I ran my first Parkrun in Falkirk, many years ago. It the time there were only a few to choose from and Falkirk was about 30 minutes away from where we lived. It is a tough route with a very challenging hill near the end, I am sure anyone who has run it will agree.

Livingston decided to set up their own Parkrun a few years later. I took part in the trial the week before the official first one. It was brilliant, the start was 2 miles from our house so during marathon training I would incorporate the park run in my run. I would run 8 kilometres before and try and get my timings spot on so I would hit the start line at 09.30 and then do the next 5k at a much faster pace. Then when my barcode was scanned I would run 5k home, much slower. This gave me a varied 18 k run on a Saturday morning.

I continued to clock up my Parkruns, making sure to volunteer as well. As Parkrun grew I always checked to see if there was one nearby when we went on holiday. I have run in Toronto, Canada, Westport, Ireland, and many in the UK including Alness, Agnew Park, Strathclyde, Victoria Park, Lochore, Livingston and Bressay on Shetland.

My home Parkrun in Alness is amazing, a fabulous out and back route, relatively flat and sometimes even dolphins. There is a great atmosphere every Saturday seeing regular faces as well as many Parkrun tourists, it just a great way to start the weekend.

Parkrun has been amazing for me helping me improve my times but the best things has been meeting people and now feeling part of a community.

Now looking forward to my next 200, and many more volunteering opportunities.