Summer sunshine brings out 45 runners and bumper crop of volunteers

A hot sunny day, with just enough breeze to remind us what a cooling wind would feel like if there'd been one, saw a turnout of 45 runners. The course was pleasingly firm after last night’s storm, not too hard and not too soft, with a few monster holes (dug by who knows what) scattered along the course.

A bumper week for volunteers with a special mention to Candace BOVILL-TAYLOR, who heard the plea for volunteers and stepped up to the position of timekeeper. She said ‘I have 49 runs and I was really excited about getting to 50 when I read the appeal for volunteers. Without volunteers there'd be no parkrun, so I decided volunteering was more important and my fiftieth run could wait’. Ben LE ROUGETEL ably run directed, Jerome MATIL scanned barcodes, Peter GOUGH handed out finish tokens and James SPENDER set up the course. On the basis that ‘many hands make light work’ Riz RAUF, Charlie LE ROUGETEL and Marion BRYDSON closed down the course while Nick MICHAEL and Fraser BRYDSON made a never ending stream of well earned cups of tea. Martin GILLIES took the role of funnel manager, and Kate O’DONOGHUE is run report writer.

Only one person can win outright, but we can all compete against ourselves, which may be what gets some of us out of bed on a Saturday morning. So many congratulations to Franchezka LIBERATO, Dan KNIGHTLEY, Philip CORSER who all achieved personal bests – remarkable achievements in the heat.

Our age graded hero this week is Cliff COLLINS at an age graded 72 percent. Happy 79th Birthday for next week, and keep going at this speed and you’ll be Masters world champion in a few years.

The man with the most parkruns was James MALCOLM, running his 189th parkrun this week, meaning he has run 945 km – which would get him to Berlin if he ran in a straight line instead of in circles round the Scrubs.

In the women’s race, to her surprise, Andrea BROUGHTON was first across the line (her 23rd win in 54 races) – maybe one of our ‘unknown’ runners was female – do remember your barcode. Although taking part matters more than winning – winning is fun too and you won’t get a ‘place’ without a barcode. Franchezka LIBERATO was second and Laetitia TETART was third.

In the men’s race Richard BROOK was first, followed by Alex HARRIS and Paul WOODGATE, with 13 seconds and an ‘unknown’ runner between them.

We were really pleased to welcome Emily SMITH to the parkrun family with her first ever parkrun, and to see Dawn HOPKINS, Si MARTIN, Sonia WORSLEY and Lucy MACKIE at Wormwood Scrubs for the first time, and Azariah FRANCE-WILLIAMS for his second outing. I hope you all enjoyed your run and do come and run with us again. Paul TAYLOR and Lucy MACKIE both have 49 parkruns, so best wishes for the big Five Oh next time.

After the fourth run of the points table year, Andrea BROUGHTON is only one point short of a full house at 399 points. But with 48 runs left to go, everything is to play for. Candace BOVILL-TAYLOR is second with 377 points and Agatha OBIEKWE is third with 294 points.

For the last few years Nick MICHAEL and Riz RAUF have had the men’s points table stitched up. Maybe this year the competition will open up, with Robert FERGUSON currently nudging ahead with 383 points, against Manuel CORRIENTE on 381 points. Nick MICHAEL is in third with 352 points.

The weather looks set to remain fair, so what better way to spend Saturday morning than parkrun. See you there, 9 am sharp!

Kate

Report on Parkrun 212 - June 27