Easter Saturday’s parkrun at Frenchfield was Penrith’s 397th and saw sunshine and blue skies.
The sun was quite warm after a slightly chilly start to the day, it certainly felt like spring. The views of the Pennines and Lakeland fells from Frenchfield where particularly stunning this morning.
This week saw 289 runners, joggers and walkers tackle the 5km course and 28 volunteers who make the event possible.
Good running conditions saw Harry Lancaster cross the line first as he so often does at Penrith in an impressive time of 16.03. The first lady was Anna McClean in 21.01 on her run at Penrith. There 35 people achieved personal bests and 63 people running at Penrith for the first time. Well done to all.
Many visitors joined the Penrith regulars including participants from Scotland, Essex, Newcastle and Manchester. These included Richard Skillen from Kilmarnock and Alastair Drummond from Glasgow who were taking a pit stop on there way to Manchester to watch the football at Old Trafford.
Sarah Wright who is a regular pacer and is known at Penrith parkrun for her colourful leggings for every occasion, dressed in Easter egg leggings, bunny ears and an Easter headband bringing a sense of fun as well as smiles to many faces.
It was lovely to see Mick Martin who was a regular runner at Penrith till the end of last year return for his first parkrun since November when he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Mick underwent surgery and chemotherapy and has recently received the all clear. Mick said his fitness from running helped his fight with cancer.
This week also saw a couple of milestones. Diane Peacock reached the major milestone of 300 parkruns mostly at Penrith. Also reaching a milestone at the other end of the spectrum was Jodie Cass did her 25th parkrun.
Jodie has caught the running bug since her first parkrun at Penrith in August, she has joined Eden Runners and does Penrith parkrun most weeks. Today Jodie was running with her daughter Abigail. Congratulations to Diane and Jodie.
If you are interested in taking part as a runner, jogger, walker or volunteer Penrith parkrun takes place at Frenchfield every Saturday at 9am. For further details see www.parkrun.org.uk/Penrith
