Parkrun is back in more than 500 parks and green spaces across England – 16 months after it was suspended due to coronavirus restrictions.
Parkruns are free Saturday morning events where many thousands of people of all levels of fitness can walk, jog or run 5km together.
Chief Operating Officer Tom Williams told Sky News: “It means such an incredible amount to be able to reopen today.
“Over the last 17 years, Parkrun has had the most amazing impact on people’s health and wellbeing.
“Our mission statement is to make the world healthier and happier.”
Mr Williams said that before Parkrun was suspended in March last year, it had gone 16-and-a-half years without missing a weekend.
Now, after missing 70 consecutive Saturdays, it was “good to be back”, he added.
“For every month we were closed during lockdown, we lost about a million instances of participation for people walking, jogging, running, or volunteering.
“It was not uncommon for people to tell us pre-COVID that participation in Parkrun had saved their lives, so we’ve…
