The first half of January has been, as I’m sure you will have noticed, somewhat damp.
It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find that Saturday morning dawned grey but dry for the 264 walkers, joggers and runners who assembled Frenchfield at 9am for their weekly dose of social exercise.
However, what we could only guess, our team of magnificent volunteers already knew – the river at the far end of the course had burst its banks and flooded a good hundred yards of the path. Call off parkrun? Not a bit of it!
The volunteers broke out the plastic flags and rerouted us around the affected area, while still maintain the full 5k distance.
Harry Lancaster, one of Penrith parkrun’s leading figures (often literally), made light work of the heavy underfoot conditions to cross the line in 16:28, with Charlie Kemp finding it all very much to his liking with a personal best of 18:56 in second.
Amara Rose was the first female home in 20:59, with Alice Rea also enjoying the course with a pb of 21:05 close behind. In all today 28 people recorded personal bests – a great effort all things considered.
On days like this the volunteers who make this all happen week in week out really deserve our heartiest thanks – all 26 of them today.
Because of them 28 first timers were able to enjoy Penrith today, and there were also some milestones for several of our regulars: Andrew Walker and Tim Taylor recorded their 50th runs while Paul Saager and Helen Openshaw reached a truly impressive 200 runs each, and, to paraphrase Charlotte Bronte regarding the latter, “Reader, I married her”.
You may not find your life partner at parkrun (or maybe you will), but why not come down and enjoy the friendliest way to start the weekend. With luck you may even stay dry.
