Watermead 3-2-1 Track Opens

On Friday 4th June Councillor Peter Osborne, the Chairman of Leicestershire County Council, who is a keen long distance runner having run four international marathons, will officially declare the new route open. The new route around King Lear’s Lake at the Watermead Country Park is the first of its kind in the East Midlands. The route is a permanent ‘3-2-1’ marked course, allowing runners to measure their progress over three different distances. A start and a finish are clearly marked and a red line follows the route, with markers every 100 metres. The new route is one of a series of similar marked running routes around the country as part of the ‘Run in England 3-2-1’ project. Run in England 3-2-1 is a community-based initiative created to deliver fun and safe running activities in parks and open spaces. The project has been commissioned by England Athletics and funded by Sport England.Peter Osborne, Chairman of the County Council, said: “I am delighted that the first ‘3-2-1’ route in the East Midlands is here in Leicestershire. Jogging is a great way to keep fit and what better place to give it a go than Watermead Country Park, on a safe, flat and accessible route around beautiful King Lear’s Lake.”
It was a beautiful evening and a large group of runners turned up to take part in a fun run along the mile circuit which is marked by a red band that circumnavigates the lake with a start and finish marker as these points do not occur at the same point and the track is measured to precisely one mile. The young runners featured in our picture are from the Breedon Hill Striders who are shown with Andrew Rorison, Coucillor Peter Osborne, with his wife in front of him and then Andy Stubbs from Line Link who installed the line and markers.
Andrew Rorison, Country Parks Development Officer said that he hoped the new route would encourage more use of the park’s facilities as it was for everyone to use not just for clubs and organised events.
The new route is available at any time, though there will be organised events in the future including two further 5km and one mile ‘King Lear Runs’ on the
2nd July and 3rd September.
To keep up to date with what’s happening in Watermead Country Park, visit www.leics.go.uk/watermead or visit the park’s facebook page www.facebook.com/watermead