RUNNING shoes will be pulled back on to make their way around Lochore Meadows on Saturday as parkrun makes its comeback.

Almost a year and a half on from being halted due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the weekly, timed 5k event within the country park has been given the green light to return after the further easing of restrictions across Scotland.

Parkrun, which is free to enter, is organised entirely by volunteers and encourages people of all ages and abilities to run, jog or walk a 5k course, and before the outbreak of Coronavirus, more than 1,000 such events were held across the UK.

The Lochore Meadows parkrun was first held in May 2018 and Andrew Aird, ambassador for parkrun in Fife who will take on the role as running director on Saturday, commented: "All the participants are and the teams have known it was possibly coming back on the 14th (of August), but certainly the Fife ones anyway, only got the thumbs up on Friday morning, so they're now all gearing themselves up going 'how do we do this again'?

"We've had a really good response on Facebook; lots of positive comments from people wanting to come along. The team's getting themselves organised and getting volunteers ready for Saturday morning, so we're looking forward to it.

"There are people who don't run, walk or jog it, but who come and volunteer every week and that's part of their social diary. They'll be keen to get back as well.

"The last three Saturdays I've actually been able to do a parkrun in England and it's just been brilliant having it back. Everybody down there is exactly the same – just loving being back, seeing friendly faces, and getting a bit of chat on a Saturday morning and, in some cases, a coffee afterwards."

Any differences to parkruns held before will be slight, such as starting and finishing points are located in more open spaces, whilst stopwatches and barcode scanners used by volunteers to record times have been replaced by a mobile phone app.

"It's working really well in England and parkrun HQ are really happy with the way its going," Andrew continued.

"I don't see any reason why it won't be the same in Scotland.

"It'll be interesting to see what happens because I think we've got folks like me that have done nothing over the last 18 months and have realised it in the last three weeks, and then I think there's a lot of people that's probably started running and got into health and fitness. Maybe some of them will come along.

"I think a lot of people were maybe worried it wouldn't be parkrun as they know it, that it would be so restricted it didn't feel like it, but it's not. It's felt pretty much exactly as it was."

The event begins at 9.30am and, for more information, you can find them on Facebook or at www.parkrun.org.uk/lochoremeadows.