Thanks to Jo for sharing the report from the latest parkrun that took place on Saturday in Newport. In her own words. Ed
It was another gorgeous, still morning for our weekly jaunt around the parks, and this week we welcomed 89 official finishers (even more at the start line!) to the Medina IW parkrun; including 17 first-timers.
We are thrilled to see that over 500 people have now registered for this event, but hopefully not everyone will want to run at the same time. Because we hit three figures last week, Ray broke out the second scanning device to help ease congestion at the end.
Thanks go to volunteers
Special thanks therefore to Simon R, Simon L, Kirsty and Jay for manning (and womanning!) the scanning table so efficiently and to Nicola, Wallace and Justine at the finishing line.
Our Race Director for the day was Claire Apsey, whilst Ray actually ran some of the course for the first time ever, together with his Grandson – 5 year old Simon Apsey. We had more than 20 volunteers and a BIG thank you to you all. The route was – as a result – very well marshalled which added a lot of support for the runners.
Presentation to juniors
Ray and Claire started Saturday’s event with the long anticipated parkrun t-shirt presentation to all the juniors who have done over 10 parkruns.
The runners who were with us and presented with the new t-shirts were: Mabel and Elsie Lewis, Eden Crumplin, James Perry and Ben Holdsworth. Absent juniors who have earned a t-shirt include Jacob Lewis and Kaya Simpson. Well done to you all, and thank you so much for supporting this wonderful community event.
There were a few regulars missing this week for several reasons; some of the IWAC juniors are away at a cross-country championship, some of our club runners are resting prior to tomorrow’s Gosport Half Marathon, and some I know of are – sadly -poorly or injured.
Injury for Will Newnham
However, we still had a good turnout, and the lead men certainly made an interesting and exciting finish. Although I believe that previous four-time winner Will Newnham (JM 15-19) suffered an injury during Saturday’s run, he ran well from the start and was ahead the entire way round, finishing first (for the 5th time!) in 17:15.
Our second place man – Paul Wells – requested annulment from the results and declined to be scanned because he realised before the finish that he had inadvertently cut a corner and not – therefore – completed the full 5km. Despite the disappointing error, we would just like to say that Paul ran extremely well and we thank him for his honesty and attitude at the end. Hopefully Paul will have another go at our scenic riverside course next week.
Personal best for Pete
So, our official second place is actually previous winner Pete Willmott (VM 40-44) who loped home in his usual effortless style in his new PB time of 18:50, whilst Graham Tuck (VM60-64) – our very own international cross country champ – takes third place with 19:04. Graham’s resounding performance also gave him the highest age graded score of the day, which was 84.09%, and he still holds first place on the table with his 85.21% achieved in May.
Julie first lady
The first lady over the line (and 7th overall) was Julie Murphy (VW35-39) for the second week running.
This week Julie smashed her own PB by finishing in 20:12. Not far behind- again for the second week running! – was previous winner Mary Norman (VW45-49) who – despite stating afterwards that it had not been a good run – finished in 20:53; just 11 seconds slower than her PB, and 8th overall! Mary also scored the second highest age graded score of 79.33%, and remains 4th on the overall table. Yet again another previous winner, and Mary’s fellow club-runner, Karen Lewis (VW45-49) was the third lady across the finishing line (and 15th overall for the second week running) in 22:19.
Special mention for Al and Steve
I wouldn’t normally venture beyond the top three places with my results analysis, but I feel that special mention must be made of Al Rowe and Steve Gratton, who were our official 4th and 5th place finishers.
Both these guys have run consistently well over the last few weeks, and often feature in the top three positions, and they were spectacular to watch this week. Al was on Steve’s heels almost the entire way round, but suddenly sped up – as if fired from a canon – about 100 yards from the finish! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sprint finish like it (even when I was trying to stop Rees beating me last week!), as Al swept into 4th place in style! Fabulous running, chaps, and I hope there’ll be a “grudge match” next week!
