When I woke up on Saturday morning I wondered, not for the first time, why do I do this on a Saturday morning almost every week?
I volunteer at Penrith parkrun so I usually arrive at Frenchfield around 8am. Usually everything has already been set up by Dave Evans and Andrew Hodgson, but there are a few things that are required and arriving early is helpful.
Often visitors to Penrith arrive in good time and having a few people on hand to chat to them, make them feel welcome and explain the track and facilities helps to keep Penrith’s reputation of being a very friendly parkrun in place.
This week it was my turn to write the post event report, and having a little more time to seek out little nuggets of news is useful.
We are extremely fortunate at Penrith to have a strong regular core of volunteers in particular our volunteer co-ordinator, David Robertson.
He has volunteered 300 times and always ensures that a few days before each event he checks that there are sufficient volunteers already in place to cover all the ‘mandatory’ posts, and if there is a shortfall he puts a call out to encourage people to step forward.
This means that by the time Saturday morning arrives (unless the weather does something unexpected) Penrith parkrun can take place.
On the morning it is not unusual for people to offer their help and David always accepts, is clear about what he would like them to do, and is extremely grateful. Penrith is quite a wiggly course and it is extremely useful to have marshals spread around the course.
As I look around the gathering crowd I notice lots of people wearing T-shirts promoting a lot of good causes, and there was a few orange and blue for MND.
Each year on June 21, the MND Association joins with the wider MND community around the world to mark Global MND Awareness Day – a day to honour everyone affected by motor neurone disease.
The date – June 21, the summer solstice – symbolises light and strength, and the MNDA attempt to ‘shine a light’ on this dreadful disease.
More information can be found at https://www.mndassociation.org/about-us/who-we-are/global-mnd-awareness-day
Helen Tiffen explained to me that this was her first parkrun and she came specifically for the MND Awareness day, and although she regretted doing it on the hottest day of the year, she was wouldn’t have missed it having lost her mum to MND a year ago and wanted to honour her memory, and support others who have been affected by MND.
So as I write this article, am I sorry I had to get out of bed early this morning? Absolutely not, I had a great morning. It was hot and sticky, my run was less than inspiring but its all forgotten because I chatted with wonderful people and have felt uplifted all day.
All results can be found at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/results/510/
A special thank you to all the volunteers, and if you would like to help on a Saturday, including writing the report, please speak to the run director when you come down to Frenchfield.
Congratulations to everyone who were present, you were part of something very special.
