Editors Comments:
A huge thank you to Chris and Garry who joined us from Preston Park parkrun this week.
Chris has kindly written a super event report for us. Read on below...what a treat!

As a visitor to Singapore I really wanted to experience parkrun here, as I'm a regular at my local Preston park parkrun near Brighton, in the UK. (Editors comment: Chris is a member of the 100 volunteer club and has completed 228 parkruns. Awesome!)

On arrival at East Coast Park, Run Director Karianne and the team of volunteers were very welcoming and friendly. Attendance numbers were up this week, probably due to it being Grand Prix weekend (of the 114 runners today 44 were doing this parkrun for the first time and many of these were visitors).

Before the start, volunteer Martin gathered us round for the first timers welcome talk, which was followed by the safety briefing from RD Karianne before we made our way to the start point for the out and back, flat, 5k run/walk.

Inclusivity and participation, rather than speed, has been a key principle of parkrun since day one. For the month of October, parkrun has introduced a new volunteer role of parkwalker, with the aim of supporting and encouraging more walkers to join parkrun and for walkers to feel part of the parkrun community. My husband Garry, who is definitely not a runner, was able to join in as the volunteer parkwalker today and he really enjoyed it. (Editors comment: Garry was our first official volunteer parkwalker at East Coast Park. Thank you Garry!).

As parkrun depends on volunteers we are always looking for new ones. It's not difficult, is good fun, and gives you a whole new perspective on the wonders of parkrun. There are some roles that you can do as well as run or walk. We'd love other people to volunteer, so please contact us via Email or Facebook to help. (Editors comment: We love our hi-viz heroes! Email us here: eastcoastpark@parkrun.com or leave a comment on our social media page.)

It was great to see 13 people doing their very first parkrun today and 19 people who got PB's....well done to you all.

Once again thanks to East Coast Park parkrun volunteers today who did a great job of welcoming and supporting participants. Special thanks to to this weeks volunteer photographer, who also helped us get to the event! (Editors comments: Photo's will be up soon. A slight interruption due to the Grand Prix!)

Lastly if anyone reading this is doing a parkrun in Sydney next Saturday (Sandon Point) look out for me, as I'll be running with my granddaughters!

Event Report: Chris Archer
Photos: Punam Owens