route due to popularity

Susie Rack
BBC News, West Midlands
Phil Evans Five people in bright pink parkrun tabards standing in front of a bench with a purple Wolverhampton parkrun plaque on it. There are three men and three women, all in running gear. They are in a park and trees and grass can be seen behind them.Phil Evans
Wolverhampton parkrun directors, including Phil Evans, pictured fourth from the left, have worked together to make the route change

A community parkrun in the West Midlands has become so popular it is changing its route to manage increasing congestion.

Event directors have outlined a new course for Wolverhampton's weekly 5km (3.1 mile) run at West Park, which cuts out a narrow path that slows runners down.

Starting from 12 April, participants will complete three laps of the park in a clockwise direction, rather than anticlockwise, missing out the bottleneck altogether.

"In general people are for it, and they thank us for putting the effort in," said event co-director Phil Evans.

Wolverhampton parkrun A crowd of runners standing around around in front of a bandstand, its columns painted in cream and red stripes. A purple sign marks the start of the parkrun and trees can be seen in the background.Wolverhampton parkrun
Hundreds of runners turn up each Saturday to do the 5km loop starting at the bandstand in West Park, Wolverhampton

He explained numbers at the Saturday event, which has been running in West Park since 2013, have been "slowly creeping up".

A record 522 runners turned up on 1 February, the highest number since before the Covid pandemic in 2019.

"We get weeks when we get a splurge of people, and the overall trajectory is we increase numbers," Mr Evans said.

"There is a portion of the course that's quite narrow and can get congested. What we decided to do was reorganise the course and take that piece out."

He said the new route, which will still start and finish at the bandstand, will involve a "longer, more gradual" uphill stretch.

Making the change has been "very much a team effort", he added, involving liaising with parkrun headquarters and remeasuring the course.

Most Facebook users welcomed the solution and said they were looking forward to trying the new route, while others suggested also trying staggered starts.

One wrote: "You have no idea how happy this makes me. I used to run Wolves lots, but that corner congestion has made me look elsewhere, as I hate the bottleneck it causes."

Another said: "Great idea. Also now gives visitors a nice view of the lake, which is one of my favourite features."

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