25 personal bests
I heard so many finishers complaining of tired legs or saying that it just “didn’t feel right” this week, but despite this 25 PBs were still recorded! Congratulations to each and every one of you.
Young Ben Holdsworth is having a terrific year, and held his own with the top runners today by coming 11th overall and achieving his new PB time, whilst mother and son – Bridget and Jacob Keyte – also did well with a new PB each. A lot of junior runners got a PB too, and there are just too many of you to mention individually, but well done to you all.
I also notice that quite a few runners were not far off PBs today, and one of these was Eden Crumplin. Eden decided to run in her excellent new parkrun t-shirt – which was just a little large for her slender frame – after the presentation, but it must have brought her luck as she was only seconds off her PB, and looked fab all the way round!
I am unaware of any “veteran parkrunners” from the mainland this week, but can tell you that our own regulars – Chris and Brian Amy – are currently in Australia and planning to try out the new parkruns being put on there! We look forward to hearing their experiences and hope to welcome them back to Medina soon.
Top spot for Eden
Eden Crumplin’s smiley run brought her points total up to 2,478, keeping her way above any other parkrunner! The remaining top-3 spots are still being fought over by the Lewis family, and today we see Mabel holding on to 2nd place with 1,823 points, whilst Mum – Katie – earned points for running, and has therefore usurped other daughter Elsie (who is sadly injured and unable to run at the moment) to re-take 3rd place with 1,812 points.
Mike top for men
Our three top scoring men remain unchanged but for the points. Mike Morris remains top-of-the-pops with 2,284, Jay Tuck still holds second with 2,160 and Kev Fry holds third with 1,939. Jay is now the only one of the three with a volunteering allotment (his “joker card”!) of 100 points left to earn, and the rest will be down to the running.
Female course record holder
The female course record holder is still Jackie Perrin – of the Reading Road Runners -with her winning time of 19:19 achieved on 22nd October, whilst Eastleigh runner -John Collier – still holds the men’s course record of 16:30 from his run on 1st October.
Out of this world
Since we began in May the Medina IW parkrun has had 409 different runners, including representatives from 43 different athletics clubs, running the equivalent of 1,690 parkruns and covering a total distance of 8,450. My live-in astronomer informs me that this distance would be like running all the way around the circumference of both Calisto and Io – two of Jupiter’s tiny moons.
I told my live-in astronomer that it was a shame the distance didn’t equate to the circumference of Ganymeade, as I could then make some kind of joke about Dr Who doing parkrun – whereupon he fell about laughing and said I meant “Gallifrey” and that Dr Who does not – in fact – exist. I would just like to respond by saying that this is (of course!) ridiculous, everyone knows Dr Who is real! Next he’ll be telling me there is no such thing as Father Christmas or that Darth Vader was not actually Luke Skywalker’s father afterall.
Future races
Back on planet Earth, don’t forget that places are still available for youngsters in the open cross-country races to be held after parkrun on Saturday 10th December. To recap from last week, the races are open to any juniors in years 3, 4, 5 or 6, and the first race will start at 11am. Entry forms are still available from Ray, and so please let him know as soon as possible if you would like to enter.
Santa parkrun
There is another batch of children’s Santa suits available for the “Santa parkrun” on Christmas Eve, so please let Ray know if you would like one.
Other costumes are not only welcome but encouraged, and there will be prizes, medals and cakes on the day. I would like to propose that if each family group or unit attending the Christmas Eve parkrun could bring a small quantity of cake, biscuits, sweets or nibbles to share out, there will be enough treats to go round if hundreds turn up! This way no single person or family will have to go to a lot of trouble or expense, and it will add to the party atmosphere! Do please let me know what you think about this suggestion.
Remember your barcode
If you are experiencing any problems with your bar-code PLEASE reprint a new one to assist with the post-run scanning, and if you haven’t got a bar-code yet PLEASE get one!
This has turned into an epic report, and I’ll finish by saying that I hope you all enjoyed Saturday’s event as much as I did, and I look forward to catching up with my parkrun “family” next week!
