Articles

Parkrun Takes Off With Farsley Flyers

Ben Fraser

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear parkrun, happy birthday to you! The free, weekly, timed 5k event had reached its 11th milestone. The idea of that song ringing out across the 700 runs worldwide to date is pretty cool.

 

Meanwhile, in Bramley, a small green patch of West Leeds, a run group was about to reach a new milestone. The Farsley Flyers have been running out of Throstle Nest since February this year and they were about to entertain a right of passage for any bustling run group or club – a parkrun takeover!

 

Over 40 volunteers clad in sky blue merged together to undertake volunteer roles that included setting up the run course, marshaling, timing, token scanning, and of course, supporting the runners! This level of commitment and amount of giving is no anomaly, it happens week in week out in parks across the world, and without it parkrun wouldn’t exist – let’s call it a community.

 

In the spirit of giving the Farsley Flyer family had brought a fully fledged bakery along with them. Fairy cakes, banana bread, rice crispy cakes – you name it and they probably had it in the sea of Tupperware boxes. The goodwill didn’t cease there, the group had managed to rope in a local Farsley greengrocer (Sutcliffes) who offered free oranges to all finishes – a lovely touch if we say so ourselves.

 

Now back to the running. The 17th Bramley parkrun was a well attended affair with 135 bodies crossing the finish line. 52 of those participants recorded a personal best while 41 of them matched their highest finish time. While the day was certainly about challenging the ‘I’ and being part of the ‘we’ the later one picked up more attention in the form of the Farsley Flyer family. Since the event several people have expressed an interest to join the FF group to find out what all the fuss is about. Personally, as an observer and volunteer I can vouch that the organisation and thought behind the day played a big factor in this fantastic outcome – well done team FF!

 

Alison Ogle, FF founder and run leader shared her thoughts on a successful takeover;

 

It gave us the opportunity to encourage, support and motivate people to get involved. This week we saw a fantastic number of PB’s and I honestly believe that we made a difference by showing a force of support at the sidelines. We wanted everyone who completed the run to feel a sense of achievement and we hope that our welcome across the finish line did just that.

 

From the feedback I’ve had so far I’m over the moon at the success and the difference that Farsley Flyers continues to make to people’s lives in the local community. I’m excited to continue to build on our success story by looking ahead to supporting more events in future.

 

To fittingly finish on a note of recognition I’d like to add a big thank you to Graham and the rest of the Bramley PR team that inject time and energy into supporting the event every week. The team are always looking for volunteers to chip in, if you are interested please email bramleyhelpers@parkrun.com

 

Want more info on Bramley parkrun? Click here: http://runleeds.co.uk/running-events/bramley-parkrun/

 

Check out the Farsley Flyer run group page here: http://runleeds.co.uk/running-group/farsley-flyers/