In Ireland, 30,673 volunteers lead free, weekly, @parkrunie community events in 102 locations across the country. Sharon Condon is a volunteer with parkrun Tralee. This is her story... #WeAct "parkrun is special in a lot of ways. It’s an informal way of getting both social contact and physical activity every week. You know that, however you’re feeling at home, once you get out, there will be someone that you can chat to, even if you don’t know them very well, and it’s a run, not a race, the only person you’re ever competing with is yourself. I went along the first time in 2017 as part of a ‘5k a Day’ challenge, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a really nice group of people. They are chatty, very encouraging, and it’s fun, you’re on a little bit of a high afterwards. I was quite interested in what the volunteers were doing and how much they seemed to enjoy it so after about a month, I put my name down to try volunteering. Since then, I’ve volunteered over 180 times and I have run 105 times. There are all kinds of roles involved in volunteering for parkrun. I like timekeeping because that’s such an active role - you feel responsible for everyone getting their time and you get to see people’s enjoyment as they cross the line. I’ve done photographer quite a bit, I like getting a good shot, and I enjoy guiding visually impaired runners, which I do at least once a month. There are also roles like being a marshal on the route, you can be a communications person or you can pace, so if you’re able to run at a particular level, you can help other people achieve that time as well. I have a busy life with work and family, so parkrun gives me an opportunity to meet people I might not meet otherwise. It helps put structure on the weekend, whether I’m running or volunteering. It happens whatever the weather. It’s also something we do as a family as well, my kids run and volunteer too. And I can honestly say, if you went there knowing nobody, you would come back with a friend. As they say at parkrun, it was always about the coffee.’’