THE 347th running of Queen Elizabeth Country Park Parkrun on Saturday saw 98 people run, jog and walk the course.

Thirty-one were first timers, five recorded new personal bests and representatives of 27 running clubs took part.

There are many parkrunners who travel round the country collecting the first letter from the parkruns they visit, and since the Queen Elizabeth parkrun is the only Q in England, there were 31 tourists on Saturday from as far away as Belfast, Bristol, Harrow and Canterbury.

Parkrun has also set up a way to recognise the number of events participants have taken part in. The person who reached a milestone this week was Joanne Noott, who has completed 100 parkruns.

The first runner home was Lee Weeks from Denmead Striders, who crossed the line in a time of 20min 31secs.

The first female finisher was Natalie Bosch, a regular participant of Queen Elizabeth Country Park parkrun, who finished in 24th place overall in a time of 26min 46secs.

The first junior runner was another Queen Elizabeth Country Park regular, Joe Lewis, who finished eighth overall in 23min 32secs.

The event was made possible by 13 volunteers who helped out on the day. They were Graham Clarke, Ivor McQuaid, Jane Woodroof, Kevin McTaggart, Dwayne Bartram, Paul Mackenzie, Harry Woodroof, Paul Wainwright, Matthew Hanlon, Carol Carberry, John Roberts, John Cleaver and Alexandra Nightingale.