Thanks to Jo for her report from the latest parkrun that took place at the weekend. In her own words. Ed
After the heat and sunshine of last Saturday, Autumn was well and truly here! The downturn in the weather, together with all the local and mainland running events happening this weekend, had made us expect a smaller turn out at parkrun, and so we were delighted and amazed when nearly 80 runners lined up at the start; including 10 first timers! Sadly that line-up was missing a lot of our regular junior runners, including Eden, Carla, Kaya and Jacob, due to the first championship event of the season, but it was still a very good and interesting parkrun with a staggering 33 PBs recorded!
Personal bests for first four
The first runners four men across the line all achieved PBs in fact, with the 5th (Paul Littler) only missing out on one by seconds! Our winning man, in his fourth appearance at parkrun and his best run to date, was Will Ambrosini (VM40-44) of the Ryde Harriers in his time of 18:53.
Will was closely followed by Andrew McEwen (VM50-54) of the West Wight Road Runners, in another excellent run, clocking up 19 minutes exactly. Previous winner Alan Rowe (VM45-49) of the IW Road Runners was not far behind, and recorded a PB time of 19:20 to take 3rd place.
Crumplin first lady
Previous parkrun winner – Grace Crumplin (JW15-19) of Havant AC – ran excellently today to finish 9th overall and first lady across the line in a time of 22:25. As with the men – the top three ladies were all close together, with previous winner Karen Lewis (VW45-49) of the Ryde Harriers taking second lady’s place and 10th overall with her new PB time of 22:31, and Lucy Wells (VW40-44) coming third with her new PB time of 22:59!
So many PBs, and a BIG well done to you all. Too many to mention you all, but I know how chuffed a certain Jay Tuck was with his performance, and the Keyte family did very well too! The cooler conditions were obviously nicer to run in than to marshall in, and a very grateful well done and thanks to all the hardy souls who stood in strategic places and draughty gaps to ensure no one got lost! Many thanks also to Joe Norman for some excellent photography!
Eden leads the ladies table
Despite her absence today Eden Crumplin still leads the ladies points table with 2,086, whilst Elsie and Katie Lewis still hold second and third places with 1,601 and 1,450 points respectively.
I know Katie won’t be expecting this as she was absent with Jacob, and thought she’d be out of the top three.
In the men’s points table, Michael David Morris – who very kindly volunteered today – is still leading with 1,905 points, whilst a jubilant Jay Tuck still holds second place with 1,823 and young Jacob Lewis – despite his absence today – stills holds on to his newly acquired third place with 1,484 points.
Men top age-graded table
The best age-graded performance scores today were all achieved by male runners; 77.63% was achieved by our
place man – Andrew McEwen – which pouts him 8th on the overall table, with Graham Maitland (6th place today)
scoring 75.75% and a PB in the process, and Alan Rowe achieving 75.09%. Graham Tuck remains top of the overall table with his excellent score of 85.21% achieved on 14th May.
Since the Isle of Wight parkrun started we have had 307 different runners, representing 38 different athletics or running clubs, running the equivalent of 1,130 parkruns and covering a total distance of 5,650km. My research has discovered that this also just happens to be how long the “Great Wall of China” was during the Ming Dynasty, when it was in its best condition and at its longest! Imagine us all running along there for parkrun!
Our overall female course record holder is still Carla Plowden-Roberts for her time of 20:46 achieved on 27th August, whilst mainlander – John Collier – upset the applecart with his record run of 16:30 just last week!
Volunteers needed
As discussed last week, if you would like to help with any future events, or to order a Santa suit for the special Christmas Eve parkrun, please contact Ray as soon as possible. If you feel inspired to run parkrun, simply download your unique bar-code from the website today and bring it with you the next time to take part – preferably laminated as it will make the scanner’s life easier at the end! The parkrun community is friendly, supportive and always welcoming, and already I can’t wait for next week”¦
Come and join in the fun!
Image: © Used with the kind permission of Ray Scovell
