06/10/2026
Orpington parkrun: 100 000 Not Out!
Run Report: Orpington parkrun #663, 3rd October 2026
parkrun. Thousands of locations around the world. Thousands and thousands of runners and volunteers every Saturday. Individuals coming together, forming a community, getting out in the fresh air and generally feeling better for it!
Orpington parkrun, at Goddington Park, is just one of the many locations, but it’s definitely one of the best. Last Saturday the sun was out, the temperature was perfect, and the course, 2 and a bit laps around Goddington Park, was in excellent condition. It was an audacious day, the 22nd anniversary of the first ever parkrun in Bushy Park, and Run Director Kim Chance and her crack team of 20 volunteers welcomed 222 runners, including 41 first time tourists and 8 fabulous individuals doing their first ever parkrun: we applauded Katie Agmen-Smith, Scott Sevante, Riya Yadav, Hugh Spencer, Carter Willette, Pragna Kasetti, Hannah Taylor and Peter Ou. Thanks too, to all our first time visitors. We hope you enjoyed Orpington parkrun and we will see you again soon!
Anyone’s first parkrun is the most important step, but the toughest repetition of any exercise routine is to keep on turning up. Over the 663 parkruns to date at Orpington, we have welcomed a total of 14419 individual runners, who, between them have managed One Hundred Thousand (and 45) finishes between them! Wow!! And the runner to actually break the 100 000 barrier was Laura Loudon, finishing in 177th place, and a first-time visitor to Orpington. Laura, who has now completed a total of 150 parkruns, we salute you! Thanks for coming and for agreeing to the celebration photographs.
Continuing with the Orpington statistics, over the 663 events and 100045 finishes, there have been 12235 personal bests. Congratulations to all the 38 runners and walkers who achieved personal bests this week at Orpington. Congratulations, also, to local Richard Hawkes, who has now achieved an amazing 560 finishes, with 538 at Orpington; to our oldest runners, Octogenarians James Fitzmaurice and Ian Wilson; and to our youngest runners, Hugh Spencer, Leo Gravell, Riya Yadav, Elsie Wood and Heidi Hill, all aged 10.
On to the run itself. First across the line was local hero Peter Brown, pushed hard to the finish by Matt McCarthy from the Thanet Road Runners, who also achieved the highest age grade this week, with an excellent 78.97%. First female runner was Sophie Roberts, while Philip Ely and Suzanne Tully both achieved their 50 run/walk milestones. Palindromic times were achieved by Saran S (30:03), Sarah Jones (31:13), but best time of all was Alison Gibbons with 44:44. All the volunteers were stars, but particular mention to youngster Peter Ou (JM11-14) who helped with the First Timers Briefing and then completed his first parkrun ever as the Tail Walker, (ablely assisted by Shelia Sherman to meet the over 18 requirement!)
The photographs aimed to show everyone; sorry if I missed anyone. Thanks to all involved: runners, walkers and volunteers; you were all superheroes, regardless of whether you were wearing capes, tabards, tutus or something more traditional!
Bill Hattersley.
