THE beautiful surroundings of the restored Victoria Park will form part of the route of the next GPW Recruitment St Helens 10k next March.

The annual run, which begins and ends at Saints’ Langtree Park, will bring the park back into its route for 2015 following a two-year absence while the revamp took place.

Live music will be played from the bandstand and other points through course in an attempt to add to the atmosphere and make what has become one of the town’s established annual events even more remarkable.

“It is going to be going back to Victoria Park and we are looking at this being its home for the foreseeable future,” said Martin Blondel, general manager of the Steve Prescott Foundation and organiser of the 10k.

“The facilities are fantastic and the parkruns have shown how good it is for running. We’ve come a long way from the first St Helens 10K when we had 700 people.

“With the help of Jamm Studios and working with the Friends of Victoria Park we are going to have live music on the bandstand and at various points across the course to make it a better atmosphere.”

Boxer Martin Murray, former rugby star Lee Briers and Mayor of St Helens Geoff Pearl attended a photocall to launch the run, which is to being held on Sunday, March 8 next year.

The park has been the host of the successful weekly St Helens parkruns since July.

Next year’s 10k is set for record numbers, with the capacity of 2,000 expected to be reached in the new year. Already nearly 500 are signed up.

“It will be great if all of the parkrunners use it as a tougher race to improve their running capabilities,” said Ant Young, organiser of the St Helens parkrun.

“The parkruns have been fantastic and there is a really good atmosphere behind it and we are still getting new people each and every week.”