The Leeton Sport and Recreation Precinct parkrun has its first anniversary on April 23.

However, in the year year since starting, like everything, it has seen interruptions.

Planning to start parkrun was delayed as the group had to get funding to start up, which came from Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network and Leeton Shire Council.

The organisation did not approach any local businesses for assistance and there are no ongoing costs for this free event.

April 23 will mark the 36^th running of the Leeton event.

"Leeton has really taken on parkrun with 400 finishers making up a total of more than 1500 finishes," committee member Andrew Watson said.

"That's 7500 kilometres achieved.

"The average number of participants at each event is 42, which is great considering we have had to deal with COVID in that time.

"So, including volunteers we are averaging around 50 wonderful Leeton community members attending each week."

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More than 100 different volunteers have all helped the events take place.

In Australia there are more than 400 locations with other events, but locally they are also in Griffith and Wagga.

It's non-competitive with no awards or prizes and volunteers are appreciated. In fact no volunteers means no parkrun.

These parkruns are open to everyone, the are free, safe and easy to take part in.

Anyone from walkers or those taking their first steps in running to Olympians are involved in parkrun.

The event is five kilometres in distance every Saturday morning of the year at 7.50am for the run directors brief to start at 8am.

All parkruns are different, there are some on beaches, some on farms, and they are all diverse.

Leeton's parkrun is based on walking paths around the sporting precinct of the Palm Avenue ovals and includes a section around Mark Taylor Oval.

So no roads crossed. No participant is last as a volunteer (tail walker) is there to keep a safe eye on everyone.

"Leeton has had many tourists visiting our course from around Australia so it brings visitors to the town," Watson said.

"Don't forget every Saturday, get exercising by either running, walking, talking or volunteering with others in our community. It's a great start to a Saturday morning and, of course, a coffee afterwards.

"All parkruns of course have people that have achieved the fastest times for the 5km. At the moment Ed Langdon has the male Leeton record at 16:21 minutes,

"Krishna Stanton the women's at 19:06 minutes but there is an age graded score also but that also is held by Stanton now.

"So, please consider getting involved. It's open to any age groups, parkrun has people in strollers to people in their 90s. All our communication is done through our Facebook page, but if you are not on Facebook you can still check in on the page through an internet search."

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