Gareth Snelson is Mr Milton Keynes parkrun.

But his journey to founding the event is not what you might expect.

Already a keen runner, Gareth stumbled upon parkrun and decided it looked like the perfect thing to get people running together in the new city.

Incredibly, though, he’d never previously taken part in the 5km event.

That didn’t stop him though – although those at parkrun HQ did suggest he tried one out himself before he took a plunge which, until Covid hit, saw hundreds and sometimes thousands of people turn up in MK every Saturday morning to take part.

You can listen to Gareth’s story and all of our Running Tales on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify and on Podbean here.