Wisbech Junior parkrun celebrated its sixth anniversary on Sunday with its 232nd event.
The free, timed, inclusive 2k run for four- to 14-year-olds has been taking place at the town park on Sunday mornings at 9am since 2018, with an obvious break for the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over that time there have been 6,698 finishes from 716 different runners, with 1,294 personal bests, 301 volunteers and an average finish time of 13:17. Children can run on their own or with an adult.
Wisbech Mayor Sidney Imafidon was special guest for the anniversary event and children wore fancy dress to celebrate.
Race director Kat Western said: “It gives youngsters something to do rather than sitting at home and they also make friends. But it would not happen without our volunteers, week in, week out, rain or shine, and we offer massive thanks to them.”
She said, to register, kids age four and over just go onto the Wisbech parkrun Facebook page where they are given a barcode number. When they have their run, they get a finish token which is scanned alongside the barcode and a time is then emailed to their grown-ups.
“Children can run until the day before their 15th birthday and then transfer to adult parkrun on Saturdays. They can earn wristband milestone markers such as 11 runs (half-marathon), 21 (marathon), 50 (ultra-marathon), then 100 and 250.”
If anyone would like to volunteer, email wisbechjuniors@parkrun.com or send a message on Facebook. Students doing the Duke of Edinburgh Award are also welcome and volunteering can go towards their ‘physical’ or ‘volunteering’ element.
Got a sports story? Email jeremy.ransome@iliffepublishing.co.uk
