THE popular national Parkrun movement is coming to Okehampton – with a weekly run to be up and running in the town’s Simmons Park in time for the summer.

The free timed 5K run will start at 9am every Saturday morning in the park in the town centre, pictured, at exactly the same time as more than 600 other Parkruns nationwide.

Dr Claire Hart, a GP who lives in Okehampton, is among those organising the event.

She said: `GPs are encouraging Parkrun as a way for the local population to get more active and fitter that is more sociable than running on your own.

‘About 75 per cent of those who run Parkrun haven’t done it before so it encourages people who wouldn’t normally run to run.

‘There are lots of figures about how Parkrun improves mental health and improves community spirit.

‘Okehampton is a bit of a void at the moment as there is no close Parkrun to us, the closest is at Tamar Lakes near Holsworthy and Killerton near Exeter, so a group of us have been meeting since June to set it up. We are now on our way, which is very exciting.’

The volunteers setting up the event will be guided through the process by a ‘Parkrun ambassador’, Paul Cooper who runs the Woolacombe Dunes run in north Devon. He is coming to Okehampton to walk the route with the organisers.

Dr Hart added: ‘We think Parkrun will be a good community thing for Okehampton and it should also bring in some Parkrun tourism.

‘We needed £3,000 to set it up which we now have from various donations from groups in the town. The town council is supporting us as well, we have got support from the school to use their grounds and we have got all the ticks in boxes. We now need to confirm the route and get as many volunteers as we can.’

Okehampton Running Club is involved as the club already organises a community 5K in Simmons Park one Sunday a month. So is Ian Blythe, general manager of OCRA and himself a Parkrun enthusiast.

He said: ‘The monthly run in the park on Sundays has given us a route and a group of volunteers to assist with it. It will benefit lots of the local groups and fits in with what the GPs are doing locally. They are doing social prescribing of Parkrun to people to get more active. It should draw people in too – there are people who do the A-Z of Parkruns and could visit Okehampton to tick off the O.’