It was a dry, bright morning down at Frenchfield on Saturday as 391 people gathered to run, jog or walk the 5km parkrun course.
Of these, 76 were new to the Penrith course and nine were doing their first ever parkrun. It was all made possible by the 47 volunteers.
Of the 315 who had taken part at Penrith previously, 48 recorded new personal best times for the course, which takes some doing.
Coincidentally, 48 was also the number of different running clubs that were represented this week.
Everyone is welcome at parkrun and, despite considerable effort being put in by some trying to beat their previous finish times, it isn’t a race so it is fine to go round at a more comfortable pace.
The youngest participant (except those being pushed or carried), must surely have been Thomas Pallister, who was celebrating his fourth birthday by doing his first parkrun with other members of his family.
Milestones this week: Daniel Addis, Chantelle McGarry, Rebecca Newby, Laura McGuinness and Jane Wilkinson Shute all completed their 50th parkrun.
Sally Worral celebrated her 100th, while Paul Wilson completed his 300th and Marcus Smith his 400th. That’s a lot of getting up early on Saturday mornings!
Harry Lancaster who, just six days previously, had run sub-3 hours at the London marathon, was wisely having a day off from running but still turned up to parkrun, offering his services as a marshal out on the course.
I also met Victoria, who was taking part in her first parkrun since knee surgery in January.
Walking with the aid of a stick and having to deal with other health issues, getting round the 5k course was a notable achievement.
She plans to use it as a benchmark against which to measure her progress as she works to regain her fitness and resume competing in triathlons.
For a full list of participants, results and volunteers, visit https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/results/2026-05-02/
