This week Vassos and Louise hear from the inspirational Kirsty Shepherd whose life was turned upside down after being diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease in 2016. She talks about the day she was rushed to hospital after completing a parkrun, how difficult the last two years have been and how parkrun has been central to her recovery. Louise gets her Barry and Bere Islands mixed up and we learn Vassos hates fancy dress.

British comedian Paul Tonkinson joins Louise and Vassos this week to discuss his love of parkrun, his motivation for running and racing a pensioner. Vassos' 12-year old son Matthew pops in to chat about his parkrun experiences and we find out why dogs aren't Louise's favourite animals.

This week Louise and Vassos chat to four-time World Ironman Champion and now parkrun’s Global Head of Health and Wellbeing Chrissie Wellington. She talks about how she got the job, how her role has changed and why she now walks parkrun. Louise chats about racing your parkrun nemesis and the campaign has started to get producer Patrick running on a Saturday morning.

This week, Vassos and Louise are joined by parkrun's head of communications Russ Jefferys to chat about how he got the job, the future of parkrun and who would be his dream running partner. Louise is despatched to Tonbridge parkrun with her new recording app and bumps into Dame Kelly Holmes and Vassos has something to get off his chest.

The man that brought parkrun to Poland and Germany is Louise and Vassos' special guest this week. Jakub Fedorowicz tells them how it all began, why the parkrun in Zary is so popular and what makes the Cieszyn course so unique. Louise shares some of her tourist tales and Vassos learns something new.

This week Vassos and Louise chat to parkrun world record holder Andy Baddeley. They discuss what motivated the Olympian to have a crack at the record, what parkrun means to him and life after competitive running. Vassos gives us an update on his blister and Louise gets hammered on the volunteer debate.

In this, the inaugural Free Weekly Timed podcast, Vassos and Louise speak to Paul Sinton-Hewitt about how it all began, what he’d like to change - and about his own running career. Louise wades into the debate about whether it’s ok for parkrunners never to volunteer. And Vassos admits to committing one of running’s cardinal sins. Two actually.

LINKS

The link to the chrome browser extension is https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/running-challenges/kdapmdimgdebpgolimjnmcdlkbkddoif

As Vassos and Louise make the final preparations ahead of the launch of Free Weekly Timed, we thought we'd get to know the pair and hear what motivated them to start this podcast.