A Flock of Eagles

Local running club celebrate 1000 members of parkrun

This week has seen the 1,000th Ealing Eagle running club member to register at parkrun - the free, weekly 5km run which takes place in hundreds of parks around the world.

‘We are delighted that 1,000 Eagles have now registered at parkrun and amazed to see they have now run over 21,000 times on a Saturday morning in the last 5 years.  The all-inclusive community nature of parkrun is exactly the spirit we have tried to develop at our club and it has become a huge part of all of our Saturday mornings’ added Chair, Thom Martini.

Gunnersbury parkrun, which was setup in October 2011 is shortly to celebrate its 5th anniversary (on 29th October) and regularly attracts over 400 runners of all abilities.  parkrun was founded by Paul Sinton Hewitt in 2004, 5 years before the running club was formed.  

‘We were delighted that members of the club were instrumental in setting up Gunnersbury parkrun, which has now attracted over 7,000 runners.  Our thanks go to Arlene Gallagher, the Event Director, and her core team who make every event such a fun and enjoyable community event’ added Thom.  ‘We are now lucky to have other local parkruns taking place nearby (such as Osterley Park and Northala Fields) - it’s now hard to find a local event where an Eagle is not running!’

Its not just local parkruns either – Eagles regularly engage in ‘parkrun tourism’ and have visited events as from the far north of the UK in Aberdeen to the south in Cornwall. The club is currently the 6th largest club to take part in parkrun across the organisation. 

2 years ago a junior event was setup in Pitshanger Park.  Pitshanger junior parkrun (Pjp) has now attracted 900 juniors, who have completed nearly 7,000 runs on a Sunday morning over the 2km distance.

‘We are equally as proud that many members of the club volunteer at Pjp every Sunday morning.  Having recently setup a junior section of the running club it’s also great to see so many of them out on a Sunday morning.  Long may it continue!’.

Registration for parkun is free at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/

Information on the Ealing Eagles running club can be found at http://www.ealingeagles.com

26th October 2016