New Year’s Day dawned cloudy, dry and – by the time parkrunners set off at 9am – the temperature was around 3C.
Just a few hours into the start of 2026, an impressive total of 359 people turned up to walk, jog or run round the 5k course at Frenchfield.
Eleven people completed their first ever parkrun – we hope it will be the start of an enjoyable habit!
A further 66 people, while regulars at other parkrun venues, were visiting Penrith for the first time, including nine members of St Radegund RDC in Cambridge.
What’s particularly good about parkrunning at the start of January is that the congratulatory text everyone receives afterwards will have noted that they had completed the course in their fastest time this year!
More impressive were the 11 people who managed to get round the course faster than ever before – what a fantastic start to 2026.
Celebrating milestones were Joan Johannson, who despite being under 10 years old, completed her 10th parkrun; Andrew Readman (50); Simon Thomas and Katherine Austwick both reached their 100th; Steve Connor (200); and Maxine Ransom, who completed her 250th. See what I mean about it becoming a habit?!
I’d particularly like to thank the volunteers who make parkrun possible – people who go out very early to check that the course is safe, others who set up the finishing funnel, scan barcodes at the end, cheer at strategic points around the course, finish timers, the token-giver-outer, token sorter, results processor, run director, pacers, tail walkers who ensure no-one ever finishes last, and probably some I’ve failed to mention. We had 33 volunteers on New Year’s Day.
Whoever you are, whether you want to run or walk round the course or are willing to offer support by volunteering, you can always be assured of a warm welcome at parkrun – even when it is only 3 degrees above freezing!
