Wimbledon Park Run

This morning, while many of you were tucked up in bed I was preparing to join the 1. 5 million amateur runners around the world who regularly complete a Park Run. It is a free 5k race around their local park or common that starts at 9 am on a Saturday.

Register online beforehand and print off your barcode, race volunteers will then use the barcode to confirm your time and position once the race is over.

Park Run has grown into quite a global phenomenon from its humble beings in 2004 at Bushy Park in the United Kingdom; it was the brainchild of Paul Sinton-Hewitt MBE.

The second ever event was launched in 2007 at Wimbledon Common, that is where I run it.

Park Run was initially called UK Time Trials but renamed Park Run in 2008. It now takes place at over 499 locations around the world and in 19 countries. There may be a Park Run that takes place near you. It's a great way to start the weekend.

Here I am before the start of the race. I have done a few warm exercises.

Course conditions were not exactly optimum...try not to lose your trainers in the puddles...:-)

The race marshals, who are all volunteers, welcome everyone and then give a course overview and safety briefing.

I've finished! I came in 80th position out of 417 runners who ran the course today. My time at 24 minutes was 1.5 minutes slower than my personal best but it was a good run given the muddy conditions.

If you haven't given Park Run a try, you should. There is such a great community attached to the Park Run. It's similar to Steemit in that sense. It's great to see familiar faces, compare times and generally catch up with one another.