WIREDGOV

The tie up aims to increase the numbers of women and girls participating in the weekly 5km event.

Women and girls are being encouraged to celebrate International Women’s Day by joining their local parkrun.

On Saturday 7 March, This Girl Can is teaming up with parkrun to put on hundreds of events across the UK to inspire and attract women.

parkrun’s records show that of the 1.8 million women who are registered with parkrun, 650,000 are yet to take part, and that despite females making up 52% of their registrations, they only account for 44% of completed parkruns.

We launched This Girl Can in 2015 to help tackle the gender gap in sport and physical activity, but while it's been successful, the gap is still there.

So, this International Women’s Day parkruns across the UK will be showing their support with female volunteer teams, a brief for all newcomers, selfie frames and a suggested purple dress code.

“This Girl Can is all about breaking down barriers and helping women feel like they can be active, no matter their ability, size or lifestyle,” said Kate Dale, the This Girl Can campaign lead.

“The aim of our partnership with parkrun is to celebrate women in all their imperfect glory.

“This International Women’s Day we’re calling on the women who haven’t quite made it out there yet to join this huge female movement and take part in their local parkrun – whether they walk, run, skip or just do half of it.”

Click here for the full press release