North Cardiff's parkrun reaches 100

Llanishen Park parkrun marks its 100th edition, and its second birthday, this weekend (Saturday 8 June).

"Since starting back in 2022, we have seen nearly 4.5 thousand unique runners, walkers, and joggers and nearly 500 different volunteers all getting involved with this special community that we have built here in the north of Cardiff," said Gareth Howell, co-event director.

"Each has their own story - some are seasoned runners, some a first timers, some have even travelled from afar to get here.

"Thank you all for your support and a huge shout out to the community of volunteers - friends all of them - who have come together to deliver this special part of our Saturday morning calendar. They are the true megastars of the parkrun movement here.

"When Teri and I helped set up Llanishen Park parkrun two years ago, it was out of a sense of wanting to achieve a number of things in the local community. The first was to provide a safe space for locals to come and enjoy the mental and physical health benefits of parkrun. Another was to bring a greater focus on Llanishen Park itself, which was a comfort blanket I embraced during the lockdown years of 2020 and 2021 on those occasions we could go for exercise and enjoy the fresh air.

"For my mental health at the time, it was a real tonic, so we felt we owed the space something in return. We hope you’ll agree, the effect of parkrun on this wonderful space has been overwhelmingly positive and the council have been fully supportive in the efforts of our core team to keep running the event and to maintain the park where we can.

"Finally, we thought about the broad economic and societal benefits of having an event like this in the local area. We see a true diversity of both locals and tourists in the park every week.

"We often hear about the increased footfall at our amazing local small businesses, so here’s to another 100, nay more events! Thank you Cardiff and see you at 9am this Saturday, and don’t forget your barcode!"

Llanishen Park is one of more than 2,000 parkruns in 22 countries (and one of five in Cardiff), offering a free, timed 5k run (or walk) every Saturday morning.

To take part in parkrun, you just need to register (free) online and obtain a personal barcode, then take this to the event for scanning at the finish.

Photo courtesy of Llanishen Park parkrun