WITH some surprise sunshine making the beach look a lot warmer than it felt, Barry Island parkrun was gearing up for its 93rd event.

The temporary start under the Western Shelter was again the gathering point for the 111 runners taking on the challenge of the 5km two lap course, 13 of which were taking part for the first time.

Although not a race, parkrun is timed and beating your previous best time is always an achievement and this week, 19 runners were celebrating a new best time at the end.

Runners are timed using a system that utilises barcodes and every runner that is registered has a personal barcode which allows their time to be allocated to them when the results are processed. If a runner does not have their barcode then they are unable to be allocated a time and appear in the results as unknown runners.

This happened for the first two male runners this week and therefore appear as Unknown while third place finisher Thomas Lowrie remembered his barcode and crossed the line in a time of 20:40

The first of the female finishers this week was White Rock Runner Leanne Hockey completing the course in a time of 23:30, junior runner Harriet Kehl was second in 24:51 and third place for the ladies was Victoria Hassett stopping the clock at 25:19.

For most of the runners, Barry Island parkrun is all about getting to the start line, running the course and checking the results later in the day but for the team of volunteers that give up their time every week it’s a different matter.

There are four run directors at Barry Island and they take it in turns to make sure the run takes place every Saturday.

For them the week starts on a Monday when they set about organising the team of volunteers needed for each run. A call for help is put out amongst the regular volunteers and also on the event Facebook page.

Throughout the week the mailbox is checked and if needed, more volunteer appeals are put out. There is also social media to look after and if necessary any news about the run is posted.

Towards the end of the week the volunteers are organised and put into places on the volunteer roster ready for Saturday morning. As the weekend approaches, there’s stopwatches to check and reset, scanners to be charged and reset.

Every finisher is given a position token and these need to be sorted and placed in numerical order for the upcoming run. All the radios have to be charged and finally, on Friday evening, the volunteers are informed via email of the instructions they need for the following morning.

When Saturday finally arrives, the team are on the promenade early to set out the signs and cones that mark the course for the runners. If there are volunteers that need training for their role then this is done prior to the start.

There is then a briefing for all the new runners, new to parkrun or just new to Barry Island parkrun. The run director briefs all the runners on any safety issues and then it's go.

Once all the runners have completed their run all the equipment is packed away and its off to Marco’s for a coffee a chat and to process all the results.

It doesn’t stop there though, the run director still has to monitor the mailbox for any results queries, check all the equipment made it back in one piece and post the results online.

There’s a lot more to parkrun than the average runner sees and every week it mostly runs smoothly thanks to the brilliant volunteers that come out on a Saturday morning in all weathers to cheer on and clap the runners and to make sure Barry Island parkrun continues to be the fantastic fun and friendly event it has become.

Barry Island parkrun is always on the lookout for volunteers and if you would like to help out then please get in touch via the Facebook page facebook.com/barryislandparkrun or by email at barryislandhelpers@parkrun.com

You don’t even have to be a runner.

Barry Island parkrun is organised and run entirely by volunteers to bring you a weekly free timed 5km run for people of all abilities.