A closer look at the Castle Demense 5k parkrun numbers in Macroom...

The 5k parkrun in the Castle Demense in Macroom was the very first one on Cork and it started way back in May of 2013. The numbers per week since then are shown below but it's hard to really see the trend due to all the variability.

I've included a few key dates like the start of the Tramore Valley Park and Ballincollig parkruns. Both of these attracted runners closer to the city and seemed to have a short term impact on Macroom.

According to the Macroom parkrun website, the latest stats show the weekly average is 52.4 for all 218 events to date. An impressive 2,149 registered runners have taken part in the last 5 years and that doesn't include all those who hadn't registered.

To get a true picture of how Macroom is doing, I calculated the average for each year and plotted them.

As you can see after the initial surge in 2013, the number dropped in 2014 and 2015. Since then, it has gradually increased although it dropped a bit in 2018.

The 2018 average was 56.7 which is still ahead of the long term average of 52.4.

No parkrun is of course possible without the army of volunteers who make the event possible every week. It's a credit to them for what they have done as they head towards their 300th event in a few months time.

If you're interested in giving it a try then it's on at 9:30am every Saturday morning. You'll find more info on this website... http://www.parkrun.ie/castledemense/