Who participates in parkruns?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-08-17 04:00

Australia; International

What does this mean?

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People are more likely to return to a parkrun if they are male, older, and faster runners, according to international researchers who have a few suggestions on how to get more first-timers to return. Parkrun is a weekly 5km event that runs across 22 countries including Australia, and the team used data on over 20,000 parkrun participants in 58 venues across Scotland over a year to figure out what keeps runners coming back. They found first-time runners were more likely to return if other first-timers were at the event. Older runners and men were also more likely to return, while slower runners were less likely. People were also more likely to come back if the event was smaller and near freshwater and woodlands. Based on this information, the researchers suggest specific events to encourage first-timers to participate together, as well as runs near beautiful woodland and freshwater scenery for the runners to enjoy.