The parkrun snowball effect

My daughter and I ran our first parkrun in May 2015. It was the start of a snowball effect leading to a huge number of friends, family and beyond taking up parkrun.

Our first parkrun was because my daughter’s then best friend was doing parkrun with her family. I think the best friend was on her seventh when my daughter and I stood at the start line for the first time.

In July 2015, my husband came along with us and in September 2015, our two sons did their first parkrun

In August 2016, my parents, sister and brother-in-law followed in our footsteps and ran their first parkruns. My niece and nephew were too young to take part at that point, but started running as soon as they were old enough.

In 2021, my sister persuaded her friend and his son to give parkrun a go. His sister and niece soon joined in the fun.

Also in 2021, my younger son’s girlfriend ran her first parkrun with us. Her mum ran her first one in 2025.

In 2025, my sister persuaded her daughter’s best friend and her dad and sister to run their first parkrun.

Alongside the family snowball effect, my friend Joy aka Pink Oddy was inspired by me to run her first parkrun in 2016.

In 2017, we inspired my friend’s two sons, who are friends with my younger two kids, to give parkrun a go.

That is a lot of people doing parkrun, most of whom weren’t runners before they started, because me and my daughter went to parkrun one day in 2015!

How many of them are still going strong?

My husband, parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew run pretty much every week. I’m heading for a total of 450 parkruns and my husband has run over 400. My dad has run over 300, my brother-in-law over 250 and my sister is very close to her 250 milestone. My mum, niece and nephew have all run well over 100. My three kids were regulars in the early days and generally join us two or three times a year these days.

My sister’s friend, his son, sister and niece run every week.

My son’s girlfriend is approaching her 50th parkrun milestone.

One of my friend’s sons has run well over 100 parkruns and still turns up fairly regularly.

My niece’s friend’s dad and sister have become regulars and my niece’s friend turns up fairly often.

And Joy has became a prolific parkrunner, along with her husband and often her sons too. She’s run over 300 times and travels to a different parkrun every week and loves completing the various challenges.