The weather forecast for this morning’s parkrun wasn’t looking too promising.
Still, unlike last week, event number 412 at Frenchfield mainly managed to be dry, which meant that 220 runners and walkers supported by 24 volunteers completed the event.
As ever there was the sprinkling of visitors – this week from places as far afield as Edinburgh, Rotherham, Carlisle, Australia and Whitley Bay.
The first to finish this week was John Shanks from Valley Striders AC, coming home with a new personal best of 17.48, swiftly followed by the first woman, Phillipa Williams from Sheffield Running Club in 18.04.
John’s PB was one of 18 set this week so the slightly damp but very little wind conditions clearly suited many.
Looking at the results it’s always interesting to peruse the age ranges and this week in the top 20 finishers we had Toby Davies in the 11-14 age group finishing in an impressive 19.57 and Richard Barker who probably has a little more experience being in the 60-64 age group and he came home in 20.34, clearly shows that parkrun is for all ages.
Amongst those taking part was Karen Bridge, a hugely dedicated and successful runner and triathlete who always impresses with her ability to turn on the speed when needed – as in this event finishing in 21.20 – yet next week she’ll be toeing the line in a 100-mile event!
Karen is very familiar with the run at Penrith with this being her 300th parkrun with 281 of those involving laps of Frenchfield.
Alongside Karen was Ed Noble, completing his 100th run and he very much keeps it local with 99 of those being at Penrith and his other one adventure being Keswick! Like Ed, Katie Bird and Olivia Kidd both completed 100 runs at this event, with Katie having run all hers at Penrith, and like Ed, Olvia has had one adventure – this time to Yarborough.
As we get to the main school holidays Penrith normally gets a significant number of visitors and that can mean that a number of the regular volunteers are also away.
To ensure the smooth running of this event stepping into a different role we had regular volunteer Petrina Cassell taking on the all-important volunteer co-ordinator clipboard, organising the volunteer crew and making sure they knew their roles and responsibilities.
Debbie Thompson, who also ran, this week took on the token sorting task. If you want to run or walk or volunteer then come along, and if you do volunteer we can guarantee a warm welcome some laughs, and very many thanks from those taking part. We also offer tea and coffee and hot chocolate and sometimes cake! Get in touch via the Penrith parkrun social media or website if you want to give it a go.
