Merthyr parkrun #1

Early in the month you may remember my presence at the trial run of the all new Merthyr parkrun. If you don't, that's a link, so you can instantly become 'up to speed'. Oh and sorry for the old capitol P there, I wasn't as knowledgeable at the time.

Well, it's happened. Merthyr parkrun is live, it's a thing, every Saturday morning from now on (within reason), on the Taff Trail behind the leisure center you will find it. Good times!

Event number one went well, maybe better than I expected.155 brave souls, from as far as Poole and Twyn, turned up to try the... undulating... (pretty much) 5000 meters ably assisted by 20 or so yellow jacket wearing volunterrs. Nobody got lost, fell, wasn't timed (I was a timer!), exploded or anything bad at all!

High Viz Heroes and Blue Leader!

For those of you who don't know, parkrun is a weekly free timed event, aimed at getting as many as people possible active. It's a great initiative and it's running in 100s of locations all over the country now.

As someone who has run a few (17) parkrun events myself, the opportunity to become the member of a core team was really appealing and I've fallen on my feet with it being so local and having a pretty good team. The Event/Race Director is local author/celebrity Hannah Phillips with the core volunteers coming from the local running groups such as RunWithUs and MRC.

Oh and me, like my facebook page ppppppplease.

The help from parkrun has been excellent, we've been kitted out, tech'd up and supported all the way (and still ongoing). The course is a pretty one, with the bare minimum of laps going on, so it's interesting too. Where else can you get a waterfall (in the right weather conditions) and a call centre on the same 5k?

I encourage anyone to come and give it a go, it doesn't matter if you're fast, slow, a walker or anything. It's an all inclusive event and the Merthyr team will always give you a warm welcome. Don't want to run, there's always the need for more hands on deck as a volunteer!

Just please don't bring a dog or a pushchair as the course isn't suitable!

If you want more info, you can find everything you need here (website) or here (if you prefer the book of faces).

I have a feeling this will be the start of something good for the community!