AS MANY as 150 runners could be pulling on their running shoes to take part in Dunbar’s first parkrun this weekend.

The Lochend Woods Parkrun starts on Saturday morning, with runners covering a five-kilometre course in Hallhill.

A trial took place on Saturday morning and Lynne Lewis, event director, was pleased to say things had gone smoothly ahead of the real thing starting at 9.30am on Saturday.

She said: “The parkrun trial happened in the most horrendous conditions.

“We had 31 runners who braved the conditions and a lot were families, with mums and dads running with their children.

“We tested all the kit on Saturday, tested the timer, uploading the times and that was all done on a test system.

“We are expecting, hopefully, not too big a crowd – we could get 150 people running.”

Parkrun was formed in England more than 15 years ago by a group of friends who met each weekend for a jog.

Until earlier this year, there were no parkrun events in East Lothian but Dunbar is set to join Meadowmill, near Tranent, in flying the flag for the county.

Participants can either walk or jog the route, with a team of volunteers working hard for more than six months to see the event created.

Mrs Lewis, who has taken part in more than 100 parkruns, said: “It is really about getting the message out there that parkrun is for everyone.”

The course starts at the running track outside Hallhill Sports Centre and is a figure-of-eight shape, comprising two laps of 2.5 kilometres.

The course heads west away from the centre on tarmac paths around the sports pitches, then returns towards the centre and heads into Lochend Woods, before returning towards the centre and repeating itself.

Funding for the initiative has come from a number of local organisations, including the town’s running club, community council and Rotary club, as well as Viridor, EDF – Torness, Team East Lothian and Improve My Running.

For more information, go to parkrun.org.uk/lochendwoods