parkrun celebrates five years at Killerton

Mary Youlden
Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted Monday, April 18, 2016 - 4:22pm

This Saturday hundreds of runners will tackle the 5km course at the National Trust’s Killerton estate to celebrate the fifth anniversary of parkrun and will be baking a birthday cake to mark the occasion.

Killerton was the first National Trust property to work with parkrun to host the popular 5km run.

The free run takes place every Saturday at 9am, and the number of runners has grown from 44 at the first Killerton parkrun to over 370 on the busiest ever day. The parkrun organisers hope to break the record this week as the event reaches its five year milestone.

parkrun depends on volunteers to marshal the course, register the runners and collect the results.

Roger Rowe, the Killerton parkrun Event Director, said; “The commitment of our volunteers and regular parkrunners is brilliant. We’ve had over 560 volunteers help at over 250 Killerton parkruns, so it’s a real community event with a great atmosphere. It’s been a tremendously successful five years and I’m looking forward to the next five.”

The Killerton ‘parkun’ has seen over 7,000 different people, young and old, take part in the last five years, and is the perfect way to start running regularly because of its family friendly approach.

Andy Bramwell, Visitor Services Officer for the National Trust said: “parkrun brings the park at Killerton to life every Saturday. The energy and enthusiasm of the runners is infectious, and there is such a diverse range of ages and abilities enjoying the run in the park every week. It’s an inspiring event, even if it gets a bit muddy in the winter!”

parkun organise weekly 5km timed runs around the world. The runs are open to everyone to enter, although children should be over four years old and accompanied by their parent or guardian. There is no upper age limit – the oldest UK parkrunner on record is 104.

If you’d like to have a go at the 5km course this week then head to Killerton for a 9am start. It’s free to enter, but you’ll need to register so you can have your time recorded. The fifth anniversary run is also hoping to add a splash of colour to Killerton, so all runners have been asked to wear something red, white or black. If you need extra motivation then don’t forget the National Trust is providing a birthday cake and some little surprises along the route.

Register for this week’s run at www.parkrun.org.uk

For more information visit nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton

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