Stretford Parkrun is 10 years old this weekend..

It’s the 14th November 2015. Parkrun was well established in Manchester now, and after months of planning, the 1st Stretford parkrun was about to start.

At event 1, we had 381 finishers and 22 volunteers. The first person across the line was Robert Bridges in 16:12. Zoe Gmerek was the 1st woman across in 19:26. And our funnel was about 3 metres long back then. All timekeeping was via stopwatches, we had old fashioned scanners, and a dedicated parkrun laptop for the results. Thank heavens for smart phones.

10 years on, and we regularly have over 650+ attendees. Our final finishing time used to average below 40 minutes – we now have many walkers completing the 5k every week, making sure even more people enjoy time with us on a Saturday morning. We also welcome 30 volunteers per week, some of whom never run, they just love being part of the Stretford parkrun community each Saturday. We welcome up to 10 Duke of Edinburgh students each week too helping them complete their awards.

When we look back at results and pictures, we can see so many of you who’ve been here the full 10 years. It’s amazing to see how important parkrun is in our community. And it’s important to thank Trafford athletics who’ve allowed us permission to use the track and it’s facilities all these years – much as we love our B route, it is quite special starting and finishing on the bouncy new track.

So Saturday 15th November, we’re 10 years old!!

We’ll have cake, we’re arranging a collection for Stretford foodbank, and we look forward to lots of you joining us running, walking and volunteering.

James – Stretford Parkrun.

Eddie – Monday 10th November 2025. (Text and images supplied by James).