Winchester parkrun

The team at Public Health - Hampshire County Council is raising awareness of World Su***de Prevention Day and encouraging conversations about mental wellbeing.

Staying connected, being active, and looking out for one another can make a real difference, creating communities where people feel able to talk, seek support, and know that they’re not alone.

Representatives from the Solent Mind team will be attending Wi******er parkrun this Saturday 5th September.

They’ll be available to share information about local wellbeing and mental health support, and are encouraging participants to wear yellow or orange, the colours associated with World Su***de Prevention Day.

***dePreventionDay ***dePrevention

This coming Thursday, 3rd September, at 7pm, The Nation’s 5K is coming to Wi******er!

"What's it all about?

Esmée Gummer is running the length of the UK over 99 days, covering 5,000km and hosting 77 free community 5ks along the way, all to help get 1 million people moving for charity."

If you'd like to join Esmée in the run, bring along a friend who's never run 5k before, or to help encourage others in their first 5k, you can sign up and find out more here:

Realbuzz - The Nation's 5k Esmée Gummer realbuzz ambassador, The Nation’s 5K challenge aims to get one million people to complete a 5K, whether running, jogging, or walking.

Well that felt like a bit of a change! Apparently that water falling from the sky is called rain 🌧️🤣!! We think it must be the first wet Saturday parkrun we've had since the pavilion opened in the spring!
So well done to the nearly 400 brave souls who were not daunted by the unfamiliar weather (and may have actually enjoyed it 😉) and ran/jogged/walked 🏃🏼‍♀️🏃🏽‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️ round this morning. Results emails should be winging their way to you now.
And as ever a massive thank you to all of our amazing volunteers, many of whom are out there for over two hours and sometimes have to improvise a little in the rain (plastic bags over phones for timekeepers so that we don't log a time for every raindrop, etc). A special shout-out for Alison doing her 100th volunteer as tailwalker 🎉👏🏼.

A reminder that we (and Wi******er junior parkrun) are cancelled this weekend due to a festival in the park. We'll be back next weekend for the bank holiday weekend - see you then!

In the mean time, here's a run report for last week from visitor Rebecca Lonergan - thank you Rebecca 🙂🙏🏼!!
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/winchester/news/2026/08/21/winchester-parkrun-581-run-report/

Some news about loos... first the bad news, then the good!

Of late, we've had many people asking about access to the toilets in the River Park Pavilion. We've explained that in order to use them we'd have to pay to hire the space, which parkrun guidelines don't allow us to do.

And actually, it's now not an option as the space has been hired for a Runners' Pilates class pre-parkrun (ideal as a warm-up, but obviously it means that we can't get in there).

However, the good news is that Wi******er City Football Club reached out to us as part of the sporting community to see if they could help.

We're absolutely delighted to say that from September 5th, they are opening their facilities to us from 8am so that we can use them before and after parkrun during the football season.

On both a Saturday (5k) and a Sunday (Juniors), we'll not only have access to the outside toilet block... but also refreshments!

Cold drinks, tea, proper coffee and other hot drinks... snacks, sweets, crisps and ice-cream. Plus, if it's raining (which at the moment would be lovely), we can shelter in the stands.

Access is just a short walk from the field where we finish, past the Rugby Club and then up the steps on the left.

We are incredibly grateful to Charlotte, John and everyone at the Football Club for this trial run... hopefully we'll make it worth their while to open all year round.

Come on !

Well done to the 490 of you who ran/jogged/walked round in this morning's warm and dusty conditions! Results have been processed and should be through to you soon. We had a few duck in or out of the funnel so apologies if your time or position looks a little different - hopefully we've got them all close enough. Thanks as ever to our amazing volunteers who make it all possible 🙏🏼.

And it became clear that the parkrun servers that provide the barcodes for the app etc were struggling this morning. So it's a good reminder that wristbands or paper barcodes are still good, or put it on your smart watch if you have one. Or even just screenshot it on your phone so it's always there? Thanks!

What a lovely morning for a parkrun - well done to all 492 participants today. Special congratulations to all those reaching milestones- 50 for Francesco and Guy, 100 for Joe and 500 for Richard. Our VI guide David supported Kate round the course for his 350 volunteer credit. Kate competes internationally as a sailor and has taken on the challenge of running 5k three times a week in August to fundraise fo her team's new boat. For details of the challenge and to support Kate visit : https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/team-adventure. Have a great week and see you for parkrun again next week 😀

V arious roles are still
O n offer this weekend
L ike Managing the busy
U of the Funnel, Marshalling,
N umber Checking and Finish
T okens… or run, then help with
E vent Closedown or Scanning!
E mail offers of help will be gratefully
R eceived by this week’s Co-ordinator
S heila at: [email protected]

Wi******er parkrun is cancelled this weekend (1st August) due to another event in the park.
Wi******er junior parkrun is also cancelled on Sunday.
We'll be back next weekend (8th August) - hope to see you all then!

A huge thank you to Rick Burt for today's run report. Seems like we had a pretty special visitor from Down Under who clocked an amazing new age category record 🏆⏱️!!
Read Rick's full report for all the details: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/winchester/news/2026/07/25/winchester-parkrun-579-run-report/