Another bright, cool, sunny Saturday morning at Frenchfield saw 218 runners and walkers, supported by 26 volunteers enjoy the weekly 5km event.
This week was part of the Eden Runners parkrun Championship so green and blue vests were to the fore and great conditions meant a splendid 24 Personal Bests being achieved right across the field.
Jenny Evans was the first woman round the course in a time of 19.59 with Harry Lancaster being first home overall in 16.44.
The start on Saturday was a little different with the normal cheers for the volunteers, visitors, milestone achievements – and groans at the bad jokes in the run brief from Andrew Richardson – given a musical flavour with the Penrith Town Band attending to spur everyone on.
The band had been asked to attend by regular runner Ali Tunbull who said “To mark World Parkinson’s Day on April 11 I wanted to thank, in one place, the two local groups who have supported me since my Parkinson’s diagnosis nearly three years ago. I normally run the parkrun, nearly at the back, but today I played in the band. Eden Runners and Penrith Town Band have shown me that it’s possible, with Parkinson’s, to carry on doing the things I love doing, with two amazing groups of people. Exercise, music, fresh air and friends are medicine for everybody.”
Ali is a fantastic example of why parkrun is for everyone and as much as the event enjoys those at the front of the field the welcome and support is there for everyone with tailwalkers ensuring no one is last.
This week volunteers Heather Heron and Gary Milnes in that role brought the field home. The sounds of various tunes could be heard right around the route and many taking part were commenting whilst running how much fun it was to have the chance to run to the band music, with Slaidburn provided a wonderful last piece.
Whilst we do celebrate the achievements of the number of runs completed every week, the role of the volunteers is always recognised as parkrun really wouldn’t happen without them, at Penrith, there are a number of volunteers who turn out week after week.
One of those is Harry Patrick – who as a veteran runner notched up 124 parkruns and who nowadays is now concentrating on volunteering, his cheery smile and shouts of encouragement are very much valued by the Penrith parkrun community.
Harry this week reached his 100th volunteer slot which represents a huge commitment to supporting the event.
Having not been so well earlier in the year it is wonderful to have Harry back as part of the team. If you would like to join with Harry or come and walk or run – then as ever the team will be there to welcome you to Frenchfield every Saturday at 9am.
