Runners take on all five of Sheffield's parkrun courses in one morning

Nearly 30 athletes took a very early morning tour of the city as the Steel City Striders running club ran round all of the city’s parkruns, in the Shefield Parkrun Ultra.
Parkrun ultra 2019: supporters warming up before joining the ultras on their run through Hillsborough ParkParkrun ultra 2019: supporters warming up before joining the ultras on their run through Hillsborough Park
Parkrun ultra 2019: supporters warming up before joining the ultras on their run through Hillsborough Park

Founder Matt Rimmer said: “A few of us first had the idea of bringing all five of Sheffield’s parkruns together three years ago, and it was really good fun.”

They ran round all or part of the Graves, Castle, Concord, Hillsborough and Hallam courses. 

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This year’s ultra started at Graves Park at 4am, with the athletes running each parkrun and the roads between before sweeping in to Endclifffe Park at 8.55am ready for the finale at Hallam - along with nearly 600 fellow parkun devotees.   Matt and fellow ultra runner Professor Steve Haake hope the event will help encourage people to try the less busy city parkruns like Castle and Concord.

Steve said: “Each of the five parkruns in Sheffield has its own unique personality and the Sheffield parks are simply beautiful. My favourite is Castle, with its sculptures, wild flowers, and views; what’s not to like.” Ultra runner Ben Heller, who is also a run director at Sheffield Hallam parkrun, said future events could be even longer. “We’re working with parkrun to set up a possible new city parkrun at Millhouses,” he said.

“Nothing’s decided yet, but if it does go ahead later this year, we’ll be looking at an even earlier start to run at least 35 miles for parkrun ultra 2020.”

Photo by David Bocking.