A closer look at the 5k parkrun on Bere Island in West Cork

The 5k parkrun on Bere Island in West Cork started back in August of 2014 and the latest one on Saturday the 26th of January 2019 was its 240th edition.

The numbers for each one are shown above and the one really remarkable thing is that they seem to have only missed one Saturday in all that time. At the start of March 2018, the 'Beast from the East' brought cold icy conditions to all of Ireland and most of the parkruns had to be cancelled that weekend.

Also shown is the start of the Glengarriff 5k parkrun which is the closest event. The dip shown there is actually in December where as Glengarriff started in January of 2016. It's doesn't seem to have had any impact on the Bere Island numbers. 

The one obvious feature of the Bere Island parkrun is that it's in a pretty exposed location. There must have been days when it was wet and miserable but they still ploughed on regardless. It's a credit to the organisers for the obvious amount of work they put into it.

The numbers as you can see fluctuate quite a lot. In the winter months, they're often down to 20-30 where as in the holiday season in August, there are obvious spikes with all the visitors.

The Bere Island parkrun also has the distinct advantage of being the most scenic 5k parkrun in the country... once the sun is shining! :o)

According to the Bere Island parkrun website, a total of 1548 registered runners have taken part to date and that doesn't account for all the unregistered people. That's pretty amazing considering it's on an island and not the mainland.

The average number per week for all 240 events is 45.6 which again is good considering it's on an island.

I have calculated the average number per week for every year since it started and the chart is shown below. As you can seen, the numbers are actually remarkably consistent. 2015 was the peak year but not really by much. It's not really growing or shrinking, it's just pretty much steady. The actual average for 2018 was 46.7 which is very close to the long term average.

If you're down in West Cork in 2019, consider giving the Bere Island 5k parkrun a try.

Link...
1) Website... http://www.parkrun.ie/bereisland/