More than 140 children have been splashing through puddles at a Tiverton park every Sunday morning as the town’s new junior parkrun rapidly becomes one of the area’s biggest community success stories.
The free 2km event at Westexe Recreation Ground is now in its sixth week and has already drawn record numbers, with organisers saying the turnout proves the town had been crying out for it.
Karen Collard, organiser of Westexe Rec junior parkrun, said she was initially reluctant to take it on.
“My friend Carla, who’s the ambassador, kept saying we really need a junior parkrun, and she kept hinting that I ought to help out and do one, but I kept resisting and then in the end I thought, ‘oh, why not?’ So here we are,” she said.
Attendance has grown steadily since launch. “Our first week we had 79 children, today we’ve had 147, which is our biggest ever,” Karen said. “Tiverton definitely needed a parkrun and we’re getting more and more people every week. It’s just amazing.”
The crowds have not been deterred by poor weather. “I’ve got wet every week,” she added. “Every week it’s rained at some point during the morning. I don’t know why they’re coming in the rain, but parkrun is an amazing thing.”
The junior event is open to four to 14-year-olds, who can run, walk or skip the course at their own pace. Organisers stress there is no pressure to win, and that every child is supported to the finish.
Carla Gregory, South West ambassador for parkrun, said Mid Devon had previously been the only area in the county without any parkrun provision.
“We’re really struggling to find areas for a 5K but we identified areas for a 2K for juniors and for young people the parents don’t have to drive from here, they can walk here. It’s easily accessible and it just brings a community together,” she said.
She added that the benefits go beyond exercise. “They can come along, they can do whatever pace they want, they can take as long as they like, they will never be last. We always have a volunteer who does that for them and it just brings in a nice habit of getting up on a Sunday morning, coming down here, meeting some friends, coming with their family,” Carla said.
Around 16 volunteers help run the Tiverton event each week, ranging in age from young children to pensioners. Organisers say more will be needed as nearby Cullompton prepares to launch its own junior parkrun.
Local leaders have praised the initiative and its impact on the town. Tiverton mayor Cllr Neal Davey said he was struck by the turnout on a wet February morning. “It’s absolutely great,” he said, adding that it was “wonderful” to see young people outside in the fresh air rather than looking at a screen.
Mid Devon District Council chair Cllr Gordon Czapiewski said the event showed how public spaces could be used positively without disruption.
“I came to this park 8.30am this morning, it’s now 10am, was there a parkrun here or not? You wouldn’t know,” he said. “Not to disrupt, not to destroy, but to make things like parkrun part of what we do – that for me is the key.”
