In celebration of parkrun’s return in England this week, Vassos and Helen have decided to add a musical element to the pod, playing out a selection of songs to get everyone in the mood. And COO Tom Williams pops in for a chat to discuss the resumption in England.

With just over a week until parkrun’s resumption in England, we hear from a couple of Bangor parkrunners who have been using the Virtual Volunteer app for the first time after parkrun returned there last month. We also got a lovely email from a couple with the subject - “a parkrun love story”.

This week’s special guest is Mike, who shares his parkrun journey - and it’s a journey that we can all identify with. Vassos is left a little bewildered with Mary’s reaction after he broke the news that Whitstable junior parkrun had been cancelled, and we read out more of your emails.

With parkrun events returning in Northern Ireland, we speak to country manager Matt Shields. He tells us what it was like having parkrun back and how special the day was. We also hear from the inspirational parkrunner Charlotte Proud, who suffers from a debilitating condition that makes exercise very dangerous.

This week’s special guest is Nicola Miller, founder of the charity A Mile in Her Shoes, which encourages women who are at risk of homelessness or affected by related issues to try running as a way of exercising, socialising, lifting confidence and boosting self-esteem.

Russ Jeffries, parkrun’s Head of Communications joins Vassos to reflect on the news that there will be a further delay to parkrun’s return in England. Russ also gives us an honest and frank assessment on how difficult and also how rewarding his job has been over the last few months.

parkrun CEO Nick Pearson joins Vassos to bring us the good news that parkrun in England and Northern Ireland will return on June 26th after they received over 500 permissions from land owners. He praises the work everyone associated with parkrun has done to get to this point.

In this special episode we hear from a group of visually impaired parkrunners and their guides about the challenges they’ve faced in these Covid times of social distancing.

Jack Kelly is our special guest this week. He tells us how parkrun helped process the grief of losing his father and kept him going during those tough times. We hear more of your parkrun tales and continue our new feature “Get on my Land!”.

COO Tom Williams is back on the pod to explain the decision to delay the return of parkrun. He maps out what needs to happen over the coming weeks and why there’s reason to be positive.