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Parkrun @ home

Following the announcement last week that all their events would be suspended until the end of April at least, parkrun has been busy working on ways to support their communities around the world.

To help parkrunners and their families affected by social isolation, social distancing and the gaping void in their Saturday morning diaries, parkrun’s communications and health and well-being teams have recently added two new content streams to their YouTube channel.

With ‘North American’, ‘Asia Pacific’ and ‘UK & Europe’ editions produced so far (with live streaming times to match), The Great Big parkrun Quiz, hosted by Vassos Alexander, has already engaged thousands of parkrunners around the world since its launch on 21 March.

There are no prizes for getting the general and locally focused parkrun-related questions right – sample question from Asia Pacific: do runners with the surname Walker or Quick have the fastest average time – but the feeling of satisfaction at being part of a global community pulling together in tough times more than makes up for that.

Your next chance to see how your parkrun knowledge stacks up with that of others from around the world will come at 9am Saturday (4 April) – when else? – when the next Great Big parkrun Quiz: global edition – will be live streamed.

For those of us currently homeschooling, ‘The School of parkrun’ helps parents and carers engage children in subjects like Maths, English, Geography, Art and Science in a different way – through the use of parkrun related facts and ideas.

Maths lesson one, for instance, asks children to determine the distance of all 356 junior parkruns across the world, in miles and kilometres; the English lesson sets children the task of writing their own first timers’ briefing.

When they’ve got their answers, pupils at 'The School of parkrun’ are asked to share their work online – helping to keep even the youngest members of the parkrun community engaged until events resume.

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