It’s 8.30 am on a Saturday morning by the tennis courts in St Anne’s Road in Tankerton. Without any apparent reason, a collection of individuals start to congregate on the slopes dressed to run.
They could be mistaken for a collection of friends about to engage in a training run along the coastal path, but within minutes a table and two chairs appear and the runners are joined by volunteers wearing yellow fluorescent vests and a finish funnel is erected on the grass slopes.
At 9.00am around 160 runners are assembled on the promenade, all set to tackle their weekly challenge of running 5 kilometres and each with a personal target for the day.
This is parkrun, a running phenomenon that is finally spreading across Kent and around the world. And the good news for Kent is that after two and a half years, Whitstable parkrun is about to be joined by three new parkruns in March and April, with another in preparation for May.
Parkrun grew from humble beginnings. When Paul Sinton-Hewitt was forced to take a break from running after injury in 2004, he offered to organise training runs for friends in Bushy Park.
His original idea grew to the extent that parkrun is now established around the world, and thousands look forward to their weekly outing.
The concept is simple. Each runner is registered on a central website and prints off their own unique barcode. There is no administration required at the start and as each runner finishes, they are handed a finish token which is scanned together with the runner’s barcode. The results are downloaded to the central website and each runner can view their running statistics within hours. Sponsorship and donations makes it a free event for all.
The organisers are keen to emphasise that parkrun is “sport for all”. Parkruns are not races, the organisers are event directors not race directors and those that volunteer are as much of the parkrun family as the runners. Every Saturday there are runners with dogs and runners with children’s buggies amongst those that might be training for their next marathon or half-marathon. Young and old, all are invited to get together for a post run coffee after their exertions.
Jacky MacDonald has been the event director for Whitstable parkrun since its inception in 2010. “I was running at Fowlmead Country Park, when someone mentioned parkrun to me” she said. “I registered and when I looked I found that the nearest run was in Bromley. I went on the train and it was a five and a half hour round trip! Seeing the number of runners training along the prom, I liked the idea that we could set this up in Whitstable”. A visit to another event in Croydon furthered her resolve.
There is a strong community spirit with the park runners. Many come from Whitstable and Herne Bay, but there is a wider parkrun community that encompasses visitors who occasionally come from further afield. Runners from Scotland and the USA have participated in Whitstable’s Saturday morning run. In a record field of 168 finishers on Easter Saturday, Whitstable parkrun welcomed runners from Walsall and Southampton.
The community also extends beyond Saturday mornings. Sonia McNally is a local artist, who began running with a group of friends from Whitstable Yacht Club. Not a runner originally, she is now looking towards achieving 100 parkruns and when she was commissioned to prepare twelve etched-glass panes in St Alphege Church in Whitstable, she organised a fun run to raise money for the project. “ I wasn’t really sure what to do to raise the money” she said. The run was an inspired choice; Whitstable’s parkrunners were amongst those that supported the event and almost £3,000 was raised.
Although an experienced runner now, she still turns up every Saturday morning. “ I may not know everybody, but everybody appears to know me, and I still like the competition amongst my friends!”
Pam Cooper and Simon Richards were “first timers” at Whitstable. Visiting Kent as tourists, they took the opportunity to run, whilst away for their normal venues in Walsall Arboretum and Arrow Valley.
“ I like the fact that each parkrun course is different” said Pam. “Everyone is so friendly and they cheer you on like Mo Farah!”
“ I thought I would only ever do one” said Simon. “But now even if we go away for a weekend, we will always go somewhere where there is a parkrun. We‘re planning our next weekend in Copenhagen!”
Although Whitstable has been like a beacon event in Kent since 2010, Jacky MacDonald still shows the same enthusiasm for the event that she did following her visit to Bromley parkrun. She has fostered the arrival of two new parkruns at Maidstone and Margate, which are being organised by Whitstable runners captured by the parkrun spirit. A third event is being organised for Pegwell Bay. Another event in Shorne Woods, near Gravesend, is now up and running bringing the total to five.
Parkrun is described as “inclusive”. It embraces runners, joggers, those who are just keen to improve their fitness levels and those who are just happy to volunteer.
“Come to parkrun. If you’re running for the first time, there will always be someone there to hold your hand and get you round” said Jacky MacDonald, “and there’s always next week!”
Parkrun is a FREE 5km run, it’s you against the clock. They are run every Saturday at 9.00am (weather permitting). Once registered, you can run in any of the events organised by parkrun on any Saturday – just turn up.
For more information visit:-
Whitstable parkrun http://www.parkrun.org.uk/whitstable/
Shorne Woods parkrun http://www.parkrun.org.uk/shornewoods/
Maidstone parkrun http://www.parkrun.org.uk/maidstone/ Begins April 13th 2013
Margate parkrun http://www.parkrun.org.uk/margate/ Begins April 27th 2013
Pegwell Bay parkrun is scheduled to begin on May 11th 2013
For more information on the St Alphege run visit: http://stalphegerun.wordpress.com/