Falkirk parkrun: Here's who ran the fastest time ever over the Callendar Park course

The first Falkirk Park Run took place on July 16, 2011 and this Saturday the first person to complete the 5k course will be the 100,000th finisher. They will also be notching up over 500,000km covered by the runners of vastly differing abilities.

People are invited to come along to Callendar Park for the weekly 9.30am start and they can run, jog or walk the course around the scenic parkland.

Since that first day there have been 493 runs with 12,136 people taking part and the runners have set 17,299 person best times. The fastest ever time was just over 15 minutes.

On Saturday 207 people took part with 23 of them first timers. There were 20 different running clubs represented and nine new personal best times were recorded.

Simon Hopkins, who is co-event director along with Ali McLaren, said there are numerous benefits for those participating.

"People can build not only their physical health but their mental health,” he said. “But one of the most important aspects is the chance to form running communities. I’m not originally from Falkirk and used to always run on my own, but since becoming involved with Park Run I now run with lots of friends.”

He added that in reaching the milestone there had been lots of highlights over the past year, including Stuart Paterson being first finisher at both the first and last events of the year.

Some of the regular first finishers included Alison Berwick, Fiona Matheson, Elliot Sedman and John Brogan. Kane Elliott came within two seconds of taking the course record.

Saturday’s event was made possible by 26 volunteers and over the years a total of 1237 individuals have volunteered 10,764 times.

The male record is held by Andrew Douglas who recorded a time of 15:06 on May 12, 2012 (event number 42); the female record is held by Morag Millar who recorded a time of 17:17 on December 25, 2018 (event number 367); and the Age Grade course record is held by Angela Copsion who recorded 100.52 per cent (22:31) on June 9, 2018 (event number 338).