parkrun: Reaching the 100 volunteer milestone

I’ve recently hit the 100 volunteer milestone at parkrun. I’m very proud of that.

There are lots of people who volunteer every week – mainly core teams (the volunteer teams who organise a particular parkrun event every week), but some others too. Some people don’t run at all, they just volunteer. But most people run a lot more than they volunteer. A lot of people don’t volunteer at all! But parkrun wouldn’t exist without volunteers.

If you look down the results of a parkrun every week, you will see little icons next to runners’ names – for their running and volunteering milestones. There are a lot more running milestones than there are volunteering milestones.

My first time volunteering was way back in 2015, shortly after I started parkrun. I volunteered at junior parkrun twice, in the brief period that my daughter was running it. I was on the roster to volunteer a third time, but bad weather caused it to be cancelled, then she started panto and never went back to junior parkrun. Oh no, she didn’t!

Back in those days, our local parkrun used to ask that everyone volunteered twice a year. That way, they said they would fill the roster without any problems. There is also an unspoken rule that a 10% volunteering ratio is a good aim. After a slow start, my volunteer ratio is now at 21% and that is increasing all the time.

I didn’t volunteer at all in 2016, then I volunteered twice in both 2017 and 2018. I used to volunteer if I had a race the next day. I had a lot less race in those days! I volunteered four times in 2019 and not at all in 2020, but the parkrun year did end on 14th March that year. I volunteered twice in 2021 – another short parkrun year, which only started in July.

I started picking up the pace after that – seven times in 2022, 14 times in 2023, 24 times in 2024 and 28 times in 2025. My 100 volunteer milestone was my 15th time volunteering in 2026.

When you start volunteering, you’re normally allocated the marshal role. This is mainly cheering, standing in a strategic place on the course, to make sure runners don’t miss a turning. You have a radio and a map of the course with postcodes on it, just in case of emergency.

I realised early on that I don’t like being a marshal! I always feel the need to say ‘you’re welcome’ every time someone thanks me. When several hundred people thank me three times (three laps), it’s non-stop, trying to get out ‘you’re welcome’ as well as ‘well done’ to everyone. (Obviously, this isn’t necessary, it’s just what I felt I needed to do and I found it stressful.)

Then I was allocated barcode scanning. This was a much nicer job. You got to say well done to everyone, but no need to clap or worry about whether you could use the radio in an emergency.

By 2023, I was racing a lot more. And I wanted to take part in parkrun every single week, whether I was racing or not. So I had to rethink volunteering. By this point, I was very well known at our local parkrun and able to ask for a particular volunteer role rather than just say I wanted to volunteer.

I reached my 25 volunteer milestone in 2023.

My husband and I started volunteering for course set-up in the autumn of 2023. At the time, this was a very unpopular job – mainly because it involved arriving at parkrun at 8am, rather than 8:30am for the other volunteer roles or 9am to run. There were days when my husband would carry all the cones and signs and poles around the 1.5 mile course on his own, while I assembled the finish funnel. He would only just be finished in time for the start at 9am.

Now there are a lot more people helping out with set-up, but we still make sure we do it at least once a month. For us, it is a really good way to give back. We’re doing a job which isn’t easy and we get to run every week.

I’ve volunteered 24 times as pacer. Pacer is a valid volunteer role, which helps people, but my (possibly slightly controversial) view is that, along with parkwalker and run report, it’s not an essential role. Parkrun would exist without pacers, parkwalkers and report writers. It wouldn’t be able to go ahead without people setting up the course, timekeepers, marshals etc. So I always make sure to balance out my pacing with other roles – either by doing two roles on the same day or ensuring I do at least one other role that month.

I reached my 50 volunteer milestone in 2024.

And now I’ve reached my 100 volunteer milestone! I’ve done 11 different roles in that time. Some days, I’ve done two roles, or even three, which means that total number of volunteer roles I’ve done is actually 119. Mu full list of volunteer roles is:

• Timekeeper – 3
• Marshal – 6
• Pre-event set-up – 31
• Barcode scanning – 11
• Finish tokens – 2
• First timers’ welcome – 13
• Funnel manager – 3
• Tail walker – 17
• Pacer – 24
• Event day course check – 5
• parkwalker – 4

I’ve come to love volunteering. It is the best way to get to know people at parkrun and is very appreciated by both the core team and all the runners. Parkrun is my absolute favourite thing. It has been a huge part of my life for more than 11 years now. I like to be able to give something back.

Are you a parkrunner? Do you volunteer at your local parkrun? If you can, please try to find a way to give back. It is enjoyable and means your parkrun can go ahead every week.