GAMECHANGERS IN SPORT –- Number 2 PARKRUN
September 23rd, 2020
Sending a great message out on people getting fit through running was the spectacular idea from Zimbabwean Paul Sinton-Hewitt whose parkrun phenomena began as recently as 2004.
Bushy Park in south west London was the inaugural venue for the 5k run, there were just a handful of runners for this timed event on that day, but the event has grown now to pre Covid figures of 725 locations in the UK and events held in 26 countries.
Paul was a very good Marathon runner with a time of 2hours 36 minutes but suffering depression because of injury he wanted to carry on running with friends in a friendly, but competitive way and his brainchild was conceived!
The beauty of parkrun is that anyone can take part, on any given Saturday you will find yourself congregating with pensioners, parents with children, people with dogs, wheelchair runners and pram pushers! It’s free to enter and there are an incredible army of volunteers at every venue.
It’s a great way to start your Saturday and your time is irrelevant to everybody else, but it may matter to you as you struggle to beat your PB!
The current unassisted records are Andrew Baddeley, in Bushy Park with an absurd 13 min 48 secs! And the ladies record is held by Charlotte Arter in Cardiff with a time of 15 min 49 secs
Milestone T Shirts are handed out when you reach 50, 100, 250 and 500 runs and the record number of runners was recorded on Christmas Day 2019 in Bushy Park with an incredible 2545 participants! Apparently, a chap called Darren Wood has completed 766 runs!
One other lovely fact is that Fauja Singh ran 38 mins 34 secs on 31 March 2017. Nothing remarkable there, except it was the day before his 101st birthday!
Personally, I can’t wait to participate again once this awful year is over, let’s hope 2021 sees runners all over the world enjoying their Saturday morning 5k once again.
Find out more here: https://www.parkrun.com/ and check out more facts on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkrun
Doug Woodward (a veteran with a parkrun PB of 29 minutes!)
doug@recgc.com
Back
Bushy Park in south west London was the inaugural venue for the 5k run, there were just a handful of runners for this timed event on that day, but the event has grown now to pre Covid figures of 725 locations in the UK and events held in 26 countries.
Paul was a very good Marathon runner with a time of 2hours 36 minutes but suffering depression because of injury he wanted to carry on running with friends in a friendly, but competitive way and his brainchild was conceived!
The beauty of parkrun is that anyone can take part, on any given Saturday you will find yourself congregating with pensioners, parents with children, people with dogs, wheelchair runners and pram pushers! It’s free to enter and there are an incredible army of volunteers at every venue.
It’s a great way to start your Saturday and your time is irrelevant to everybody else, but it may matter to you as you struggle to beat your PB!
The current unassisted records are Andrew Baddeley, in Bushy Park with an absurd 13 min 48 secs! And the ladies record is held by Charlotte Arter in Cardiff with a time of 15 min 49 secs
Milestone T Shirts are handed out when you reach 50, 100, 250 and 500 runs and the record number of runners was recorded on Christmas Day 2019 in Bushy Park with an incredible 2545 participants! Apparently, a chap called Darren Wood has completed 766 runs!
One other lovely fact is that Fauja Singh ran 38 mins 34 secs on 31 March 2017. Nothing remarkable there, except it was the day before his 101st birthday!
Personally, I can’t wait to participate again once this awful year is over, let’s hope 2021 sees runners all over the world enjoying their Saturday morning 5k once again.
Find out more here: https://www.parkrun.com/ and check out more facts on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkrun
Doug Woodward (a veteran with a parkrun PB of 29 minutes!)
doug@recgc.com