Mary and Tom Gatecrash The 500th Birthday
A quick story to share. Tom and I were in London at the weekend and returned to Wimbledon, which was our first Park Run home back in 2008 to take part in another run.
Just by chance it happened to be their 500th Park Run, so we were lucky enough to share in their celebrations.
We were introduced to The founder of Park Run, Paul Sinton-Hewitt and shown the result sheet from the first ever run held in Bushy Park in October 2004, with 13 runners. Wimbledon was the second ever home to Park Run.
We were told some amazing statistics and several people present had achieved more than 400 runs. An 8 year old boy received his shirt for reaching his 100th Park Run and runs under 23 minutes!
When the race finished we were all treated to cake and champagne (quite handy as we hadn't had any breakfast!). The atmosphere was fantastic, the course completely flat, 2 laps meandering through parkland and woodland.
Unfortunately it had rained very heavily and so half of the course was more like cross-country; a typical English summer run! We were told that they take any opportunity to celebrate and invited us to come back on Saturday 7 January 2017 for their 10 year anniversary.
To my shame that first ever Park Run I did is still my fastest, so I've never improved and I've still only completed 40 runs! I'm not a good example - most people have really inspirational stories.
There are now Park Runs countrywide and worldwide and it goes from strength to strength. If you haven't tried it, give it a go and if you want a challenge and fancy a champagne and cake breakfast, see you on Wimbledon Common, by the Windmill on 7 January 2017!