Last Saturday at Frenchfield, Penrith, Eden Runners’ Kerry Grinbergs celebrated her 250th parkrun, writes ALI TURNBULL.
Kerry has come a long way since her first parkrun in September 2014 and just keeps getting better and better.
The previous week, she’d set herself an all-time personal best for the 5km course of 20:52. She says one of the secrets of continuing to improve is the fabulous encouragement she gets from the volunteer marshals on the way round.
“They are fantastic, they always clap and encourage every single participant, whether that’s someone in the front pack, or someone at the back who’s trying parkrun for the very first time. Whatever the weather brings us at Frenchfield, these legends are there – some as early as 7am – to make it possible for us to have such an awesome event.”
One of these ‘legends’ is Dave Evans, who regularly patrols a far corner of the route which can often seem like a very long way from the finish of the two-lap course.
He says: “Kerry always responds to encouragement and her latest PB suggests she is on the point of rewriting all of her best performances. She looks determined as she runs and is a fine example to her fellow club members of how you can improve if you have the right attitude!”
Kerry was taking it easy on Saturday, in preparation for the Carlisle Resolution Run 10k on Sunday, where she sliced more than a minute off her personal best to finish in 42:49.
While only a few can aspire to tip Jonny Cox off his regular first place (17:11 last week) everyone is a winner in parkrun because, as Kerry says: “You’ve beaten everyone who hasn’t got out of bed yet!”
Of the 231 people taking part in this 335th running of the 5km course, 20 set personal bests, and 10 placed in the top 25 per cent for runners their age.
Emma Watson and Simon Knell celebrated their birthdays and 38 people were parkrunning for the first time. The run attracted visitors from Lancaster, Rotherham and Welshpool.
If you’d like to join the fun, either as a runner/walker/shuffler or as a volunteer marshal, you can find out more at www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/.
