The sun shone to mean a beautiful but chilly start to the weekend for our parkrunners on this Armistice Day morning, and that seemed to be the case all over the country as we once again got out and about. Last week I said that “we certainly spread ourselves out” as we covered 15 different parkruns. This week we took part at an incredible 20 different venues!
I have counted Anton Mirafsari in the 20, even though he is listed under his first claim club of Jarrow, as Anton made the pilgrimage to the spiritual home of parkrun at Bushy Park. He wasn’t alone as he was joined by 1360 other runners!
Alan Dunning was also down south, at Brockwell Park in south London while Kimberley Metson and Holly Porter were both at Midlands parkruns. Back up north, Luke O’Neill and Nikki Szlovak went to Keswick where the autumn colours looked particularly beautiful, and Nikki finished as 3rd female.
Cate Walker and Jose Gallego were north of the border at Edinburgh and Ganavan Sands respectively. Jose made the podium at Ganavan, which is near Oban, with a 3rd place finish. Both courses, though very different, look like scenic routes; Ganavan describes itself as “Undulating with 2 hills, the first is steep. There is a stunning view of Ben Cruachan.”
Nearer home, congratulations to Izzy Neatrour for being 1st lady at Tyne Green in Hexham and Brian Hegarty and Ann Smith for PBs at Denton Dene and Whitley Bay. Surprisingly, Whitley Bay had the highest turnout of Claremonters with 6 runners beating the 5 who ran at Leazes.
Although no longer a member, Fred Besse emphasised the Claremont links down under by running at Lake Claremont parkrun in Perth. So, can we count this as 21 venues? A possible future parkrun tourism venue? If only!
