TOPIC:

I was asked at Costa whether I was present at the beginnings of Cardiff parkrun.
As it happens we were given a heads up on the predecessor of this forum in 2007 by Graeme Donnan of Les Croupiers that Phil Cook was looking to start a Cardiff event of this obscure 5K thing that was going to be called Cardiff Blackweir Time Trial (the 8th in the UK/world I believe). I was very interested and became part of a much more exclusive club that nobody else can join namely the 21 runners who took part in the pilot event on the course on 12/01/2008, a full month before the official Cardiff parkrun first event on 16/02/2008.
Some famous names here.


Official parkrun 1 - some famous names here too including our very own Angela Heeley as first lady
www.parkrun.org.uk/cardiff/results/1/

One thing that occurred to me to mention is just how difficult I found it to persuade other runners to take part in the first couple of years. This seems completely farcical and made up now but have a look at how long it took before there were regularly three figures taking part.