A team of parkrun officials visited Eindhoven last week. It was part of a larger tour of potential new parkrun venues across the Netherlands.
parkrun is a weekly timed event where participants can walk, jog or run a 5 kilometre route in a local park. It is free of charge and organised entirely by volunteers.
Founded in London 15 years ago, parkrun now exists in 21 countries worldwide. In September, parkrun announced its plans to launch new routes in the Netherlands in spring 2020.
As part of their visit, the parkrun team met with the volunteers who are designing and testing potential routes.
‘We had a fantastic visit to the Netherlands,’ says Deri Thomas, parkrun’s European Territory Manager. ‘We met some great teams and saw some stunning potential parkrun venues. Eindhoven was right up there and we’re excited to get started early in the spring.’
The volunteers also expressed their excitement. Jesus González, a wireless engineer at Philips, says, ‘after enjoying parkrun in other countries, we can finally say that parkrun will take place in the Netherlands’. González also says that the parkrun representatives ‘were very positive about the park and the surroundings. We are looking forward to it’.
Eindhoven’s parkrun event is expected to launch in late February or early March 2020 at Karpendonkse Plas.
Reporter: Rachael Vickerman
