In view of the fact that I was unable to compete in the Bournemouth Marathon this year, I decided to take part in my very first Parkrun on Saturday 4th October in Hull.

Parkrun is a fantastic opportunity for anyone at all to compete in a friendly, timed 5k run which takes place in hundreds of parks all around the UK. It’s run entirely by volunteers, and is free for everyone to enter. All that’s needed is to register on their website and then print off your personal bar code. This is what is then scanned when you finish the run to give you your time.

I ran with almost 400 other runners at East Park, Hull, on both Saturday 4th and 11th of October. The weather was typically Autumnal, although locked away inside my suit of armour I wasn’t really aware of the rain at all. There was brilliant support on both occasions from both other runners and spectators, and finishing in a time of 35 minutes on both occasions I was happy that my pace was still on target.

I will almost certainly be taking part in more of these Parkruns, and strongly encourage anyone interested in running to give them a try. As well as more elite runners there were plenty of first time runners, families, children, and even people running with prams or dogs, so there is certainly no feeling of intimidation.

At the Hull Parkrun we’re lucky to have an excellent photographer on hand who then uploads pictures from each week’s run. The slideshow below includes images from both of the October Parkruns.

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