The prize for best Parkrun April Fool goes to...

1st April. It's a day to be on the ball from the get-go. Wake up with a fuzzy head, and you'll be caught out by someone playing an April Fool joke on you. The days when the main threats were our TV current affairs programmes or newspapers are long gone. These days the real danger comes online.

It seems like our friends at Parkrun UK encouraged local Parkruns to have some fun today judging by the sheer number of events playing jokes on unsuspecting runners and walkers today. Surely my fellow amateurs wouldn't be taken in by such sleight of hand.

The bar was set high by Parkrun UK themselves on Twitter who declared, "NEW PARKRUN WORLD RECORD ALERT. Huge congratulations to Ace Celerate who this morning set a new Parkrun world record at Woolacombe Dunes, with a time of nine minutes and 58 seconds     #loveparkrun"

The name Ace Celerate was a bit of a giveaway, as was the location of Woolacombe Dunes. It is a Parkrun almost entirely on a sandy beach, making a world record time virtually impossible. The real clincher was a time under 10 minutes. We don't know Ace's gender, but the fastest ever 5km run was 12 minutes 35 seconds. Running over 20% faster on sand would be quite some feat.

But who won the prize for the best April Fool?

Admirable mentions go to:

• Redcar Parkrun for changing the rules of Parkrun by asking participants not to wear brightly coloured clothes or trainers for fear that they upset the wildlife.
• Bath Skyline Parkrun who informed participants that the National Trust had added 13 additional steps to the course.
• The original Parkrun at Bushy Park offered a treat for any runners who'd injured themselves in training. Why not hop around on one leg to keep it in good condition. They also offered "a special treat for April, refreshments will be served at halfway. Anyone stopping will be entitled to 2 mins off their time."
• Eastville Parkrun tried their best to confuse finishers with, "We've just had news that a recent update to the Parkrun virtual volunteer app has a glitch that's been discovered in testing. This glitch means that barcodes must be presented ndsıpǝ poʍu for scanning at today's Parkrun." Why they just didn't get the volunteers to stand on their heads I'll never know!

But today's winner goes to Southport Parkrun who announced that, "Finish tokens would be handed out randomly and *not* in finish order, so every participant had a chance of coming 1st in their age group or even being 1st finisher." Coming to think of it, this is a great idea and really in the Parkrun spirit.

My own Parkrun fell foul of the unseasonable weather. The team put out a tweet informing us of a waterlogged course. Shame. I was looking forward to getting my exercise fix today. Oh hang on. Was that an April Fool too?