If you could bottle the passion that comes from parkrun and sell it, you’d be worth a small fortune.

My parkrun journey began a couple of years ago, having not really run much for about twenty years or so. Who’d have thought that a few years on that I’d be closing in on 100 parkruns and having completed four marathons in the process?

I certainly wouldn’t have and my love for running wouldn’t have come if it hadn’t have been for one man, Tony Giles.

Tony is one of the unsung heros of parkrun, the people in the hi-vis jackets that give up their time for free at 9am on a Saturday morning. What most people probably don’t see is the amount of organisation and time dedicated to making these events happen and they give up their time for free.

It was Tony that encouraged me to come along to parkrun to write about the experience and I thought the best way to do that was to take part.

Looking back through my times, my first ever parkrun was at Great Lines in Gillingham and I came in with a respectable time of 31:33 minutes – not bad for a bloke in his forties. That was on 21st February 2015 and just two weeks later I was back for more, this time shaving over four minutes off my personal best.

I think by this point I had caught the bug and have been back almost every weekend since.

My times have got quicker, I’ve enjoyed it more, but most importantly, I’ve met some incredible people and now have a group of us that complete parkruns across the county and I’ve even sampled parkruns up and down the country.

That’s the most pleasing aspect about parkrun for me – I seem to have inadvertently inspired my friends and family to take part too.

To see the achievements of others, is by far more pleasing to be than my own times now. Possibly because it gets harder every week to keep chipping time off my personal best!

Some of my friends have really embraced parkrun. The likes of Lee Allen, who has lost about three stone in the past eighteen months and Catherine Hayward, who completed her first marathon this month having not run at all at the start of the year, have all started their running journeys thanks to parkrun.

The biggest achievement to me though comes from my daughter Ellie. Aged just seven, she has now completed seven parkruns and 34 junior parkruns. For a little girl that was reluctant at first, she’s now blossomed into a young lady that loves her running.

This was epitomised at Lowestoft parkrun at the weekend as she recorded her personal best time of 32:33 minutes. What was especially pleasing though, was the manner in which she did it and the incredible support she was shown by the volunteers on the way round.

That’s what I love the most about parkrun. Complete strangers turn up to cheer you on and that’s what inspires you to dig that little bit deeper and run that little bit faster.

It’s the way complete strangers take to support Ellie that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Matthew and Becky from Eryri Harriers in Wales took the time to chat with Ellie before we started on Saturday. Their encouragement undoubtedly inspired Ellie and Matthew was clearly inspired himself as we saw him finish first in an incredible time of 17:54 minutes.

To see Becky cheering Ellie to the finish almost brought a tear to my eye. If that wasn’t enough, a complete stranger walked up to me at the end of our run to say that Ellie was a real credit to me.

That really sums parkrun up.

I’ve tasted parkrun from the other side of the fence and volunteered as well. As much as I love running, it was great to be able to give something back and do my bit. It’s probably only when you’ve volunteered that you truly appreciate how important it is to have people marshall the events.

They give their time up for nothing, standing around in the freezing cold, blazing heat or driving rain, just to make sure every event goes ahead as planned and without any issue.

If it wasn’t for these wonderful volunteers, around 100,000 people every weekend wouldn’t get the chance to run as they do. I don’t think we can underestimate what impact the volunteers have on our lives. If you had to put a price on their time, it would run into the millions of pounds.

I’ve found that parkrun has so inspired me that I’ve now joined my local running club, the Rebel Runners in Medway.

This is where myself and some friends have really taken parkrun to the next level. We try and run as a group a good few times a week, whilst the Rebels run virtually every day.

The ethos of parkrun spills over into the Rebel Runners – it’s so inclusive, welcoming and encouraging. No one judges you and it’s not about times, it’s all about taking part and having fun.

That’s what matters most to be about running, it’s got to be fun. If it’s fun, people will come back time and time again.

I’d like to think that’s why we are seeing so many more friends, colleagues and strangers join us for parkruns every week. It was at a meeting with Sports Minister, Tracey Crouch MP, that we got chatting about parkrun the other week and she was so inspired that she signed up there and then, joining us on the start line at Maidstone parkrun the following morning.

With baby Freddie safely strapped into his buggy, we were off along the beautiful towpath alongside the River Medway, heading in the direction of Maidstone, having a great chat, with the encouragement of so many strangers.

I’d like to think I had a very small part in encouraging Tracey that day and so much so, that she was back again this weekend to do it all again.

It’s at parkrun that you peel the layers off a person and get to really know them and I’ve learnt so much more about friends through running together than if we’d sat down over a cup of coffee.

People open up to you when they run and that’s why I think it’s invaluable for your mental health along with your physical health.

This weekend sees the Kent Sports Trust Foundation celebrate our first six months or so of being with our charity gala dinner and we will welcome Ben Smith of The 401 Challenge as one of our guests.

Ben has inspired so many thousands of people through running and only last weekend he turned up at Newbury parkrun to show his support to friends.

This is a guy that’s not long completed 401 marathons in 401 days.

When most of us would be heading for the hottest beach destination around the world, Ben is throwing himself back into running.

I was delighted to see he has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Point of Light award this week and I will be thrilled if he claims a Pride of Britain award next week. It’s really the least he deserves for everything he has done.

There’s a bit of Ben in all of us. Someone that’s fragile, but having grown as a person through running.

I’d encourage everyone I meet to take up running if they can. I’m always told that “running’s not for me” and “I can’t run”, but until you’ve tried, how do you know?

I was that person a few years ago and look at me now – a real convert! The saying that the first step is the hardest is true, so much so that I think the one out the front door is the one to conquer first.

That’s why I feel it’s so important to lend your support to someone else. Running as a pair or in a group is so much better than on your own. Finding the motivation to go out on your own as the nights draw in is hard. I should know it – I do it a lot.

Saying that, it gives me chance to clear my mind. However, given the choice, I’d much rather run with friends than on my own.

So what’s the challenges that lie ahead? For me personally, I’d like to get to that milestone of 100 parkruns as soon as possible – just the 27 to go.

I’d also like to experience every parkrun across Kent and then possibly beyond. This weekend we will descend on Shorne Woods parkrun and I’m really looking forward to that.

A number of us have signed up for the Dartford Half Marathon and then the Brighton Marathon a few weeks later in April 2017.

Before that, and to tie in with everyone setting their New Year’s resolutions, Lee Allen and I will be starting our own challenge – to run a minimum of five kilometres a day for 365 consecutive days – even Christmas Day.

There will be no one policing us and it’s down to us to get up and do it every day, rain or shine, but I know we will do it.

We’re both fundraising for the Kent Sports Trust Foundation and I’d urge anyone that wants to join us on this mammoth quest to get in touch to find out more about what we are doing.

A friend of ours, Ben Rogers, is already over halfway through his own challenge, running 365 marathons in 365 days and we may well just pop up alongside him in the coming months.

To end this blog, I’ve got to sum up parkrun and what it means to me.

It really has changed my life. It’s now a way of life. What sums parkrun up for me is people arrive as strangers and leave as friends.