Shrewsbury parkrun the third-most popular in Britain as runners pay tribute to friend
Shrewsbury parkrun was the third most popular of the UK events at the weekend as more than 600 participants turned out in dreadful weather.
Many of those at the New Year's Eve run in The Quarry were there to pay tribute to well-known runner Rick Garcia.
Rick, a familiar face in the running circles of Shropshire, died just before Christmas aged 62 after a period of illness.
He was a dedicated supporter and volunteer at the Shrewsbury parkrun and would also pace athletes at events.
A minute's round of applause was held before Saturday's 9am parkrun in his memory.
Despite heavy rain there were 626 people who took part in the 5k event, making it the third best supported parkrun in the UK on Saturday.
The best supported was Bushy Park in Teddington, London, the very first parkrun, founded by Paul Sinton-Hewitt in October 2004. More than 1,000 took part on New Year's Eve.
Southampton was next with 720 runners, followed by Shrewsbury.
Among the participants in The Quarry were dozens of members of Shropshire Shufflers. They and general runners had been encouraged to wear red, white or blue for the event, the colours of the running club, in a tribute to Rick.
Many posted tributes on the event's Facebook page and congratulated the volunteers for turning out in the bad weather. Others said they would not have missed being there to take part in the tribute.
One, Rik Pensa, wrote: "The tribute and minute applause for Rick Garcia was very touching. He was an amazing human being, very kind and always happy to help someone and really fun to be with. He was a brilliant pacer, the best, and he taught me everything I know about pacing."
On January 14, Shrewsbury parkrun will be holding a pacer event in Rick's honour, to mark eight years since he first paced for the run on January 17, 2015.
