A sunny morning for parkrun across most of the UK today, with several Claremonters taking advantage to impressive effect.
Firstly however, the tourists. An hour ahead in Amsterdam, Ann Smith was finished before anyone else had started. On his annual pilgrimage to Belfast, Chris Jones ticked off another Northern Irish parkrun in the shadow of the Parliament buildings at Stormont. Across the country, I was at the University of Galway. A couple of laps around a meadow, before a picturesque out-and-back along a sun-dappled riverside, returning for a finishing circuit of the meadow once more. An enthusiastic team, it was only their 20th event, and Ireland’s sometimes overlooked multiculturalism was in evidence, with the run director and several of the volunteers hailing from South Africa.
Back in England, Aoífe Monaghan was the only one of our several London Marathoner’s opting to parkrun the day before the big event, running along the Thames Path at Woolwich with Jack Shawcross.
Much success to be had back in the North East. Cate Walker smashed her parkrun PB at Prudhoe while finishing as 3rd lady, a feat matched by Izzy Neatrour at Newbiggin, where Sarah Kerr also finished as 1st lady. Here in Newcastle, there were parkrun PB’s at Leazes and Town Moor, for Dave Roberts and José Gallego Parilla respectively. Lucy Ward joined the podium with an impressive 1st lady place up at Ashington Community Woodland.
In parkrun bloopers this weekend, Paul Robinson ran a little closer to 21 minutes while on 22 min pacer duty at Gateshead, while Lena Lou officially added 4 minutes to her actual time by missing the start at Whitley Bay.
