Thanks to Jo for the regular weekly report from parkrun. In her own words. Ed
There was a much welcome breeze on this muggy and overcast parkrun morning, and the rain held off until the event had finished and been packed away, ideal running conditions all round!
This week I am writing from a runner’s point of view as I was one of the 56 runners taking part today – 20 of which were first-timers like me!
The atmosphere was friendly and exciting as usual, but I was particularly struck by the almost “family” feeling our lovely Isle of Wight group generates.
It was also nice to chat beforehand to runners from the mainland, and hear accounts of other parkruns, and to soak up the whole camaraderie of the event as we assembled at the start line.
Great band of volunteers
The race director today, for the last time this month, was our wonderful Ray Scovell, and we had an excellent band of volunteers (thank you all because you enabled me to run this week!) including previous runners Paul Littler, Kaya Simpson and Chris Amy.
The support you all gave the runners was much appreciated, and it all felt very well organised.
Change to structure trialled
This week Ray tried out pace-setter runners to give more structure to the event, and I personally found this a very useful way of monitoring and managing my own speed.
Many thanks to all the runners who put allowed themselves to be used as pace-setters, and especially to Glynn Jenkins – my 31 minute pacer – who kept me going all the way round and even encouraged me to race past him to the finish to get a better time than I anticipated. You are a star, Glynn! You all did exceptionally well, with most of the pace-setters even staying within just seconds of their nominated times, and I highly recommend this feature for future runs.
I didn’t even get lost on the course (having never been all the way round myself), despite Ray’s excellent – and hilarious – description of the route as being “through there, round there and along there and then back” as he waved his hand in a vague south-westerly direction!
Another win for Will
Our winner this week, for the second week running and only his second ever parkrun, was Will Newnham (JM15-19), of the Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, in a new PB of 16:35.
In second place was IW parkrun first-timer, and Southampton AC member, David Blackman (VM40-44) in 17:53, with parkrun regular (and previous winner) Alan Rowe (VM45-49) of the IW Road Runners in third place with 19:54.
11th win for Eden
Our “Queen of Parkrun” – Eden Crumplin (JW14) retains her crown having achieved her 11th win in a row with a time of 23:23 today.
Eden has run all 14 Isle of Wight parkruns to date, and is a joy to watch and very supportive to other runners too. In close second place was IW Road Runner Carla Paonessa (VW40-44), in her first ever parkrun, with a very worthy time of 23:41, and our third place lady was Ann Crawshaw (VW40-44) of Regency Runners in 24:31.
This was Ann’s first go at the IW parkrun, and only her 6th parkrun to date, and I hope she enjoyed our riverside course and will join us again sometime.
Good scores for winners
Once again, our first and second place men today both earned good scores on the age graded performance table; Will Newnham was graded at 79.50% (a slight increase on last week’s score) and David Blackman scored 78.66%. Scoring 74.08% today was Ian Jolliffe of the West Wight Road Runners, who was taking part in his 3rd parkrun.
Leading the board overall though is still Graham TUCK with his impressive grading of 85.21% from our second event on 14th May.
Leaderboard
In the male points table, Jay Tuck is still leading with an excellent 1,163 points, and Alan Rowe has become the 4th IW parkrunner to reach his first millennium, and stays in second place with 1,087points.
Michael David Morris of Serpentine RC is now third with 1,045 points, although I suspect S Lewis (who was previously third) has yet to have points added as he ran a different course this week!
Eden leading the way
In the female points table, Eden Crumplin is still way ahead with her incredible 1,396 points, with Katie Patricia Lewis still second with an unchanged 1,010 points and – at the time of writing – Cheryl Frampton is back in third place with 965 points.
However, the Lewis family all took part in a mainland parkrun today and may yet have points to be added to their scores, so it may be that Katie’s points leap up over the next few days, and Elsie may yet return to third place once the results of their latest parkrun are downloaded.
Eight new PBs
Saturday saw eight new personal bests, which brings the total number of PBs since the Medina IW parkrun started to 136.
During these 14 weeks we have seen 188 different runners – representing a total of 23 different clubs – running the equivalent of 524 parkruns and covering a total distance of 2,620 kms!
The overall male course record holder is Will Newnham after his phenomenal 16:35 time today, and the overall female course record holder is still Claire Kiely, who achieved 20:56 at our very first event on 7th May.
Join the Facebook group
Don’t forget you can keep up with all the latest news, and join in group discussions, by following the parkrun medina home page, or by joining our “medina parkrun” group on Facebook.
If you want to volunteer to help at one of the events, simply phone Ray or Elaine or go to the “volunteer” tab on the Medina IW parkrun website, and let us know on which date you will be able to help.
We are still in need of people to help set up and run the event in dates throughout August whilst Ray is on holiday. If you think you can help do please let us know in good time. Many thanks to all the stalwart volunteers who have made IW parkrun possible so far, and to the runners who turn out in all weathers to make the event so varied, interesting and enjoyable.
Remember your bar-code
Sadly, we once again had a problem with runners with NO BAR-CODES finishing this week, despite being asked at the start not to cross the official finishing line without one.
We really cannot stress enough how much extra work and confusion this causes the organisers, and the knock-on effect it has with registered runners’ times and positions. The organisers are all unpaid volunteers who give their time every Saturday to organise the event.
They do not want to have to spend all morning after parkrun trying to reconcile times and positions to get the results table correct, and have requested that I make the following plea: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE YOUR BAR-CODE ON YOU – PLEASE DO NOT PASS THROUGH THE FINISHING TUNNEL.
Registering for a bar-code is free, quick and simple – just go to the “new runner” section of the webpage and follow the instructions. Print out the sheet of bar-codes you are issued with; laminate them or put them in clear plastic wallets, and put one in your car, one in your running shoes and one in your favourite jacket pocket; anywhere to ensure that you will always have one to hand at parkrun!
As I have said before, the event is already arranged for your safety, ease and enjoyment – the only thing the organisers ask in return is that you all remember to bring your bar-code along”¦ Simples!
I very much enjoyed the personal challenge of running Saturday, and look forward to the next one as always.
See you again soon!
Jo Randall
Image: © Used with the kind permission of Ray Scovell
