Hyde Parkrun host special women's event

Following on from International Women’s Day, Hyde Parkrun held a special event on Saturday, March 9 to celebrate and encourage local women to run, jog, walk, and volunteer at Parkrun.

The event was a huge success, with 230 runners taking part, and 95 of these were women, making it the biggest turnout for Hyde Parkrun since it returned after Covid.

The idea to hold a run aimed at women came after a review of the figures showed that the Hyde Parkrun had a lower percentage of female participants than the national average.

Across the UK, 44 per cent of those who attend Parkrun are female, whereas just over a third of participants at the Hyde branch are female.

The directors were keen to do whatever they could to try and increase participation among women and felt that this was the perfect time to host the event, with International Women’s Day taking place the day before.

Saturday’s Parkrun also coincided with co-event director Jane Durkin announcing she would be standing down from her role.

Jane was instrumental in bringing Parkrun to Hyde Park and as Jim Fitzpatrick, a regular parkrunner and local Hyde councillor, said: “Parkrun makes great use of Hyde Park, encourages people to exercise, and has made a great contribution to the community. We thank Jane for helping to create this.”

Fittingly for the day, first-placed Martha Tibbot recorded the fastest-ever time from a woman at Hyde since the event began back in 2017, which was a fantastic achievement.

Following the event, Martha said: “To finish first meant so much to me, especially with it being International Women’s Day the day before, and to break the time record was just the icing on the cake.

“I can’t recommend Parkrun enough. It’s a great way of getting people of all ages involved in exercise and it’s so inclusive.

“You don’t have to run; you can walk round, take the dog, have a chat, and if you want to race round as fast as you can that’s fine as well.”

To learn more about Hyde Parkrun, visit their Facebook page, ‘Hyde Parkun’.

As well as being a talented runner, Martha is also a female ambassador for the ‘Local Runners Podcast’, which has been running since 2021. The podcast is made up of five local runners, who talk about their journeys and interview guests to hear more about their stories.

This week, the team recorded a women’s special podcast where Martha, along with the three other female ambassadors, Emilia Platt, Katie Kay, and Hayley Simpson, caught up with four local runners, each with a unique story to tell.

The episode is out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

To learn more about the team behind the podcast, visit their Facebook page, ‘Local Runners Podcast’.