Surprisingly few North East parkruns taken out by Friday’s Storm Eowyn this week, though Leazes was one of the unlucky ones, falling victim to a fallen tree to maintain their unenviable ‘no parkruns in 2025’ streak.
A trio of tourists were doing their thing further afield. The furthest-flung was Zoë Jukes at Brandon Country Park in Cambridgeshire, with Luke Woodend debuting on the west coast at Blackpool, and Alexia O’Rourke returning to Doddington Hall near Lincoln.
There were a number of notable local successes closer to home. Izzy Neatrour and Cate Walker finished as 1st and 2nd woman at Jesmond Dene and Carlisle Park respectively, while Lena Lou continued her recent record-breaking feats, smashing her course PB at the former by almost 2 minutes!
After finishing 19 seconds apart at last week’s Newcastle 10k, Mark Anderson trailed Harry Mawdsley by almost exactly the same margin this week, albeit at different locations. Mark finished 2nd at Prudhoe, taking near enough a full minute off his course PB, while Harry took 3rd at Denton Dene, setting a new overall parkrun PB for the first time in over 2 years.
There were also course PB’s for Chris Jones at Blyth Links, and a steadily returning Mariana Mouzinho at Rising Sun. Durham saw their fastest finishing time since 2012, with an eye-watering 15:00 being set on their ‘Regatta’ course. He was no doubt spurred on by a chasing Anton Mirafsari, who must have graciously eased off towards the end to allow the young lad his moment.
