Saturday, October 5, marked the 20th anniversary of the weekly 5k run known as parkrun – and members of Springwell Running Club marked the event in style!

This parkrun phenomenon has grown from just 13 runners and five volunteers in Bushy Park, London, in 2004, into a worldwide community of 10,000,000 registered runners and 900,000 volunteers!

This weekend, 59 ‘Springers’ were parkunning at 16 different venues.

October 3 is the date the Germans celebrate the unification of their country and they decided that those celebrations should include a parkrun.

Mariette Mulvenna and Majella McAteer at the Havel Kanal Parkrun in Berlin - marking 20 years of parkrun...and German unification day celebrations too, just by chance! Credit Springwell Running Club

placeholder image — Mariette Mulvenna and Majella McAteer at the Havel Kanal Parkrun in Berlin - marking 20 years of parkrun...and German unification day celebrations too, just by chance! Credit Springwell Running Club

Taking full advantage of the opportunity of a bit of extra ‘parkrun tourism’ Colin Connolly added Rheinpark and Aachener Weiher parkruns from the Cologne area to his CV, while in Berlin, Majella McAteer and Mariette Mulvenna added Havel Kanal and Hasenheide to their ‘parkrun passports’.

While there were no personal bests this week for the Springwell runners, Pam Howe reached the magnificent milestone of 250 parkruns as she completed Saturday’s event at Portrush parkrun.