Volunteers were out and about early at Frenchfield in Penrith to do a litterpick and set up for parkrun.
The morning was bright but chilly; perfect running conditions. As ever, there were visitors to the area, who like to get in a parkrun.
Debbie and Antony French, from Rotherham, come every year but normally travel on a Saturday so this was the first time they were able to visit Penrith parkrun.
Originally from Rotherham but now living in Chicago, Kim Scott was visiting her brother-in-law, Kevin Scott with whom she had run the Zion Half Marathon in Utah, the previous week. Kim loves coming to Penrith parkrun when she visits and it is definitely flatter than the Zion Half!
Tim Clements and Rowan Townsend from Manchester and staying at Center Parcs, decided to come along to our parkrun for the first time.
People are passionate about parkrun and first timer here at Penrith, Stewart Hamilton from Glasgow has the parkrun logo tattooed on the back of his leg!
Blackburn Road Runners always travel in packs. There had been a bus load of them at Haweswater Half Marathon two weeks ago, and many of them were at Penrith today to encourage one of their own, Christine Warrington, as she achieved her 200th parkrun. Christine brought along cupcakes to celebrate.
Local runner, Aaron Baglee also reached his 200th milestone and celebrated with one of Christine’s cakes.
Another visitor reaching a milestone was Paul Richardson from Clitheroe who came along with a group too, an offshoot from their local parkrun called Parkrunning4CF raising awareness of Cystic Fibrosis. Paul is originally from Stainton and has run at Frenchfield before. He achieved a new PB. Well done, Paul!
Stu Hodgson has another 60 runs to go before he catches up with Paul but as a magician, Stu often works on a Saturday however he does try to fit in a parkrun when he can as he finds parkruns useful for threshold training for marathons. He is currently training for the Chicago marathon in October. He qualified for a ‘Good for Age’ place in the Amsterdam Marathon last November and is a member of Eden Runners.
There is always someone discovering parkrun for the first time and Ruth Combellack came along with her step-daughter, Gillian who walked and ran with her. Ruth really enjoyed it and says she will be back!
For a full list of participants, results and volunteers, please visit https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/results/latestresults/
