Paul Sinton-Hewitt has got a lot to answer for (and it’s all good!).

Every week 350,000 people congregate at their local Parkrun at 09:00 on a Saturday and run, jog and walk their way round the 5km course. Everyone that finishes gets a time, a record of the achievement kept and it’s all free. Some race it, some use it as part of training for other events, some use it for the social interaction that it brings, some for the mental and physical health benefits that sport gives and some just do it for the fun of it (hopefully that’s most of us).

We’re really lucky at Bayside Tri Club to have 6 different Parkruns within a 10km radius (7 if you include the Isle of Wight but that’s a little trickier to get to !) and we’ve started a monthly Parkrun Tour. The aim of the Parkrun tour is to visit a local Parkrun en masse, wearing club colours, have a warm up, encourage each other round the course, bring a few supporters with us and then go for a coffee afterwards.

This month we decided that we didn’t need to go anywhere other than Lee on the Solent (https://www.parkrun.org.uk/leeonthesolent/ ), our home Parkrun, as we wanted as many members as possible to help them celebrate the 15th birthday.

Those taking part couldn’t do it without the dedication and enthusiasm of the Race Directors and volunteers who give up their own time to allow this to take place. We owe these volunteers a huge thank you.

15 years ago Paul and a few friends (13 runners I believe) hosted the first Parkrun, although at the time it was called the Bushy Park Time Trial and I’m pretty sure he couldn’t have predicted the Parkrun phenomenon that would follow.

The weather was perfect and despite a number of Baysiders being away racing over the weekend we had a great turnout. We had 19 finishers, 2 first timers and 1 PB + some great support.

We’ll continue to support the local Parkruns, they bring so much to the local community with friendships made, encouragement given and so many other benefits.

Thank you Paul Sinton-Hewitt and all involved in Parkrun.