Volunteering at Parkrun

 As a parkrunner, volunteering is a great way to give back to the community. For me volunteering is as big a journey as running parkruns. You get to talk to people you don’t normally talk to, and you get to see your favourite course at a different angle. Anyways, this is my experience of volunteering at Parkrun. 

(Image description: Me with my parkrunner of the month shirt. I got it in a month where I volunteered regularly. I might fit into it someday) 

So, for the first year at Parkrun I did not volunteer at all, the idea of not running for one week put me off from volunteering. My mum would always remind me to volunteer, but I still wouldn’t do it.  

However, on the same week I was running the Portadown 10K, I decided to volunteer as a way to give back to the community and get something off my bucket list. A benefit of being a volunteer that week was partly the number pick up for the Portadown 10K was at City Park. Kill two birds with one stone! So, I sent the email to my local parkrun organisers and requested to be a marshal. Why did I request to be a marshal you might ask? Because it is the least stressful of the roles.. I don’t want to be responsible for screwing up the times as a timekeeper.  So, on the day I went down to the parkrun, got my number and then I got my pink volunteer hi vis vest and went down to the railway bridge where I was required to marshal. For the next 40 minutes I would stand in the freezing cold, clap and say 'good job' about 100 times. One of the best things was when people ran past me, they said thank you which I liked. I also got to talk to other volunteers 

Afterwards, I didn’t volunteer again for a year. The reason I didn’t volunteer during that time was that I only did a couple of races that year and they would be on a Saturday, or a running club were volunteering on the day. Also, I started working on Saturday mornings more and I didn’t think I could volunteer (which takes more time than running) and make it to work on time. 

However, when my mum started doing parkruns I realised that there actually was time for me to volunteer. So, when the Lurgan 10K came around, I decided to volunteer at the parkrun that week. The rest of my marshal volunteer experience is mostly the same. I would stand, clap and say good job. The only difference would be where I was standing. 

(Image description: My volunteer summary)

Now, I have volunteered one time as a pacer. Being a pacer always seemed interesting to me as you get to run and volunteer at the same time. The best of both worlds. However, I decided to hold off from pacing as I wanted to run sub 20 comfortably as the 20-minute pacer is usually vacant. Then, I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to run a sub-20-minute 5k comfortably, so I decided to do 21 minutes. Close enough. On the day I was pacing, it was very windy and put me off, so I went over 21 minutes. However, I do not intend that to put me off from pacing, and I hope to do it again in the future.

                                                          (Image description: My name on the list of pacers, image from citypark parkrun facebook)

In conclusion, volunteering has been a major part of my parkrun journey. It has helped me connect to people who always give up their time every week so people can run or walk their favourite courses. Overall, if you haven’t volunteered yet then I highly recommend it as you will appreciate volunteers more. 

(Image description: Volunteers of the citypark parkrun with the 20th anniversary cake, image from citypark parkrun facebook)