As we mentioned last week, Saturday saw the first Isle of Wight parkrun event. Turns out that it’s the first event on an Island for the whole of parkrun. Thanks to Jo Randall for sending VB this write up on the event, in her words – Ed
After a night of thunderstorms and rain, we were all naturally a bit apprehensive as the time approached for our first ever Medina IOW parkrun.
37 runners for the first event
We needn’t have worried though as a great team of volunteers assembled on the school field this cloudy (but thankfully dry) morning – together with irrepressible organiser Ray Scovell- and we were thrilled when 37 brave runners of all ages and abilities turned up to take part, with some hardy supporters in tow!
The event started without a hitch, led by our fantastic bike man Steve, and the rain held off throughout the entire event. At one point the sun even peeked out from the clouds to see what we were up to!
The scenic course, which follows the River Medina in places, held up well despite the soaking it had recently received. We had no wrong turns, and only one incident when a spectator with a dog lead momentarily impeded the progress of the lead runners! Thankfully no harm was done.
Jack Grundy
Congratulations to everyone who took part, especially those who were new to running and the junior runners who gave such amazing performances. It was a tremendous run by our unregistered winner Jack Grundy (who made poor Steve pedal faster and faster!) who actually finished the course in 17:41 mins. Get yourself a barcode, Jack, and you can then keep track of your parkrun times, especially as you are our current unofficial number 1!
Our first lady runner home today was Claire Kiely in an impressive 20:56 mins – well done Claire.
Alan Rowe, “global” parkrun top age-graded performance
Also, we are very proud of runner Alan Rowe, who today made it onto the official “global” parkrun top age-graded performance table after just one run! Well done for putting us on the map, Alan.
As of next week we will be able to detail PBs for everyone and see how runners improve every week, but for this first week the results table gives all the finishing times. As far as we’re concerned you ALL got a Personal Best this time!
Eden – Youngest runner at 11
After the run I caught up with one of the youngest runners at today’s event, 11 year old Eden. She completed both laps in a fantastic 23:49 mins and told me that she enjoyed the experience very much and will definitely do it again.
Eden is a keen junior athlete already, and enjoys runs of all distances. When I asked her if the weather had given her any second thoughts about taking part today she replied that rain wouldn’t have stopped her at all, but she’d have drawn the line at thunder and lightning! What a pro – and a talent well worth watching.
Next Saturday
We are already looking forward to next Saturday’s run – bring it on!
Image: © Used with the kind permission of Ray Scovell
