Lucy Waterlow is a journalist, ghostwriter and author who has contributed to numerous titles including The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, Women's Running, and Runner's [...] is the co-author of Nell McAndrew's Guide To Running (published by Bloomsbury) and Run Mummy Run: Inspiring Women to be Fit, Healthy and Happy (published by [...] is also the ghostwriter of accomplished ultra runner Mimi Anderson's two memoirs: Beyond Impossible: From Reluctant Runner to Guinness World Record Holder, and Limitless: An Ultrarunner's Story of Pain, Perseverance and the Pursuit of Success (both published by [...]-of-two Lucy loves to run and race on the roads, track and cross country after taking up the sport as a child, inspired by her marathon-mad dad and elite athlete sister. She regularly joins in parkrun and competes for her local running club, St Albans Striders. With a marathon PB of 3.06 and half PB of 83.43, Lucy is currently training to try and break three hours for the [...] is passionate about getting others to discover the joy of running and in 2022 qualified as an England Athletics coach in running fitness. She's employed as a one-to-one coach for RunningJo, and volunteers to lead group sessions at her running club.Follow Lucy on Instagram [...]

Introduction 7 Chapter One: How it Started... and How it is Going 11

Small Beginnings | From Time Trial to parkrun | ‘We Were There From the Start!’ |
The All Important Barcode | The Results Decoded | What is Age grading? |
It’s a Run, Not a Race, or Is It? | Milestone Moments | The parkrun Way | Cafe Culture | (Not) parkrun | Not Everyone’s a Fan | Doing it for the kids | Brand Partners |
parkrun as a Charity

Chapter Two: Meet the parkrunners 41

The Front Runners | The Keep Fitters | The Dog Runners | The Buggy Runners | The Family Runners | The Milestone Markers | The Participants with Disabilities | The First Timers | The Walkers

Chapter Three: The High-vis Heroes 71

Benefits of Volunteering | ‘Why We Volunteer’ | What Volunteer Roles Are There? | Ambassador Roles

Chapter Four: A Day in the Life of a parkrun 93 Chapter Five: Why You Should parkrun for Your Health and Well-being 103

Physical Health Benefits | Mental Health Benefits | ‘parkrun Saved Us’ |
parkrun on Prescription | parkrun Versus Cancer | Community Impact | Benefits for Children

Chapter Six: parkrun Around the World 119

Australia | Austria | Canada | Denmark | Eswatini | Finland | France | Germany |
Ireland | Italy | Japan | Malaysia | Namibia | Netherlands | New Zealand | Norway | Poland | Singapore | South Africa | Sweden | USA | Ten of the Best Global parkrun for Tourists’ Bucket Lists | ‘Why We Love Being Global parkrun Tourists’

Chapter Seven: Training, Destination and Challenge Inspiration 159

If You Feel the Need for Speed | Top Tips to Get Faster | The Fastest parkrun Courses in the UK | The Slowest parkrun Courses in the UK | parkrun Challenges | There’s an App for That |
Popular parkrun Challenges List | UK parkrun Bucket List: 10 of the Best parkruns in the UK

Chapter Eight: The Future 189

parkrun’s Five Year Plan | Potential New parkrun Places | Who Isn’t parkrunning and Why? | Removing ‘Off-putting’ Stats | Discouraging parkrun Tourism? | The Future of Results

Chapter Nine: How to Set Up Your Own parkrun 203

Course Considerations | ‘How We Set Up Thriving parkruns’

Further Reading 209 Thanks 211 Epilogue 213