You may remember Rajinder Singh, ‘The Skipping Sikh’, from the national news recently. Rajinder is a much loved member of the parkrun family too. Minreet, Rajinder’s daughter, tells us all about her father. My father, Rajinder, is 74 yrs old and has always been an advocate for keeping active. His moto is, “Health is…
Jo Roberts discovered parkrun when graduating from a Couch to 5k programme. Missing parkrunning and volunteering over the past 16 months, she couldn’t wait to volunteer at her local junior parkrun. Here she tells us how it was just the taste of normality she needed. My parkrun journey began at Bushy Park with my then…
For Esther Stanier, volunteering at parkrun gave her back a sense of purpose, routine and a way to feel “useful”. Here she explains why, and recommends everyone gives it a go! I am so proud to be part of the parkrun community, both as a parkrunner and a volunteer. My first parkrun was August…
Mike Sprason took up position at his favourite marshalling spot to mark the one year anniversary of the last ‘real’ parkrun he attended. He was delighted to see so many friendly faces. I heard about parkrun from a friend who said he was trying to develop the local Telford parkrun. After Telford parkrun…
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…
