Thanks to Jo for this week’s report from parkrun. In her own words. Ed
The autumn leaves were blowing with force into the faces of our hardy runners (and volunteers!) on Saturday, and you’ll see from the photos how huddled the helpers and spectators were!
Despite this we had our best turn-out yet of 73 official runners, including several mainland runners to boost our ranks and a total of 18 IW parkrun first-timers (including my brother-in-law from Surrey!). Surprisingly, our first five runners across the line today were all first-timers!
Race Director Ray Scovell was joined by a very happy bunch of volunteers, including my visiting sister-in-Law and regular runners Chris Amy and young Eden Crumplin. Our grateful thanks to these and all the marshalls, timers, scanners and photographers this week; we really couldn’t operate without you all.
Get in touch if you can volunteer
Ray is attempting to plan the parkrun volunteer rota up to a month ahead, and had a white-board at the finish today for people to add their names to.
Unfortunately though the rain made writing on this almost impossible, so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you can help at any event in the next four weeks!
Eastleigh champ tries out IW
We were joined by Eastleigh parkrun’s reigning champion, and IW parkrun first-timer, John Collier (SM20-24) of Westbury Harriers, and it came as little surprise (in Will and Aaron’s absence) when he was first man over the line in a time of 16:49.
We were also joined today by first-timer Tom Newnham (JM15-19) of the IW AC, who is brother of our current champion Will.
Cross-country runner Tom ran excellently and finished second in 17:24.
Top placing for another first-timer
Third place went to another first-timer, Paul Cameron (VM40-44) of the IW Road Runners, in a time of 18:53.
Paul is a top Island runner but has been out of action most of this year with a serious injury; we were all therefore delighted to see him running again, and just know that Paul will be back again to beat his own time soon!
Carla first lady
Our first lady across the line (in 8th place overall) was previous five time winner, Carla Plowden-Roberts ((JW15-19) of IW AC, in 20:50; just seconds off her PB.
It was great to see Carla running this week after she had to drop out due to ill health last week, and she’s obviously back to good form.
Our second lady home (and 12th overall) was Ryde Harrier Mary Norman (VW45-49) in 21:49, with fellow Harrier, and previous winner, Karen Lewis (VW45-49), exactly a minute later. Karen was only seconds off her own PB, achieving 3rd place lady today and 15th place overall.
Special mentions
Special mentions go to Basingstoke parkrun regulars: Chris and Linda Cowell, who were taking part in their first IW parkrun, but their 141st and 92nd parkruns respectively!
It was a windy run, but I hope they still enjoyed our riverside course! Our very own Jacob Lewis was taking part in his 16th parkrun, and achieved a new PB in the process, so I would also like to congratulate him on a fantastic run. Mum, Katie, also got a PB! Another PB came from Trina Harrison, who has done six parkruns now and is improving her PB monthly. Well done to you all.
Scoreboards
Our highest age-graded scoring today of 79.98% was achieved by our 2nd place male, Tom Newnham.
This score also puts Tom in third place on the overall table, just above his brother! Our best graded female today was Mary Norman with 76.62%, which puts her in 9th place on the overall age-graded performance table for IW parkrun. At the top of the board Graham Tuck still reigns with the 85.21% rating he earned at our second event on 14th May.
No change to the positions on the men’s points board this week, as Michael David Morris, Jay Tuck and Kev Fry still hold 1st, 2nd and 3rd places respectively, with 1,614 points, 1,581 points and 1,370 points.
100 points for Eden
In the ladies points table, Eden has gained an instant 100 points for volunteering today, increasing her constantly leading score to 1,987, and Eden is the only IW parkrunner to have taken part in EVERY event since we started on 15th May!
Elsie Lewis still holds second place over her Mum – Katie – with 1,313 and 1,268 points respectively.
We had 17 PBs recorded today, and 9 different clubs were represented. The total number of PBs since our IW parkrun started is now 232, and during these 20 weeks we have had 277 runners – representing a total of 35 different clubs – running the equivalent of 900 parkruns and covering a total distance of 4,500km.
Will Newnham course record holder
The overall male course record holder is still Will Newnham, who finished in 16:35 on 6th August, and the overall female course record holder is Carla Plowden-Roberts for her time of 20:46 achieved on 27th August.
It was great fun, and excellently organised, as usual today, and I really look forward to being back with the “family” next Saturday. Come and join us then!
Jo Randall
