Wotton parkrun celebrated its 250th event on February 4th 2023. Our parkrun takes place at 9am every Saturday morning in Wotton Community PARC and has been running since October 2016. For this milestone event we asked people to wear green as this is the colour of the parkrun t-shirts that runners are awarded for reaching their 250 run or volunteering milestones. We also had celebratory cake (and fruit) at the finish line (parkrunners love cake!!).
All across the world, parkrun encourages people of every ability to run, walk, jog, spectate or volunteer – parkrun is a free community timed 5k event and participants are simply asked to register once – https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register. Every parkrun is organised entirely by volunteers and there are over 1000 events in the UK every Saturday morning. Wotton parkrun is proud to be one of those as we look forward to our 300th event in early 2024.
Wotton parkrun was set up by a group of local runners alongside Wotton Community Sports Foundation (WCSF) who were keen to see people in the local area become more active and to give them the chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
Over the past 6 years there have been 19,700 5k finishes at Wotton by 4500 different participants, as well as over 450 volunteers who have given their time to make it happen. We have many local participants who attend regularly and we also see parkrun tourists from all around the UK and the world. People who visit our parkrun always comment how much they have enjoyed it and how friendly everyone is. Times recorded vary from 16 minutes to 60 minutes – all levels of ability are welcome and encouraged!
Our course is mainly cross-country on grass with some gravel tracks. We often see deer and rabbits joining in with the other participants and we have seen red kite and buzzards overhead. Our event usually goes ahead whatever the weather and is only cancelled if there are other events using the PARC. Please check our website or Facebook page – www.parkrun.org.uk/wotton and for any further information please email wotton@parkrun.com
Ann Fitzjohn