From all directions brightly coloured runners descended on Eaton Park to sprint, jog and walk the Parkrun this morning.

Almost exactly a year after the Norwich event, which is part of a national phenomenon, was started, the man behind the idea was on the start line visiting the event for the first time to run the 5km course.

Paul Sinton-Hewitt started Parkrun in 2004, with just 13 runners in Bushy Park, Teddington when he was injured.

Since then the weekly 5km timed running events have sprung up across the UK.

All the events are run every Saturday of the year and some even boast a special event on both Christmas and New Years Day.

He said: 'So far this one is brilliant. I just look at the smiling faces. You see everybody who is running today will have a smile on their face.'

The Norwich event was started by four Norwich runners.

Richard Polley, who was one of the founders of the Norwich Parkrun, said: 'We all got together and thought it would be a good idea. We launched on August 7 last year.'

'There were 117 people on the first one and the most we've had is 267.'

See Monday's paper for the full story and more pictures.