Pictures: Winchester’s 500th parkrun celebrated with record attendance

This smashed the previous record of 537, set on Christmas Day last year.

Joint event directors Sarah Witt and Peter Humphries anticipated that it might be busy, but even they were astonished by the turnout.

Sarah said: “We printed some extra finishing barcode tokens, but when these ran out we had to resort to writing finishers’ positions on their hands and processing their results manually!”

A bumper turn out (Image: David Howells) Mayor of Winchester, Cllr Russell Gordon-Smith, was delighted to be invited to set all the runners and walkers on their way around the 5k course.

He said that Winchester City Council has always been keen to support the weekly event at the North Walls Recreation Ground as a great way to encourage people to improve and maintain their fitness.

He was impressed that there were so many visitors (known as ‘parkrun tourists’) from around the UK, and some from abroad, who wanted to be there to mark the special event. Some 150 participants were at Winchester for the first time, of which 42 ran their first ever parkrun.

The first parkrun in Winchester was held on 27 April 2013, and since then over 20,000 different people have taken part. Crucial to the organisation of parkruns are the volunteers. Without them, the events simply could not take place.

Winchester parkrun (Image: David Howells)

There were 56 volunteers last Saturday who helped to manage the record-breaking event. Almost 16,000 different people have volunteered at Winchester’s parkruns. Several of the regular volunteers aren’t participants as runners or walkers, but simply enjoy being part of the parkrun community by providing valuable support.

A special mention went to Sam Jones running his 100th parkrun and who was getting married that very afternoon. There were, of course, cakes a-plenty to complete the celebration!

• Click the top image to see more photos from the event