This Saturday morning I left my running shoes at home and dressed for warmth. I wasn't running this time - I was doing my first stint as a volunteer at my local parkrun.
Parkrun is free and entirely organised by volunteers. All you have to do is register on line and then you can turn up to any parkrun on Saturday morning at 9am (9.30am in Scotland) and run a 5k against the clock. There are t-shirts to be won at your 50th and 100th run and some people are trying to do as many different parkruns as possible.
It was only the second week of the Oakhill Park parkrun so volunteers were thin on the ground, it was the three people who set it up and me. In the first week there were 44 runners (you may remember I came in at number 44), in the second week there were 20 runners and 19 finishers (a nine year old girl running with her family decided one lap was enough thank you very much). Part of me wished I had run the second one - I would have been guaranteed a top 20 finish!
My job was to scan barcodes at the finish. As the runners came through the funnel they were timed by one volunteer, given a token by another and then I had to scan their athlete barcodes (downloaded from the website when they registered) and then their token barcode.
It was nice to have a different perspective on the parkrun experience, I cheered on the runners and got time to talk to them as well. It was certainly easier than running!
Parkrun is free and entirely organised by volunteers. All you have to do is register on line and then you can turn up to any parkrun on Saturday morning at 9am (9.30am in Scotland) and run a 5k against the clock. There are t-shirts to be won at your 50th and 100th run and some people are trying to do as many different parkruns as possible.
It was only the second week of the Oakhill Park parkrun so volunteers were thin on the ground, it was the three people who set it up and me. In the first week there were 44 runners (you may remember I came in at number 44), in the second week there were 20 runners and 19 finishers (a nine year old girl running with her family decided one lap was enough thank you very much). Part of me wished I had run the second one - I would have been guaranteed a top 20 finish!
My job was to scan barcodes at the finish. As the runners came through the funnel they were timed by one volunteer, given a token by another and then I had to scan their athlete barcodes (downloaded from the website when they registered) and then their token barcode.
It was nice to have a different perspective on the parkrun experience, I cheered on the runners and got time to talk to them as well. It was certainly easier than running!
That's fab. Park run is great and the volunteers are invaluable! I do the one at Cannon Hill in Birmingham and it is always a good atmosphere.
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