​The friendly and fun debut of a Clifton parkrun virgin

The 500th Rotherham parkrun was a good time to give this free, Saturday morning event for walkers and runners of all ages and abilities a go.

The first time can be daunting, especially for a late-50s amateur like me, but there’s no need to worry.

Walking towards the park there were already scores of people waiting to launch, chatting, smiling, some jogging on the spot.

After a “first timers” briefing for us newbies, we’re off!

Three laps of the park, starting on the climb past the tennis courts, then down to the War Memorial, along past the bandstand and right round the park boundary edge and back towards the finish line behind Clifton Park Museum. It’s 5 kilometres in total.

I start off with a spring in my step, earwigging in on on-the-hoof conversations about work, kids and the pet dog that’s going to need an eye operation.

It makes the time go quicker, so much so that I hardly notice the punishing incline next to the hill where The Reytons played a show to 18,000 people this summer.

A few hundred yards into Lap 2 I’m lapped by the first of the front runners, going at full pelt. He might well be back home having a cuppa by the time I’d done.

No bother, I fall into a conversion with a chap doing the run with his granddaughter, aged eight.

“Since I retired two years ago I’ve been tied up with a building project at home and running has had to take a back seat,” he tells me. “The work has nearly finished now, so I’m going to be doing these parkruns more often.”

The parkrun couldn’t take place without the fantastic team of volunteers who give up their time every Saturday morning to man the course.

They greet you with a smile and words of encouragement at every turn.

“Come on, keep going. One lap to go.”

I still feel surprisingly fresh and my dodgy right knee isn’t giving me any pain, although that might change come bedtime.

After one last push up past the tennis courts I spot the finish line and get my legs pumping. In doing so, my car keys shoot out of my pocket and I have to stop to pick them up.

As I cross the line there’s a rush of endorphins, a feeling of achievement. Why didn’t I try this sooner?

“Parkrun is a fantastic, friendly event,” says Pete Robinson, the man who delivered the first-timers’ briefing and who also runs a Tuesday night running group for all abilities called Clifton Park Runners. “It’s all about supporting every single person who comes along..

“We had people taking part aged eight to 80 today. I do it with my son, who is nine, every week and he loves it.”

Pete glances across at the finishers tucking into their special 500th parkrun celebration cakes.

“Parkrun gets you out of of bed on a Saturday morning. It sets up your weekend,” he says.

After going home, a message from the parkrun people pings up on my phone.

It tells me I finished 172nd out of 243 in a time of 33 minutes 28 seconds.

It won’t be long before I go back to try and improve on it.

Fancy giving parkrun a try? Pre-register at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/rotherham/