PARKRUN celebrated its 20th anniversary at the weekend.

It was back in October 2004, that Paul Sinton-Hewitt and thirteen friends decided to run around Bushy Park.

They then decided to make the 5k run a regular Saturday morning habit.

It was a slow burner but to cut to the chase there are now over 2,500 parkrun locations.

https://www.parkrun.org.uk

For the uninitiated, Parkrun sees people of all ages and abilities gather in an outdoor space at 09:00 or 09:30, depending on the location, on Saturdays and run for 5km – or just over three miles.

Shorter 2km runs for children aged four to 14 and their families take place on Sunday mornings.

The run in Harlow is based in the town park. Every Saturday morning, anything between 200 to 350 enthusiasts wind their way around the course.

The Harlow event will be celebrating its own 10th birthday next month and we will be writing a special piece then but the Saturday morning jog/walk/run means an awful lot to an awful lot of lot of people.

There are Harlow residents who run their local one but there are may others who travel around the country (shout out to Andy Kinney, Kelly Burgess, Catherine Penketh to name just a few ) and others who, even when abroad, find the local parkrun.

Our cover photo is 79-year-old Alan Powers, who celebrated the running of his 300th parkrun. Alan, who is a member of Innovation Multisport is a true ambassador for parkrun and positivity in general.

See you all on Saturday then!