‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’ Geoffrey Chaucer - Peckham Rye junior parkrun #100 - 14/09/25

Birthday vibes for Peckham Rye juniors 100th event!

As I approached the start area for Peckham Rye junior parkrun, I was struck with a sense of deja vu. I’d been here before, yesterday in fact, for the Peckham Rye parkrun. Both events start at the same place, but today the gathering participants were mainly a lot shorter 🙂

Peckham Rye junior parkrun is 2k event. Their course is an anti-clockwise two-laper going along the perimeter of the football pitches. With a gentle downward lilt, helping everyone to get ‘going’. There’s a gentle incline on the second half of each lap before coming into the finish funnel close to the start. 

The sun was high in the sky, with a buzz of excitement in the air. Started back in September 2022, this event, which is well supported by parents and local schools, welcomed 186 young people, making today an event PB. With each child accompanied by a parent or guardian, it meant there were a lot of people gathering to celebrate the 100th event. There was cakes, all homemade, some vegan-friendly and one lady had brought a basket full of apples from her garden tree. 

I’d attended Peckham Rye parkrun yesterday, where the first finisher had completed the 5k in 17:08. As today’s tail walker, I was able to see the long line of runners and walkers going round the course with magnificent trees and fauna, the perfect backdrop to this morning's fun. Chaucer wrote ‘Mighty Oaks from small acorns grow’,  and with today’s first junior finishing 2k in 07:37, this indicates a pipeline of fast finishers coming through.  

Peckham Rye parkrun event #527 had 332 finishers. It's an event junior parkrunners can graduate to.

However, this event wasn’t about the fastest, this event was about the fun, with children skipping and high-fiving the many marshals all around the course. Some of the volunteers were children who shared with me what their favourite volunteer roles are and how close they are to their volunteering milestones. It’s wonderful how junior parkruns can provide these opportunities and milestones to children who may not be inclined to run. 

Junior parkrun is a fun, safe space where children of any age can get involved. Photo credit Geoffrey Ochieng.

I’m so pleased to have included completing the junior parkruns in this year’s Southwark Slam, as it broadens my contact with my community. I was wearing my Southwark Slam t-shirt, and some people were surprised to learn about the number of parkruns in Southwark. The seed for some parkrun tourism was well and truly sown. 

Talking of parkrun tourism on the Saturday, I had the pleasure of chatting to Maria, Branka and Holly, known as ‘Three peas in a parkrun’. You can follow their parkrun adventures on Instagram here. They have a lot of fun 🙂 One of their local parkruns is Panshanger, which I’d call a top-tier parkrun with their iconic battle cattle! Parkrun tourism keeps opening up the greatness of Britain in exciting ways.

With Maria, Holly and Branca aka 3 peas in a parkrun. Photo credit Charles Martin.

A huge thank you to today’s Run Director, Mark, who coordinated the event skillfully and a huge thank you to all the other volunteers who made me feel so welcomed. 

Next week I’m off to the oldest parkrun in Southwark, Dulwich parkrun.

Stay safe, happy running or walking, rain or shine.

www.nuhorizons.uk

The order of the final events for the Southwark Slam 2025 are;

Dulwich parkrun - Saturday - 20/09/25

Burgess parkrun - Saturday - 27/09/25 (this will be their anniversary event

Burgess junior parkrun - Sunday - 28/09/25

You can read about how parkrun was created by the founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, a care leaver, in his book ‘One Small Step’ The Definitive Account of how a run become a Global Movement by clicking here