The sun shone for the seventh birthday celebrations at Seaton parkrun, and the conditions could not have been more different to the previous weekend, when the carnage from Storm Ciaran caused the cancellation of the event, writes Carol Austin.
It was thanks to the incredible clearing up work by East Devon District Council’s Street Scene team that the parkrun could go ahead. During the week, the team had cleared all the pebbles and beach debris from the Esplanade.
Volunteers from parkrun also had to replace, restore, locate and clean a lot of equipment following the damage done to the store-room by the enormous waves and wind of the storm. They even found the finish funnel poles had been washed up on the beach a good mile down from Axmouth harbour.
The pebble sections were rather ‘lumpier’ than usual and more than 40 volunteers supported the 228 runners and walkers, ensuring their safety and providing the usual Seaton welcome. To celebrate the seven years of parkrun in Seaton, there was fancy dress and cake!
Amongst the outfits were the Stig, a Spice Girl, a bee, a rocket man, Snow White, hippies, rappers and many more. Louise Rawlins took the prize for the best outfit going as a coffee cup reflecting the parkrun ethos that “it was always about the coffee”.
In other words, it is the community togetherness that makes parkrun special and the last week has certainly shown Seaton’s community spirit at its best.
Globally, parkrun reached its 100 millionth instance of participation last weekend - that includes volunteers, runners and walkers. There are now one million registered parkrunners across 20 countries.
To date, 574 different people have volunteered at Seaton, and those people have turned up before everyone else, been out there in all weathers, and stayed longer than the last finishers. There have now been more than 12,000 different runners and walkers here since Seaton parkrun began, running, walking or jogging some 284,000 km between them.
The average number of finishers in Seaton now is 194, so with spectators, volunteers, friends and families parkrun really contributes to Seaton’s vibrant Saturday mornings.
Anyone wanting to help, run or walk at Seaton parkrun can register at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/seaton/ It is free and takes place every Saturday at 9am.
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