National 330-mile relay run to celebrate parkrun book launch passes through Warwickshire

A relay event that was held to celebrate the launch of a parkrun book passed through Warwickshire this week.

In February an appeal was launched to try and find people in the area to take part in the relay.

The 330-mile relay run started at the Lake District last Friday (March 19) and is due to finish in London today (Thursday March 29).

More than 100 runners living along the route signed up to carry the baton - a copy of the book 'How Parkrun changed our lives' by Eileen Jones.

Millions of people around the world have registered to parkrun, the free weekly timed 5k events of which there are 730 in the UK alone.

On Tuesday (March 23) the book came to Warwick where it stayed overnight ready for the next day's relay.

On Wednesday the book travelled from Warwick to Aylesbury.

The booked arrived and departed from outside Warwick Books in Market Place.

Pippa White, one of the runners for the area, said: "It was lovely to be running alongside other people again - just one at a time at present - but out enjoying the fresh air with a reason.

"This relay has given me hope for the resumption of parkrun, tentatively on June 5."

Eileen, who wrote the book during lockdown, has done 260 parkruns in 104 locations and made friends along the way, many of which taking part in the relay.

“It’s given people something to focus on, to get excited about, while they are missing parkrun,” she said. “Several of the volunteers have said how important it will be to feel part of something bigger again.

"It’s our gesture of thanks to Paul Sinton-Hewitt whose little idea about a time trial in a London park has had such a big impact on all our lives.”

To buy a copy of the book go to: https://gritstonecoop.co.uk/books/how-parkrun-changed-our-lives