by Dave Williams
On Sat 16th June 2012 we held our first Havant parkrun, and since then
- we've met together on 401 Saturdays and 8 New Years Days
- 9,878 different people have completed a parkrun with us
- you've completed a total of 84,933 parkruns (that's 424,665 kilometres)
- our average attendance (not including volunteers) is 207.7 finishers per event
- 919 people have volunteered for us
- you've volunteered a total of 7,990 times
- and a countless number of cakes/coffees/teas have been consumed
The numbers are good, but the true value of parkrun is the friendships that build up, and the bucket-loads of smiles we see every Saturday morning. Without all of you that have come along to run, jog, walk, volunteer or spectate we'd have nothing, so thank you so much for joining in.
This week, to celebrate our 8th Anniversary, we asked you to send us photos of yourselves and you did! We've placed the photos in a flickr album which you can view here.
We also asked you to nominate a song for our anniversary playlist, and you did! We've created a Spotify playlist which you can access here. Please note that to listen to the playlist you will need a Spotify account, which can be created for free if you don't already have one.
And we asked you to tell us what Havant parkrun means to you, and here's just an (edited) sample of what you said. Most of the comments came via our facebook page so can read more of them here if you want to.
- "best way ever to start the weekend! Thanks to everyone for making the parkrun such a welcoming and inclusive event"
- "parkrun is the start of the weekend, looking forward to being able to join you all again"
- "like many people, I can point to times in my life when I absolutely would not have kept running if it hadn't been for parkrun"
- "I love Havant parkrun, the people, the setting and the atmosphere. My children have grown up with parkrun. We have an amazing parkrun family"
- "I felt at home when I turned up for my first parkrun just over 5 years ago. Can’t wait to get on the start line sometime soonish with all my running buddies"
- "I love that our whole family can take part, friendship, cake courtesy of the cake club, fancy dress, puddles and then over time I started to enjoy parkrun tourism, but Havant has always felt like home. Saturdays have very definitely become parkrundays"
- "it means so much more to me than running/jogging/walking, it's a lovely course, but most of all it's the people, whether it's the wonderful volunteers, other participants or those just watching"
- "I love the friendship and camaraderie created by this parkrun"
- "thank you to all the volunteers and runners for making Havant parkrun a great event every Saturday"
- "once I discovered it, parkrun became the thing I looked forward to every week"
- "now I do not know what else I would do on a Saturday morning"
- "parkrun helped me regain my interest by showing me running can be fun, and it is not all about times and hoping for perfection on every run"
- "always love the community spirit up at Staunton Country Park, plus running round the lake, down the hill, up the hill and always look forward to tea and cakes afterwards situated at the cafe. To me Havant parkrun is parkrun gold"
- "I love Havant parkrun - the course, the people, and the puddles. It’s a great start to the weekend and I’ve made lots of friends during the four years that I’ve been coming"
- "missing you all - looking forward to our first parkrun after lockdown"
Thank you all for joining in our 8th Anniversary Celebrations, it's been a blast!
On our official anniversary (Sat 20th June), like every Saturday while parkruns are suspended, we will hold #IHavantparkrun on our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/havantparkrun/), encouraging you to tell us about your run or walk that weekend, and asking you for one additional piece of information about yourself.
Thank you to everyone that has participated in these events, it's been fabulous hearing from you each week.