Suffolk has marked the 10th anniversary of the first parkrun to be established in the county at Chantry Park in Ipswich in 2012 with Ipswich Town Football Club Foundation doing a takeover day to mark the occasion.
Staff from the ITFC Foundation and club mascots took on the volunteering roles from marshalling the course to scanning the barcodes and encouraging parkrunners on route to make it a very special day for all involved.
Since the Ipswich event was launched in 2012, a further 20 parkruns have been established in Suffolk, including 6 junior parkruns, attracting more than 2,000 participants every week. More events are currently under development and will hopefully commence in the autumn.
As of 14 August 2022, a total of 4,257 parkruns have taken place in Suffolk with 8,850 people volunteering 81,351 times. This has allowed 84,459 individuals to complete 615,599 runs covering almost 2.9 million kilometres. An estimated 10% of the Suffolk population over the age of 16 have at some point taken part in a parkrun in Suffolk.
Since 2019, 25 GP practices across Suffolk have registered as parkrun practices and are actively referring patients and encouraging staff to attend their local parkruns and benefit from an active lifestyle.
Paul Sinton-Hewitt, Founder of parkrun, commented on the anniversary, saying “Achieving this milestone is fantastic for Suffolk. It’s incredible to see communities coming together to be together, social and active in the great outdoors. We look forward to seeing the continued growth of parkrun in Suffolk over the coming years, and hope everyone has a fantastic celebration”
Councillor Andrew Reid, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Public Protection, added “I would like to congratulate everyone who has supported and helped to develop parkrun in Suffolk over the past 10 years. These events provide fantastic opportunities to support the health and wellbeing of residents across our county and I would encourage everyone to go along to their local parkrun and walk, jog, run or volunteer.”
To find your local parkrun visit www.parkrun.org.uk/events.