This weekend the North East played host to the grandees of parkrun, who were in the region to attend a conference at an airport hotel. Mr Parkrun himself, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, took in the delights of Jesmond Dene (hope you like hills, Paul), while Leazes Park hosted a couple of “parkrun ambassadors” (I didn’t know there were such things!). I guess that there must have been other grandees at other local events too, and, although the region won’t have looked its best on a grey, cold, fairly miserable morning (though, mercifully, ice-free!), I hope they enjoyed sampling some of the wonderful parkruns that we are lucky to have nearby.
Yana Bevan met Paul Sinton-Hewitt and described him as a “lovely man”, though he was some way behind Izzy Neatrour as she was 2nd lady across the line. There were more Claremont volunteers than runners to great the ambassadors at Leazes, though those who ran did us proud. Although not his fastest run, Harry Mawdsley was first home by over a minute, while Alex Taylor nearly made it a sky blue one-two, but was narrowly beaten into 3rd.
There were plenty of course PBs too – for Sophie Ellam at Town Moor, Mark Anderson and Julie Cross at Blyth LInks, and Chris Jones at Denton Dene. Mark’s time saw him finish in 2nd place, with Sarah Kerr, also running at Blyth, finishing 3rd.
South of the Tyne, Antony Darne chose Riverside at Chester-le-Street for his 50th parkrun. Well done!
We had Claremont tourists in England, Scotland and Wales this weekend. Lucy Ward was north of the border at Victoria Park in Glasgow. Tara Hipwood ran in her native Wales, though not at her 2nd parkrun home of Riverfront, instead paying a first time visit to the Penallta Country Park. Niamh Garratt had an outing at one of our regular haunts, Princes Park in Liverpool, with Zoe Jukes running in Sheffield. Further south, Cate Walker and Laurie Johnson can claim a joint prize for tourists of the week for visiting Hampstead Heath in that there London.
