THOUSANDS of women across Southampton are getting set to lace up their trainers as a new race comes to the city.

Southampton has been selected as one of the 10 locations for the Women’s Running 10k.

The race series is in its second year and the Southampton leg will start and finish at Southampton Common.

In its first year the series, organised by magazine Women’s Running, saw races at Bristol, Nottingham and London, with almost 2,000 women taking part.

Following the success of these three events, organisers decided to extend the event to new areas of the UK this time round. Alongside Southampton on June 21, there will be two events in London and one event in Birmingham, Cardiff, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol and Glasgow.

The course is described as “gently undulating” and will take in woodland and parkland but be largely on pathways sometimes linked by sections of trail and grassland.

Pacers will be out on the course, on hand to run with participants to help them achieve their target time.

There will be a team of four pacers, targeting times of 50 minutes, 55 minutes, 60 minutes and a running or walking group aiming for approximately 70 minutes.

Prior to the race there will be a warm-up, as well as a post-race warm-down with tea and cake.

Runners will receive a technical T-shirt, a high quality drawstring goody bag and medal for every finisher as well as a text message containing your race finish time and personal statistics from the day. Model-turnedrunner Nell McAndrew will continue her role from last year as the ambassador for the series.

Christina Macdonald, editor of Women’s Running said: “Our aim is to inspire and motivate women of all ages and abilities to run, and these events provide the framework to make that happen.

“All women taking part will be encouraged to achieve their own personal goals, from simply getting around a 10k course, to achieving a personal best.

“We want to provide the support for as many women as possible to start running, or help them to take their running to the next level and so offering pre-race training plans, combined with access to experienced runners in the form of pacers on race day is extremely important to us.”

The event is now open for entries, with early entry price of £24.

For more information log on to wr10.co.uk.