Junior Parkrun Returns: Get The Kids In Training

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UPDATE: 25 September 2020. Plans to resume weekly Parkruns have now been scrapped, following tighter lockdown restrictions.

If you’re starting to find you’re spending a little bit too much time on the couch, then salvation is at hand. Parkrun, and Junior Parkrun, will return in October.

For those not in the known, Parkrun is a community fitness event that happens every weekend all over the country (and overseas). It’s a dead simple idea: just turn up to a nearby Parkrun event and jog or walk the same course as lots of other people. The community spirit makes it much more fun than a solitary jog around the block, and many people return week in, week out. 

At the start of this year, over 1,000 local Parkruns, and 340 Junior Parkruns, were operating weekly around the UK. Adults turn up on Saturday to tackle a 5km course, while Sunday Junior Parkrun events are 2km, and aimed at kids aged 4 to 14.

That all stopped in March when lockdown was declared. Although we were all encouraged to get out exercising, Parkruns disbanded because of their communal nature. Now, the organisation which oversees the events has announced a return, set for late October. The renewed events will include the Junior Parkruns, so now is the time to get the kids back into ‘training’ for the big return.