Lydiard Park celebrates 15 years of weekly running events
Parkruns happen in more than 2,000 locations across the world
Lydiard parkrun, which was the first of its kind in the South West when it was established, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this weekend.
Every Saturday, runners from Swindon and across the UK gather at Lydiard Park for a weekly 5k run.
In recent years, the event has also become an opportunity for people to get together and chat or go for walks together.
Event organiser, Emma Sperring, said: “15 years ago it was very much a race where local runners would come and run as fast as they could around the 5k course and try and beat their time each week. However, nowadays it's more about the social side of things.
“People come not necessarily to run. They will sometimes come and just chat to others, have a cup of tea, catch up on all the news from the week. We get lots of walkers as well. People with dogs, with children in buggies.
“We have people come and run with their children and we get all sorts of ages there from the very young to the not so young, and I would definitely say that it's changing in the respect that it's not all about running anymore. It's about socialising, enjoying yourself and perhaps doing a little bit of exercise if you want to”.
When Lydiard parkrun first started in 2010, around 30 runners joined in on the event.
Fast forward to 15 years later, Emma says they now get an average of 400 participants each week.
Over the years, Lydiard Park has also welcomed a lot of tourists, especially during the time when it was the only parkrun in the South West.
“We used to get lots of people from miles away come to Swindon. It’s pretty impressive that they would travel all that distance just to get to us. And so, after that, lots of park runs started popping up around us.
“And we still get so many tourists because parkrun tourism is a thing. Lots of people go and travel all across not only the country, but abroad as well, to get to different parkruns. Over the summer holidays, we get lots of different people from different countries and from different parts of the country.
“However, we still encourage local residents to come to Park, run of course, and celebrate them too”.
Parkruns take place every Saturday at 9am in two Swindon parks and various locations across the country.