Story by Rory Poulter

The parks, paths and riverside will echo to the feet of thousands this weekend for the annual Runfest.

The celebration of running and fitness consists of six different distanced events, with 10,000 runners, a music stage, food and a fitness expo.

The event attracts elite athletes, beginners, including children, and seasoned marathoners, such as Gina Little, aged 77, from Greenwich, who aims to complete here 600th marathon.

The focus of the events will be the beautiful settings of Kew Gardens and Old Deer Park.

The Saturday events include the Richmond AIR 10K, which offers runners an amazing performance enhancing musical tour guide, completely within the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Also on Saturday is the WWF kids mile races for over 1,000 kids at Old Deer Park, which is followed by a fun Visit Cayman Islands Sundown 5K run and after-party.

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The party will feature with live Caribbean themed music from Cayman Islands alongside the Richmond Food & Fitness Expo.

Katherine Ellis will perform her massive hits with the Freemasons, the Ruff Driverz, while DJs will be playing some of the best music from the 90s and naughties and beyond!

During the day, there will be performance from young bands of The Basement Door and Cayman Island singer King!

Both the Richmond Marathon and Richmond Half Marathon will start inside the beautiful Kew Gardens on Sunday.

The marathon course involves running along the Thames through Richmond, Twickenham, Teddington and Kingston to Hampton Court before circling back to finish in Old Deer Park.

Old Deer Park will also be hosting a Family Mile event on Sunday.

The annual event, which has been operating for some 10 years, is understood to have raised over £4 million through sponsorships for the many participants.

It is run by a team of four, led by Tom and Jade Bedford, who operate out of an office in Teddington.