TWO of Melksham parkrun’s organisers have celebrated their 200th parkrun together.
Melksham parkrun’s event director Richard Southgate and his wife, run director Hayley Southgate, chalked up the milestone last month at the free weekly 5k run, held every Saturday at 9am in King George V playing field.
A spokesperson for parkrun reports, “Richard and Hayley joined the parkrun family at Southwick Country parkrun in September 2011 and ran or volunteered on as many Saturdays as they could. They’d caught the parkrun bug!
“In September 2016, they attended a fledgling meeting to help with ideas for a Melksham parkrun launch which happened in December 2017. Since then the chances to run together slowed down as the enjoyment of volunteering at the home run took over.
“So finally after 10 years of parkrunning, they had a good opportunity to run side by side once again. Although 200 isn’t an official parkrun milestone, the pandemic meant it was long overdue for the couple.
“The next official t-shirt reward after 25, 50 and 100 parkruns is the 250. Then there is a 500 one for the most enthusiastic parkrunners! Bushy Park in London where parkrun was born in the Autumn of 2004 will be celebrating its 900th event this October.
“Over 1,000 people run there every Saturday morning at 9am. Melksham attracts an average weekly attendance of 150 and always welcomes new faces and parkrun tourists. parkrun is a free weekly timed 5k and always will be thanks to its sponsors.
“All a prospective runner/walker has to do is register online at parkrun .org.uk and turn up for the weekly brief at 8.50am with their personal barcode at any of over 700 lovely parkrun venues in the UK.
“Volunteering is also a great way to meet new people by helping with set up, cheering as a marshal, timekeeping or scanning the barcodes or packing away. Some do it once a month which is a great help. Hope to see you soon in King George V park!”
For more information visit www.parkrun.org.uk/ melksham/
