St Mary's parkrun in Bridport recently celebrated its fourth anniversary with the Mayor of Bridport, Cllr Dave Bolwell, starting the weekly race.

Having first been launched in Bushy Park, Teddington, in 2004, the parkrun phenomenon has really taken off in recent years and is now held in towns and cities across the globe. It is a free, fun and friendly 5k community event held every week, and participants are welcome to run, jog, walk or volunteer and spectate.

Bridport's parkrun is held every Saturday morning, starting at 9am at St Mary's playing field.

About 100 people took part in the fourth anniversary race, including many regular locals as well as those taking part for the first time or who had travelled to the town to join in.

The mayor commented: "I found the whole event very motivating, you can run or walk, bring your dog, one parent was running with their child in a push chair!

"The aim of the event is to encourage people to come together and take exercise, it is the taking part that is important and there were some very fast runners, some not so fast and a few that were quite happy to walk and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.

"The first person back told me he was completing his 50th parkrun and his first was at St Mary's four years ago, so it was a pleasure to award him his number one finisher token.

"To me the whole event seemed to be great fun, lots of motivation and support from the organisers, volunteers and even other runners. Everyone seemed really pleased to be taking part regardless of their ability or where they finished.

"The message is you can take from it what you want but taking part and enjoying yourselves is the main aim."

For further information or to join in, visit https://www.parkrun.org.uk/stmarys