Sittingbourne parkrun celebrated its seventh birthday on Saturday with parkrun legend John Waterman (82) having completed his 250th parkrun milestone as part of the celebrations.
John’s efforts of having run and walked the Milton Creek Country Park course has seen the 82 year old now having completed 1,250km – that’s from Sittingbourne to John O’Groats (1,170km) and some.
Showing age is no barrier, John arrives at the course by bike, putting people a quarter of his age to shame and always completes his parkrun with a smile on his face.
Saturday was no different as he was applauded by runners, walkers and violunteers alike as they celebrated both his incredible achievement and the 7th birthday of Sittingbourne parkrun.
Since the event started, there has been 6,480 participants with a whopping 8,896 personal bests recorded, all made possible by 752 volunteers including four legged friends Bertie, Milo, Mollie and Blue to name a few.
Yvonne Crawford, Sittingbourne Event Director said: “parkrun is a great way to keep fit and be part of a community. We are pleased to be able to celebrate our seventh birthday in style with cheers, cake and thanks to parkrun’s sponsorship with De’Longhi, coffee as we welcome their coffee van which has been visiting events across the country since 2022.”
The free 5km event takes place at Milton Creek Country Park every Saturday at 9am and is designed for people of all ages and abilities – including walkers as there is now the new parkwalk volunteer role.
Yvonne added: “We mustn’t forget our hi viz heroes, without whom we couldn’t have put on such an event, and of course without our participants there would be no parkrun!”
“We are already planning for our next milestone event – our 300th parkrun on 6th May 2023!”