Free Weekly Timed

After parkrun resumed in England, Helen gives us a first hand account of her day at Harrogate parkrun, and speaks to some of the volunteers, runners, walkers and joggers. Patrick tells us why he’s parkrun rusty and out of pocket after the weekend, and there the return of the FWT stats quiz.

In celebration of parkrun’s return in England this week, Vassos and Helen have decided to add a musical element to the pod, playing out a selection of songs to get everyone in the mood. And COO Tom Williams pops in for a chat to discuss the resumption in England.

With just over a week until parkrun’s resumption in England, we hear from a couple of Bangor parkrunners who have been using the Virtual Volunteer app for the first time after parkrun returned there last month. We also got a lovely email from a couple with the subject - “a parkrun love story”.

This week’s special guest is Mike, who shares his parkrun journey - and it’s a journey that we can all identify with. Vassos is left a little bewildered with Mary’s reaction after he broke the news that Whitstable junior parkrun had been cancelled, and we read out more of your emails.

With parkrun events returning in Northern Ireland, we speak to country manager Matt Shields. He tells us what it was like having parkrun back and how special the day was. We also hear from the inspirational parkrunner Charlotte Proud, who suffers from a debilitating condition that makes exercise very dangerous.

This week’s special guest is Nicola Miller, founder of the charity A Mile in Her Shoes, which encourages women who are at risk of homelessness or affected by related issues to try running as a way of exercising, socialising, lifting confidence and boosting self-esteem.

Russ Jeffries, parkrun’s Head of Communications joins Vassos to reflect on the news that there will be a further delay to parkrun’s return in England. Russ also gives us an honest and frank assessment on how difficult and also how rewarding his job has been over the last few months.

parkrun CEO Nick Pearson joins Vassos to bring us the good news that parkrun in England and Northern Ireland will return on June 26th after they received over 500 permissions from land owners. He praises the work everyone associated with parkrun has done to get to this point.

In this special episode we hear from a group of visually impaired parkrunners and their guides about the challenges they’ve faced in these Covid times of social distancing.

Jack Kelly is our special guest this week. He tells us how parkrun helped process the grief of losing his father and kept him going during those tough times. We hear more of your parkrun tales and continue our new feature “Get on my Land!”.

COO Tom Williams is back on the pod to explain the decision to delay the return of parkrun. He maps out what needs to happen over the coming weeks and why there’s reason to be positive.

This week we speak to Deri Thomas, Country Manager for the Nordics who gives us the general picture of what is happening in his region. He also tells us how he’s now helping parkrun’s resumption in the UK.  And Greg Fell, Director of Public Health in Sheffield joins the pod to discuss the importance of parkrun to the local communities and how they are hoping to get the relevant permissions from landowners in the coming days.

London Marathon Race Director Hugh Brasher joins the pod this week to encourage people to take part in the  “The Reunion 5K” at Kempton Park next weekend, which is one of the pilot events in the government’s Events Research Programme. It is hoped it will provide crucial scientific data on how mass-participation events can resume safely. Also, we also hear from a parkrunner who is breaking all sorts of endurance world records and we say a big thank you to landowners who have given their consent for parkrun to return.

COO Tom Williams joins the pod this week to give an update how plans are going for the resumption of parkrun in June. He lays out what needs to happen and urges the parkrun community to do what they can to help.

Our guest this week is the inspirational Jordi Hooper who tells us how she went from not being able to walk to being a passionate parkrunner. And Vassos is rumbled for making up Mary’s parkrun number!

After junior parkrun resumed in England at the weekend, Helen and Vassos talk us through their Sunday morning. We also hear from some of the volunteers and families that took part at Harrogate juniors.

Vassos and Helen get a little giddy as junior parkrun resumes this weekend in England. Chrissy Wellington, parkrun’s Global Lead for Health and Wellbeing joins the pod to discuss its return and the effort put in to get to this point. We also hear from Ramona Mulligan who has just completed the challenge of running a parkrun every day for a year.

Our special guest this week is Lynn Chedham, who tells us how parkrun gave her strength and a place to feel comfortable. She explains how she went from being someone who hated exercise to becoming an avid parkrunner. Helen updates us on how plans are progressing ahead of the return of junior parkrun in Harrogate, England, and we hear more of your names for parts of your local parkrun.

Eileen Jones, author of “how parkrun changed our lives” is our special guest this week. She tells us about the inspiration to write the book and the novel way she decided to launch it. Also, parkrun’s Head of Support Jane Niven tells us how things are progressing ahead junior parkrun’s return.

parkrun CEO Nick Pearson joins the pod this week to explain the decision to charge for milestone T-shirts from September this year. He also tells us how there will be a volunteering equivalent to the current ones for walking, jogging and running. And author Michael Crawley chats about his new book “Out of Thin Air”.