Delay to restart of Inverness Parkrun
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The return of Inverness Parkrun has been delayed after a last-minute rush to get paperwork cleared for a new course at Torvean.
Organisers had hoped the weekly 5k run and walk would restart with the easing of restrictions tomorrow, but risk assessments and other forms had not been signed off in time at Parkrun headquarters.
As Scotland moved beyond level zero on Monday, many Parkruns are restarting after an absence of 17 months, but people keen to get back to the global timed 5k in the Highland capital will have to wait a little longer.
Co-event director Wendy Dustan said: "We do get a wee bit caught up in our own Parkrun and forget that in Scotland alone there are another 56 or something, so they're trying to get all the events up and running at the same time.
"There are also a lot of events from England that have been held over for the last couple of weeks and they've got Wales and Northern Island as well.
"So they're pretty busy, and from our point of view at Inverness, because it's a new venue, we've got to update the website with all the new stuff as well, but the main thing is the risk assessment.
"We've submitted everything but they are just ploughing their way through it all. We have to just accept that we are one of the ones that won't be starting this Saturday."
The local Parkrun event – which will also be renamed to take account of the permanent switch to a new course – is expected to start next Saturday, August 21, at the new Torvean park beside the canal.
Wendy said the new route was a bit different to the previous one at Bught Park and the temporary course at Whin Park.
The new route starts at the 'steps to nowhere' and involves two full loops of the new path and a final 'half loop' on the inner circle before finishing on open ground away from the course.
"We did a trial a week past Saturday with about 40 runners just to hear what everyone thought. There's a wee hill in it now, as well. It is an undulating course, it's not going to be a fast course like the Bught was on a good, dry day.
"But it's a more interesting course and it's a bonny park.
"We've got to change the name because we're a new location, so it means that everybody will start afresh, so their PBs will not be carried over from the Bught."
