Volunteering at parkrun 50 times

On 11th July 2015 I began volunteering at my local parkrun, Lee on the Solent parkrun. I’ve not looked back since. I’ve only missed a couple of opportunities to volunteer due to holidays and needing to make an emergency trip home. Since then I’ve volunteered on special occasions such as Boxing Day and New Year and have loved every minute. The community of friends I now have thanks to parkrun is immense and I love each and every one of them.

On 16th July 2016 I was the Run Director for my 50th time volunteering. The week leading up to my Run Directing didn’t run smoothly. I had two late nights at work, went out with friends and as a result didn’t actually start getting things ready until Thursday evening! Ssshh! Don’t tell our Event Director! To be fair I was pretty stressed this week and it wasn’t until Friday evening that I thought about it being my 50th time. I wished I’d done something to commemorate the experience like bought a 50 banner or badge like people do for the runs but it was too late.

Saturday morning started as normal, I was Run Director, I’d checked in and deployed all the marshals, including sending someone right to the far end of the course at 8.50 as the marshal for that spot hadn’t arrived! Thankfully she made it just before the runners did! Anyway I had just climbed up the ladder to begin the runners brief when I was stopped. Immediately I thought something had gone wrong, someone was having some sort of emergency but no, it was our lovely Event Director telling the crowd of 287 runners that today was my 50th anniversary! I got a huge round of applause and was presented with a cake made by Maggie.

Isn’t she clever? I wish you got a 50 tshirt for volunteering but sadly you don’t so I’ll just have to keep make do with my 25 tshirt.

I was also given a beautiful handmade card by Fiona

I literally felt so lucky and blessed. I’ve made such good friends here and this just shows!  I was speechless and so overwhelmed! It really put me off my runners brief!! Haha

Volunteering for the 50th time was my third time being Run Director and as always I loved it. Being Run Director is such an important role but thankfully there were no incidents this week!

So, have you ever thought about volunteering at your local parkrun? Or even running it? Check out where your local one is on parkrun’s website and sign up!

Have you enjoyed this parkrun post? Here are links to my other posts!

parkrun – More than meets the eye

Becoming a parkrun Run Director

Parkrun Volunteer