The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A Crowland man celebrated his 80th birthday by running the Parkrun he’s volunteered at for years for the first time.
Tony Harker has volunteered at the Snowden Field Parkrun on 70 occasions, but finally ran it last Saturday on his birthday.
And with two volunteers Simon Eldridge and Fran Carlin celebrating their 100th times of volunteering, to mark the celebrations runners were given tea, coffee and cake on the finishing.
Parkruns are 5k events held on Saturday mornings and have proved hugely popular across the country.
The Crowland run is the only one in South Holland and is held thanks to the volunteers.
A spokesman for he Snowden Field Parkrun said: “Tony has been a running coach and trainer at all levels for many years, and still does athletics coaching, race timekeeping and monitoring at county level.
“He’s always keeping fit by cycling miles and still offers advice to all runners, having helped hundreds of people in his time.
“He’s a veteran of many races across all distances, and in recognition of the many previous marathons he has completed he wore his 1984 London Marathon T-shirt to the Parkrun.
“Also on the day, two of the core team of volunteers, Simon and Fran were each celebrating their 100th time of volunteering so in recognition of all three milestones, all of the runners enjoyed tea, coffee and cakes at the finish line.
“We would like to say congratulations and thank you to Tony, Fran and Simon.”
Like all Parkruns, Snowden Field Parkrun starts at 9am each Saturday, and participants need to be there for 8.50am for the run briefings.
It is all on grass, open to all levels of ability and welcomes those wanting to run or to walk the course – there is a designated Tail Walker out on the course each week.
For more information and to sign up visit www.parkrun.org/snowdenfield
