A joyous return for juniors

On Sunday 11 April, after almost 13 months of closure, we were delighted to welcome back 48 of our junior parkrun events across England.

Spanning England, from Durham down to Wincester, there were more than 4,000 4-10 year-olds through the finish funnel, with over 1,000 taking part for the very first time.

The spring sun was (mostly) shining as some 1,100 volunteers returned to their local communities to deliver the free, weekly 2k events for children and their families.

We welcomed 72 people volunteering for the first time too.

It was largely back to normal across the local parks and green spaces hosting returning events, with an overwhelmingly positive response from teams, landowners, and the wider communities.

There was walking, jogging, running, hopping, skipping and jumping, resulting in almost 1,500 personal bests recorded.

There were children taking part for the very first time, and those that had been patiently waiting over a year to get their special half marathon and marathon achievements.

Whilst children had grown, they were still accompanied by mums and dads, grandmas and grandads, brothers, sisters, and friends and family, and the same parkrun atmosphere remained.

With events continuing to follow the junior parkrun COVID framework, a further 29 junior parkruns are set to restart in England this coming Sunday, with more to follow over the coming weeks, which will bring us to over 100 live junior parkrun events in England by the end of April.

Please visit local event pages for further information on restarts.

#loveparkrun