Cumbernauld Welcomes New parkrun
There's a new parkrun for Central Scotland...
Central Scotland welcomed a new parkrun at the weekend, with Palacerigg Country Park in Cumbernauld now hosting one of the free weekly 5k runs.
The inaugural event took place on Saturday and was incredibly well-attended with 166 runners taking part - no doubt attracted by the prospect of a run around the scenic park and its trail path course.
The course consists of a loop of the park with a small out and back section. The event is on a natural trail which is predominantly flat, but has some short hilly sections. Starting next to the archery, runners then turn right to pass Palacerigg Golf Course and Limekilns Pond before the woodland opens out into the Forest Wood Wildlife Reserve.
The course then passes some carved wooden heads before heading through Forest Wood. As the course leaves the wildlife reserve there is another left hand turn to pass through Glencryan Woodland. The final hill awaits just before a right turn to the finish.
Speaking about the inaugural event, one of the event volunteers commented: “We had the full range of parkrunners from 15 first timers to Tim Bloss and Davie Black with 502 and 584 parkruns respectively.
“Iain McDonald of Cambuslang Harriers set our new course record in an impressive 17:35, with the first woman Jennifer Ward coming home in 24:01. With an average time of 30:28 it was great to see such a full range of parkrunners at our first event.
“We had a range of visitors for our first event including from Durham, Dundee, Edinburgh and from all across Glasgow.”
It was definitely a successful first outing then, with plenty to build on over the coming autumn months. And the important bit of course - post parkrun coffee is to be found at the Palacerigg Country Golf Club!
You can find out more about the new parkrun on its dedicated page on the parkrun website.
