Move over Mo! Parkrun breaks 10,000km tape

While Mo Farah is breaking records elsewhere, the free community event runners have broken the long distance tape in just 22 runs in Chantry Park.

Now, organisers of the 5k runs are sending participants on tour ... to Christchurch Park, where, from Saturday 2nd March, runners, joggers, buggy pushers, dog owners and walkers can take part each Saturday starting at 9am. This "tour" will last for a couple of months and all the runs are free.

Christchurch Park is one of five parks in Ipswich with a permanently signed and measured route for runners to use in daylight hours throughout the year. The Ipswich park route family is complemented by Alexandra, Landseer and Bourne parks forming part of the Borough's sporting legacy aspirations in getting the town more active.

The Christchurch Park route will be a new experience for runners and parkrun director Rory Marriott is relishing the challenge. "We are really looking forward to taking parkrun to the fantastic setting of Christchurch Park. The course will present a nice change to our runners as the paths should make for a faster run, although  two ascents of the Christchurch hills will give them plenty to think about, too. It also gives another part of Ipswich a chance to find out what parkrun is all about and why this phenomena is now one of the largest mass participation sports events in the country."

With a regular turnout of between 80-130 people, Ipswich parkrun is fast becoming one of the most inclusive and friendly weekly sporting opportunities the town is proud to host.

With an average run time of 27 minutes for the 5k, participants are encouraged to smile, wave and take it completely at their own pace. Following the 10,000k milestone, the next one on the horizon for the Ipswich community run is 1,000 collective running hours which is only a matter of weeks away.

Further information on the event is available from www.parkrun.org.uk/ipswich