It is always busy down at Frenchfield on a Saturday morning as the invaluable volunteers set up for another Penrith parkrun.
Frenchfield is a fantastic facility for the whole community but unfortunately there are those who do not treat it with the respect it is due and leave mountains of rubbish, empty bottles, plastic tape and sweet wrappers.
Thankfully parkrun really appreciates being able to host our weekly event here, so Petrina Cassell and Dave Evans can be found going round the pitches, picking up the detritus scattered by the footballers.
This shouldn’t be necessary and I appeal to the young footballers, their parents and coaches to TAKE YOUR RUBBISH HOME or put it in a bin.
parkrun is about people and their stories. Among our volunteers today, was 12-year-old Anna Todd, who had come along to marshal and cheer on the 257 runners, joggers and walkers including her family, mum Katy, sister Eleanor and dad, Garry.
Holidaymakers like to visit different parkruns as part of their holiday experience. They come from all over the UK and abroad. There were visitors from Stratford-upon-Avon, Kilmarnock, Harlow, Lancaster, Paisley and beyond. Raj Sorroy was running at Penrith for the first time with his partner Alison Ballantine. Their home parkrun is Tillgate Park in Crawley.
parkrun is often part of a significant celebration and members of Fenwick Striders from Kilmarnock were in the area celebrating the 50th birthday of David Kilpatrick. They were clearly having a good time!
It was also local club, Eden Runners, monthly parkrun Champs competition and lots of members were there in club colours. One Eden Runner, Ross D’Souza had brought along his sister, Jo Maltby, to take on Penrith parkrun for her second time. Ross is coming back from injury and was looking forward to a leisurely run with his sibling – leisurely for Ross being about 27 minutes!
parkrun really is an inclusive event – people come along for different reasons. For some it is the beginning of a journey to better fitness, for others, an opportunity to see where their fitness is or to maintain it. It is also a social occasion and a great opportunity to meet old friends and acquire new ones. If you would like to find out more, Penrith Parkrun can be found at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/ or on Facebook.
For a full list of volunteers, participants and results, please visit https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/results/latestresults/
