On Saturday I opened the 400th Park Run up at the Worcestershire Countryside Park. Nearly 700 runners turned up, of all shapes and sizes – as well as some veterans and plenty of newbies.

We had runners who ran with their dogs, runners running with their children in buggies and also runners who were partially sighted. Congratulations to Cllr Neil Laurenson for doing his fellow councillors proud and coming first in the run!

Anyway I have always hated running with a vengeance – I was always the one that forgot his towel, or was mysteriously sick on cross country days at school! When I was forced to run, I took short cuts and on several occasions, ended up coming in before the best runners or the teachers!!

I decided last year as a resolution to start getting over this dislike of running and challenge myself. So in December I started with treadmill running and slowly but surely I have managed to regularly do a distance of around 10k, six weeks in to my training regime.

I’m yet to make the transition to road or trail running, but today by the time you read this article, I will have hopefully completed my first Park Run!

Park Run is for everyone, including walkers.  There are groups for slower joggers too and pacers are ready to help you, whatever stage or level you are at.  Incredibly all of this is run by volunteers! It is truly a great spectacle – Park Run is one big family and a true representation of community spirit.  Everyone’s welcome and it’s totally free!  Two Park Runs take place in Worcester every week – one at Pitchcroft and one at the Worcestershire Countryside Park.

It’s the small victories along the way that make it worthwhile on the road to your ultimate goal.  I hope that you can also find some inspiration and challenge yourself this year to accomplish something that you may never have thought possible, take up a new hobby, or simply become a better version of yourself.

I hope you have a great weekend and year.