Dark clouds glowering overhead and a fresh breeze greeted the volunteers, parkrunners and supporters at Penrith parkrun on Saturday; very different weather to the heat and sunshine we have become accustomed to over the last few weeks.
Luckily the rain stayed away until we had wrapped up this week’s parkrun at Frenchfield and the fresher temperature made for very pleasant running conditions.
There were 387 participants with runners and walkers coming from Paris, London, Cambridge, Billinge and other places.
Diane and Stuart Brown from Onchan in the Isle of Man arrived in plenty of time for the start.
They told me that their local parkrun is Nobles Park and that they were staying in Dufton. They have notched up about 60 parkruns between them.
Other visitors were Chris McKenna with her younger brothers, Mike and Joe Henesy who were enjoying a family holiday at Center Parcs.
Between them, they have 11 children aged three to 12 years who had been up for three hours already.
The siblings had left their offspring in the capable hands of their grandparents as they escaped for some ‘me’ time doing parkrun. Hope the grandparents survived!
This year is flying by and I was shocked to discover that 5k Your Way was back at parkrun. They turn up on the fourth Saturday of every month and support people impacted by cancer. It only seems like they were here last week but it was great to see them as ever and it is a tremendous movement.
We only had one milestone this week, Ian Cumpstey, a member of our local running club, Eden Runners, has completed 200 parkruns. Well done, Ian!
Parkrun wouldn’t happen without volunteers who give up their time to make sure we get our parkrun fix on a Saturday morning.
One of our regulars is Mike Wicker whose favourite place to marshal is right by the gateway to Frenchfield.
He is also a runner but due to knee injuries couldn’t run every week.
Volunteering means he doesn’t miss out on the social aspect of parkrun (I’m not the only one who suffers from FOMO!) and he can give back to this great organisation.
Paul Wilson is also a regular volunteer but he had an extra job this week. In the absence of our usual volunteer co-ordinator, Paul had valiantly stepped up to upload the vollie roster and results to the website. His big sister, visiting from New Zealand, was there to help him out. Great job, both!
Just before 9am we have a pre-run briefing given by Andrew Richardson. This week he asked us all to clap for several seconds in recognition of local legend, Billy Williams, chairman of Penrith Football Club, who died this week. Our condolences go to his family and friends.
A full list of participants, results and volunteers can be found at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/penrith/results/2026-07-25/
