WINCHESTER parkrun celebrated 10 years since it began with cake, some of its original runners and of course the weekly 5k.
On Saturday, April 22 435 participants took part in the milestone event at North Walls Recreation Ground. Run director Sarah Witt welcomed everyone with some impressive statistics since the first run in April 2013.
The anniversary run was the 434th event to be held in Winchester, with 15,878 different people taking part across the decade. The thousands of runners have run a total distance of 586,090k – which is one and a half times the distance to the moon.
As well as participants there have been 1,340 different volunteers with the success of the event relying on run directors, who set up and clear up the course, timekeepers, barcode scanners, and marshals who give up their time for free.
READ MORE: Winchester parkrun to mark 10th anniversary: runners share why they go
Volunteer co-ordinator Ann Stanhope was given a special mention. She ran in the first event and has volunteered at Winchester 291 times - as well as running 207 parkruns. Ann was asked to kick off the anniversary run in recognition of her long-standing commitment.
Runners and volunteers celebrated with a spread of post run cakes ahead of the official anniversary date on April 27.
Winchester is one of 1,100 parkruns across the UK. The free and weekly community 5k run takes place on Saturdays mornings, with a 2k junior parkrun on Sunday. Anyone can take part with no time limit on completing the route.
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