Parkrun celebrated its birthday today, marking 18 years since Paul Sinton-Hewitt held the inaugural event in Bushy Park, London. In tandem with this milestone, the new ‘parkwalk‘ initiative was launched, and will run throughout October. Although walkers have always been welcomed and encouraged to take part, there are still many people out there under the misapprehension that walking parkrun isn’t an option, with the name being one of the most obvious deterring factors. Hopefully, parkwalk will help dispel this myth, and see more people discovering the joy of heading to their local park for some Saturday morning exercise, be it to run, jog or yes, walk. The new role of parkwalker also comes with snazzy, sky-blue hi-viz vest!
Parkrun propaganda aside, the heavy overnight and early morning rain made for some slippery, squelchy going underfoot. It had thankfully mostly stopped by 9am, meaning many were able to run in glorious autumnal sunshine.
There was the usual spread of Claremonter’s across the Newcastle ‘big 3’ of the Town Moor, Leazes and Jesmond Dene, the latter two yielding course PB’s for Jamie Harding and Mariana Mouzinho respectively. Out on the coast, Dean O’Brien also clocked a course PB at Blyth Links, incredibly impressive considering the gales he would have been battling!
Kim Collings did fantastically to run a PB at Rising Sun, while Nikki Szlovak was back to her old ways, finishing as 1st lady at Carlisle Park. I enjoyed my first visit to Tyne Green in Hexham, despite one wrong turn (apparently I am unable to run and read simple signs/directions simultaneously), running under the trees on a picturesque riverside route, and Rose Hawkswood had a well-deserved break from her volunteer-corralling duties at Leazes, venturing down to Warwick Racecourse in the West Midlands.
Roberto Marzo continued his fine tradition of turning up late with the kids in tow, thereby receiving an official time a good 4 minutes slower than what he actually ran on the Town Moor.
