Whisper it quietly, but it really felt like spring was finally on its way as 251 people set off to run, jog and walk at Penrith parkrun.
There was a bright swath of green and blue vests and shirts as Eden Runners turned up for the monthly parkrun Champs competition
Eden Runners took four of the first five places with Ben Grayson first home in a new PB of 17:13. Andrew Douglas and Peter Walker in third and fourth position also had PBs and James Grinbergs in fifth was only just outside his PB. Another 32 people also recorded a new personal best and 23 other running clubs were represented.
Frenchfield welcomed 38 runners for the first time. Some were completely new to parkrun and others were visiting for the first time. Among the newbies were Julian and Adam Russell who are keen runners from Bampton. They have been meaning to get along to parkrun for some time and picked a perfect day for their first outing.
Parkrun is something that really brings people together and this was epitomised by the Hatfield clan. Two brothers and two sisters had met up, with their families, for the weekend at Center Parcs coming from as far afield as Aberdeenshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Hull and Manchester.
Eight of them chose to kick off their Saturday at parkrun and for one niece it was her very first taste of the parkrun magic. She told me she loved it and would definitely do it again. (Sadly my camera failed to take a photo of the Hatfields.)
Saturday witnessed Jonathan Tombs and Trevor Wilson reach a milestone of 100 parkruns. Both run regularly at Penrith and Jonathan ran with his friend Rob Brown while another friend, Tom provided celebratory muffins and mince pies.
As ever we rely on our volunteers who come early to set things up and stay behind to clear up. Among these is our Duke of Edinburgh volunteer Sienna Parker who was helping out with the barcode scanning this week, and Petrina Cassell who walks the course ahead of the runners clearing up litter and empty water bottles dropped on the field. We would like to send a plea out to the football players, coaches and parents to please put their litter in the bins provided or take it home with them and leave Frenchfield as they find it!
If you would be interested in finding out more about Penrith Parkrun please visit the website at parkrun.org.uk/penrith. A full list of results can be found at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/results/latestresults/
