It being my turn to report on event number 394 at Penrith Parkrun, I arrived early at Frenchfield, to find that everything was set up and good to go, thanks to the core group of volunteers who make it all happen.
The enjoyable thing about reporting is the stories you uncover and the first one to come to my notice was a young man, Matthew Geer who was going to be married in Penrith Register Office in the afternoon, but as way to fill time and keep the nerves under control he had come to parkrun with his father, Kevin, his father-in-law and brother-in-law to be, Peter Neal and Andrew Denwood.
Matthew and his father are from Doncaster and Peter from Rotherham. What a way to start such an auspicious day!
Every month, local running club, Eden Runners, have a parkrun Champs day so there were a lot of the familiar green and blue colours milling around as members turn up to try and gain points and positions in this side competition.
It has been noticed and commented upon that there is a lot of competition in the middle of the field among some of the more senior club runners who have clearly never surrendered the competitive spirit!
A very important role at parkrun is that of tail walker, ensuring that no one comes last and today was the turn of Karen Demaine and 11-year-old daughter, Kaitlin from Bowness who were volunteering for the first time.
Karen’s partner, Stu Hodgson, a regular parkrunner, had told her and Kaitlin about his experience and both were looking forward to tail walking instead of running.
A very welcome sight arriving at parkrun was Emma Neilsen, with a box of the fabulous Traybakes Paradise Flapjacks which were leftover from Eden Runners’ Haweswater Half Marathon two weeks ago. These delicious treats were to be handed out to parkrunners at the end.
Among the runners, we had Greg Bradley, a member of Facebook Group Gone Tabbing, a collection of military exercise enthusiasts who run in camouflage kit with packs of different weights. Greg was carrying a pack of about 40lbs and attending different parkruns is part of his training for the London Marathon next month.
As ever, there were important milestones reached by some of the parkrunners including Keian McCombie who celebrated his 14th birthday by running his 200th parkrun with his mum, Anna.
Eden Runner Philip Whitfield achieved his 150th parkrun. Also reaching milestones were Roger Brennand and Jayne Housby who have run 100 parkruns and 50 parkruns respectively, all at Penrith.
It was a busy old day at Frenchfield on Saturday and for a full list of volunteers, runners and results, please visit https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/results/latestresults/
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