The warm (getting warmer as they ran) sunshine greeted 250 parkrun enthusiasts at Frenchfield as they applauded the wonderful volunteers – Sarah Wright the pick of today for her 100th volunteer – and the visitors from as far afield as Manchester, Sunderland, Newcastle, Burns Farm (Keswick) and Askham Hall.
Sometimes whole groups come to run together – not today though.
Families also come along, so no excuse grandma for ducking out, the children 10 and under will look after you before, during and after the event, and they’ll get you a cup of tea afterwards to boot!
Some come by themselves, like Emily Taylor from Sunderland and Harriet Aitken from Manchester, both at Penrith for the first time.
I asked both about their visit, and their responses demonstrate the beauty of the parkrun experience. Harriet was staying at Askham Hall for two nights, to attend a wedding there, so she wanted to fit in some exercise before the revels of the wedding.
Afterwards she said ” you think it’s flat! But it was quite hard today.” It was her run number 104, with a well-earned time of 30.53.
By complete contrast, Emily was here for run number 2, having started running a month ago! And getting hooked,by her own admission. Why had she come here, from Burns Farm? Well, “it’s my anniversary!”
Hubby must prefer the full English to the full 5k! She was so excited to beat her previous and only time, a PB at 27.28.
So come on, you know you want to…run, jog, walk, push a buggy – it’s a great way to start the day!
