The Cheltenham 5K Parkrun is growing increasingly popular as of late, along with plenty of similar events around the UK. Parklife Sport caught up with the Cheltenham Run Director, Charlie Haward and volunteer Paul Jones.
Haward opened by speaking about how and why she joined the club, “I moved up to Cheltenham in 2013, having lived in Somerset, and I didn’t really know anybody here, but I had done some parkruns previously in Somerset, so I came to Parkrun as a way to get into the local community, meet other people and other runners, and through there I met somebody from CLC stride, then joined the running club shortly after that.”
She went on to speak about the Cheltenham Parkrun, which takes place every Saturday at Pittville Park, and the inclusivity of the event, with hundreds of people from all kinds of backgrounds taking part each week.
“My favourite thing as run director is when I start the run off, and everybody is spread out across the park. You have the speedy runners at the front, people trying for personal bests in the middle of the pack, people who are coming back from injury, people who have done Couch to 5 K and are only just starting to run 5K without stopping.
“Nobody is excluded from Parkrun; we accept everybody, and that’s one of the things that makes it really great.”
Jones’ story of how he came to get involved in the event was similar, saying, “I used to run; I still do now, but some weeks I volunteer instead.
“Some weeks, if I’m running on the Sunday with a club or something like that, then I won’t run on the Saturday.” The 60-year-old started to get involved in the Parkrun in 2019, when he was 53 and said, “This is one of the first things I started doing because it’s 5 K and you think, well, okay, 5 K is manageable; I’ve run marathons now, so I’ve kind of built my way up through different distances.”
Jones also spoke on the inclusivity here in Cheltenham, saying, “You can walk it, you can run it, you can shuffle it; there are still people coming in now with times of 50-odd minutes, and the top people came in with times of 16 and 17 minutes today.
“It’s great, it’s a lovely way to start your day, you feel quite virtuous because you’ve done your exercise for the day and you also get to know people in the community.”
