GALLERY: Record turnout at Horsham parkrun’s first birthday

Hundreds of runners set a new record as they celebrated the first birthday of the popular Horsham parkrun on Saturday morning (September 5).
DM151102303a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222115008DM151102303a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222115008
DM151102303a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222115008

Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE, who founded parkrun 11 years ago, was among the record 380 runners who took to the 5km course around Horsham Park.

Joggers of all ages took part in the race, with many bringing their dogs to join in the celebrations.

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On the day, awards were handed out to the top runners as well as the volunteers that have helped to make the event such a success.

DM151102303a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222115008DM151102303a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222115008
DM151102303a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222115008

Harry Wilcox and Karen Broomer were named the top male and female runners for Horsham parkrun’s first year, volunteers of the year were Christian Liberman and Yan Yip and the overall parkrunner of the year was Sarah Mitchelson.

Personal bests were achieved by 86 people on the day, while 44 people ran parkrun for the first time.

The event was due to be a ‘naked’ run with runners predicting their times beforehand and then running tech free to see who could get closest to their estimation.

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More than 100 runners joined in with Rob Shapland getting to within 1.2 seconds of his 24.56 estimate.

DM15110295a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222104008DM15110295a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222104008
DM15110295a.jpg First year anniversary of the Horsham parkrun 5k which has taken place every Saturday in Horsham Park. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-150509-222104008

After the run, Mr Sinton-Hewitt told fellow runners he enjoys visiting Horsham parkrun due to the ‘friendly and welcoming’ people and ‘wonderful’ course.

He signed copies of the new book ‘parkrun: A Celebration’ and also signed Bolt the parkrun elephant from Horsham’s Elephantastic trail.

The book was created and curated by a volunteer team of photography, design and journalism professionals, and was shortlisted for the British Sports Illustrated Book of the Year Award.

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Horsham is one of 348 parkruns across the UK, which were encouraged to submit an invitation to Sinton-Hewitt setting out the reasons why he should visit them for his landmark run.

The events are timed 5k runs which are open all ages and abilities and coordinated entirely by local volunteers.

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