Worthing parkrun celebrated its 200th event along the promenade on Saturday, October 2, with many runners dressing up for the occasion. Pictures: Worthing parkrun.Worthing parkrun celebrated its 200th event along the promenade on Saturday, October 2, with many runners dressing up for the occasion. Pictures: Worthing parkrun.
Worthing parkrun celebrated its 200th event along the promenade on Saturday, October 2, with many runners dressing up for the occasion. Pictures: Worthing parkrun.

Worthing parkrun: 20 pictures from the 200th event on Worthing promenade

Runners dressed up and volunteers turned out in force for the 200th Worthing parkrun along the promenade. Organisers said the team did a sterling job in the cold winds and thanked everyone for joining in on what was a terrible day for weather.

Luckily, the heavy rain on Saturday, October 2, held off until about 10.30am, by which time parkrun was all over. Mike, from the core team, said: “I think we’ve cancelled on only one or two occasions due to weather since we started back in 2016 - they breed them hardy at parkrun.”

Worthing parkrun launched on June 11, 2016, and since it started, the free event has seen 11,132 people complete 76,250 parkruns, supported by 763 different volunteers. The weekly gatherings had to pause during the pandemic but returned on July 25 this year.

Mike added: “It’s an amazing health and wellbeing event, run entirely by local volunteers, and attracts visitors from all around the world. You can run, jog or walk, parkrun is a very inclusive, free weekly event. Not only was it our 200th event here in Worthing, it was also parkrun’s 17th birthday. From its humble beginnings at Bushy Park, to the worldwide phenomenon it is today. At Worthing, we see, on average, about 400 people come along each week, plus 25 to 30 volunteers, without who the event cannot happen.”

At the 200th event, 364 people took park, many in fancy dress, supported by 32 volunteers. There were 26 first-timers, 53 personal bests and representatives from 32 different running clubs. Lloyd Palmer celebrated his 100th parkrun and for Joe Millard, Elliot Crathern, Sarah Palmer, Jeremy Randell and Hayden Christmas, it was their 50th parkrun. Volunteers Ben and Sue Swann celebrated their 50th time of sorting tokens.

In Worthing parkrun history, the female record is held by Rebecca Moore, who recorded a time of 16:59 at the sixth event on July 16, 2016. The male record is held by Jake Wightman, who recorded a time of 14:43 on May 25, 2019, the 150th event. The Age Grade course record is held by Elspeth Turner, who recorded 96.22 per cent (18:06) on December 22, 2018.

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