The King of Burgess pt1- Burgess parkrun #606 - 21/03/26
- aqasanu
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Who is the top dog at each parkrun event? Is it the person who consistently comes first? Is it the person who has the fastest time? Is the person who has volunteered the most? Is it the event’s Event Director? Is it the person who always comes in fancy dress 😀 There is no single criteria for this question. On the Parkrun Race app there is a leaderboard for each event called ‘Diehards’. It looks at the total parkruns done, against total parkruns at that event, to provide a percentage. And today, at the top of the Burgess parkrun diehards leaderboard, completing his 400th parkrun is Alex. Making him a standout candidate for the title of King of Burgess.
With 120 volunteer credits, 94 of them marshalling too, Alex is a permanent feature of the event. He is also a key member of the Uganda Crew Burgess, which was featured in Jessica’s parkrun heroes series, which you can watch by clicking here.
The Uganda Crew takes over the running of Burgess parkrun for the first Saturday in October to celebrate Uganda's Independence. For me and many others, Ugandan Day is up there with the London Marathon as one of the highlights of the running calendar. The Ugandan crew provide all the volunteers for the day. They teach everyone some Swahili along with music, history and food in abundance. We had 942 people participate at Ugandan Day last year. Click here to catch a flavour of what it’s all about.
Whilst Alex was completing his 400th parkrun, I crossed the line with Al-Hanaiya and Emerald, a mother and daughter team completing their first ever parkruns. Al-Hanaiya shared that she heard about it at work and, with her daughter's support, decided to give it a go. It’s always great to hear about people’s first impressions of my home event. There’s also the knowledge of how much more a newbie has to discover about this great activity, which mixes time outdoors with family, friends, and community.
And for those of you who, for whatever reason, can’t make it to an event, you can now play parkrun from home with the Monopoly parkrun! With a gameboard featuring 22 iconic parkrun locations from around the world, it’s the perfect way to get a parkrun fix even if you can’t attend.
This Saturday, I will be in Liverpool as I take on my 5th event in the Magic of Merseyside Challenge.
Happy running, walking, or volunteering.
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 became a Global Movement by clicking here.
Great to hear about Uganda take over!
Brilliantly written.