This Saturday’s parkrun on the last day of August at Frenchfield was Penrith’s 469th.
It saw a beautiful sunny morning with blue skies after a lot of rain earlier in the week and what has been quite a wet summer in Cumbria.
The morning had started a little chilly but had warmed up by 9am. With beautiful if slightly hazy views of the North Pennines and the Lakeland fells it was an absolute pleasure to volunteer this morning.
274 runners, joggers and walkers took part and 33 volunteers made the event possible. Jonny Cox, of Eden Runners, was the first finisher as he has been many times before in 16.49.
Lucinda Peck was the first lady home in 21.16 on her first ever parkrun. There were nine people running their first ever parkrun and 33 people ran personal bests in warm conditions. Well done to all.
The last weekend of the summer holidays saw many visitors joining the Penrith regulars including 51 people doing Penrith parkrun for the first time.
There were participants from Scotland, the Midlands and many other places.
I met Carl and Jo Baron are from Peterborough, are on holiday at Centre Parks and were running Penrith parkrun for the first time.
They are members of Yaxley Runners and are regular parkrunners. They regularly travel and do a parkrun each week wherever they are. They like the friendly community atmosphere and encouragement at parkrun and Jo said taking part in parkruns was the first time on her running journey that she felt like a proper runner.
This week regular tail walker Stephen Kay was accompanied by his nine-year-old granddaughter Jaeh-Rose Kay on her second parkrun.
Barnaby Parker completed the 12 volunteers he needed for his Duke of Edinburgh Award including writing a fabulous report a few weeks ago.
There were several people celebrating milestones this week. Eight-year-old Pippa Lewis who is a regular at Penrith ran her 50th parkrun. Alison Thorburn also a Penrith regular completed her 100th parkrun.
Alison said she would not have been able to reach this milestone without the support and encouragement of regular Penrith pacer Paul Wilson particularly when she first started coming to parkrun. This shows how valuable the role of pacer is at parkrun.
Running buddies Keith Black and Julia King both reached milestones with Keith doing his 250th Parkrun and Julia her 350th. Keith said he enjoys the social aspect of Parkrun and enjoys meeting friends and the exercise.
Julia says parkrun is a great start to the weekend. She likes the opportunity to exercise in a safe environment which is welcoming and friendly and to spend time with other runners. Well done to Pippa, Alison, Keith and Julia.
There was another milestone of a different kind this morning. Linda and Mike Whalley are celebrating there 50th wedding anniversary. Linda runs while Mike supports her from the sidelines. They live in High Wycombe but are originally from Carlisle and got married there.
If you are interested in taking part in Parkrun either as a runner, jogger, walker or volunteer and having a great start to your weekend it takes place at Frenchfield at 9am every Saturday. There are also many other locations both in the UK and abroad.
