Once upon a time, a man named Paul and a few of his longtime friends started meeting in their local park at the same time each week. Paul would record the time it took them to run a 5km course, then they’d have a whale of a time talking and chatting in the cafe afterwards….
Over the past eight years Jas Dhalley has experienced parkrun in many ways. He’s been a walker, a runner, a volunteer, and now an ambassador. This is his journey from first timer to parkrun Ambassador. I first heard of parkrun in 2011 when I signed up for a 5k charity run. I’d gone off to…
Independent survey commissioned by UK-based charity parkrun gets more than 60,000 responses and shows that volunteering has a bigger impact on health and wellbeing than just running or walking. The first weekend of October 2019 sees the 15th anniversary of parkrun. To mark the occasion, parkrun UK have released results from an independent survey,…
It has been just over a year since the launch of the parkrun Virtual Volunteer app, which enables parkrun volunteers to both record times, and scan barcodes using a mobile device. parkrun Global Operations Manager James Kemp explains the impact the app has had around the world so far, and the vital role it will play in…
Every journey starts with a single step… Hi, I am the gym manager working in HMP Haverigg up in Cumbria. I would like to enquire about getting a parkrun event set up inside our prison so that our prisoners can have the opportunity to get involved in this initiative. Hopefully they will then want…
In our 2016 annual ‘Run Report’ we featured a number of parkrunners who highlighted the benefits of volunteering, and we looked at the financial value that volunteers contributed in terms of the number of hours they gave to parkrun that year. Since then we have significantly developed our understanding of what volunteering is about, as…
Back in June 2014, my cousin Andrea and I decided to try out this parkrun thing people kept telling us about… and it turns out it totally changed the past couple of years for us! I generally didn’t miss running a parkrun unless I was volunteering or sunning myself, Andrea occasionally missing after a…
My name is Kay and I am 12. I have been a Woking parkrunner for three years and I try to volunteer a few times each year. At any parkrun it is super easy to volunteer, there are even lots of roles you can do and still run. I was talking with my mum and we were…
More than 22,000 people who have volunteered at parkrun have never passed through the finish funnel, which represents eight percent of volunteers. As well as making a significant contribution to their local community, the impact of volunteering on the health, wellbeing and life prospects of individuals can be profound. Over in South Africa, regular volunteer…
Eve Muirhead competes for Great Britain in the Winter Olympic sport of curling. She became the only athlete in curling history to win the World Junior Championships four times, before going on to win gold at the 2013 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics. She will be representing Great Britain…
