LJ Flanders is a parkrunner, a former prisoner and the author of the best selling fitness book ‘Cell Workout’. We spoke to LJ about his passion for using activity to empower himself and others, his tips for being active, his love of parkrun and his thoughts on parkrun events being established on the custodial…
HMP & YOI Downview Governor Natasha Wilson regular participates with her staff and residents at Downview parkrun, the first parkrun to launch in a UK women’s prison. Here she tells us her own powerful parkrun story. I first heard about parkrun many years ago from a colleague. I’d been through a period in…
parkrunner Paul was on the start line of the very first parkrun inside prison walls, Black Combe parkrun at HMP Haverigg. Now, more than a year on from his release, he tells us the positive impact parkrun has had on his life. There was a lot of nervousness around setting up that parkrun at…
In January, the prison-based parkrun at HMP Leyhill in South Gloucestershire got underway. parkrun Ambassador Peter Hayes attended the inaugural Cromhall event and shared this run report… It was pitch black and drizzling outside PEI Cross’s office as we checked our equipment and prepared for the prison’s inaugural parkrun. The sign in the gym entrance read…
In September 2017 I participated in the Wetherby 10k, which takes place around town centre. As I ran over the bridge towards HM YOI Wetherby, a male juveniles prison where I am employed as a social worker, I started to think about the benefits of running for young people who are remanded or sentenced to…
Springhill parkrun in Buckinghamshire became the third prison parkrun in the world, and the first to take place in an open prison, when it launched in June 2018. Amanda Burnham, Head of Security at HMP Springhill, tells us how the idea for a prison parkrun came about, and the impact it is already having after…
Our work is guided by the philosophy, increasingly supported by research, that participation in parkrun contributes to improved health and wellbeing. This is now reflected in our mission statement “a healthier and happier planet”, as parkrun’s Health and Wellbeing Lead Chrissie Wellington explains. The benefits of physical activity are only the tip of the iceberg…
