It was another busy morning at Saturday’s 515th Penrith parkrun with 364 participants and 41 volunteers making up the numbers.
Many will have stories to share. Take 90-year-old Verena Johnston, for example, who completed her 28th parkrun, all of them at Penrith.
Her first one was only last October, a late convert to parkruns! It was one of the regular volunteer pacers, Suzanne Smith, who first invited her to give it a go having seen Verena out and about on jogging sprees around the streets of Penrith.
Not only is she now a seasoned parkrunner but in her heyday she was an elite orienteer representing Great Britain at least five times.
She declined to have her photograph taken but look out for her next time you’re at Penrith parkrun.
Another one with a story to tell was Ross Moughtin running in the 75-79 age category. He was enjoying a reunion with ex-relay team mate, Dave Evans, who is usually a volunteer marshal at Frenchfield’s ‘canal turn’.
Former members of Lancashire’s Waterloo Harriers, they were part of the team that won the 4x400m relay at the Lancashire County Championships.
Ross was also an 800m runner whose best time in that event was 1 min 49 seconds.
Kristy Guneratne and Winston Wannop were visiting from Cambridge and have probably completed more parkruns than most – Kristy 660 and Winston 435. For Kristy this was just a warm-up for the afternoon’s High Wether Howe fell race at Shap!
Another visitor was Katherine Leech who was making a bit of a detour from her Coast to Coast walk to take part.
There were two birthday boys in attendance; Edward Johnson, 17 on Saturday and Tony Lowery who claimed to be 21! Tony was at the first Penrith parkrun in 2014 and is still going strong, though he is presently recovering from an injury. Even so he managed to finish in a creditable time of 26.13.
Landmark runs were completed by Lou Holroyd (50), Damien May (100) and John Collinson (150). Well done all.
Cumbria 5k Your Way were represented as they are on the fourth Saturday of every month. They are a community-based initiative to encourage those living with and beyond cancer.
First male today was Mark Lamb in 16.18 and first female on her first parkrun was Victoria Thompson in 20.57.
parkrun is for anybody and everybody so don’t be put off by mention of elite athletes! Come and give it a go – 9am every Saturday at Frenchfield.
For the full results and to find out more visit the website www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith, the Facebook page or email penrith@parkrun.com
