Many of us may have had thoughts of getting fit in the new year, only for plans to have been sabotaged by storm following storm.
Saturday was a different story, with a warm breeze and sunshine at Penrith parkrun.
Some of the 300 parkrunners may have even felt a little warm after their exertions.
Unlike Sandringham last week, we may not have had the King observing us at Frenchfield, but we did have our own version of parkrun royalty in the form of all the volunteers who come out whatever the weather to set up the course and marshal.
We also had a couple of notable milestones among the regular attenders.
Diane Peacock, who started her parkruns in 2012 with husband Dave, notched up a marvellous 400, while Peter House, another regular, completed his 300th.
It’s always nice to see new faces in the crowd. Saturday included Gemma Clapham, who was a parkrun first timer, in training for what sounds like a challenging run later in the year with her dad.
Some folk like to take on a different sort of challenge, by becoming parkrun tourists, with the locations being an added incentive. Gary Edge, from Stoke on Trent, told me that this was his 143rd parkrun location, and he would need to make a rapid exit in order to be back in time to see his home football team kick off that afternoon.
Angela Burley, now from Kendal, had brought along her two friends Sarah Morley and Gail Sudbury from Nottingham, to try out our course.
Angela has completed over 500 parkruns herself, and between the three ladies a total of almost 1,200!
You need never worry about coming last at the finish, as that position is taken by our volunteer tailwalkers.
Simon Woodrow was happy to be celebrating his birthday by bringing up the rear.
Some of us can only dream of winning, but in today’s first place was Nicky Cowperthwaite, with a personal best time of 17:48. The first lady home was Coral Mowbray in 19:55. Congratulations to them both.
Parkrun is a free, fun, and friendly weekly 5k community event. Walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate – it’s up to you.
Full results and details of how to enter or volunteer at parkrun can be found at parkrun.org.uk/Penrith/
