It was another suncream-worthy morning in the north-east today. However, we’ll kick off with a report from Cath Robson:
“Another in my occasional series of N E London parkruns…
The intriguingly named Gunpowder parkrun is a two and a bit laps of a country park in the Lee Valley, run on a good tarmac/gravel path. Slightly undulating but with a nice down hill finish, it was pretty exposed to the sun most of the way round although there was some very welcome shade for a short stretch at the far end of the loop.
The route is so clear that there are no route marshals but it is well signed at each junction. Obviously I just needed to follow the 170 people in front of me but the first runner in completed it in a ridiculous-in-that-heat 16 minutes something but even more impressive another parkrunner completed his 500th parkrun and was in the 90 – 94 category!
Practical details – toilets at the start (hurrah!), limited parking and about a mile to walk from the bus stop in Enfield island Village. And the Gunpowder? It’s adjacent to the Royal Gunpowder Mill – tours available…”
Lily Crouzier was also down in the capital, returning to Fulham Palace after her big move down south. Much further west, Tara Hipwood was back at her fourth-most visited parkrun of Riverfront in Newport, running a sizzling course PB. Up and across the other border, Rachel Hurdman was at one of the alphabet-hunters favourites, Vogrie Country Park, south of Edinburgh.
Tourists of the week were obviously Tom Tinsley and Gill Milne, pushing it to the extreme by using a trip to the Shetlands to visit the UK’s most northerly parkrun on Bressay. Read Tom’s expanded account here.
No Town Moor this week, but we had decent numbers at some of the other local events. The PB’s keep tumbling for Lena Lou, whose recent progression was exemplified by an almost 9 minute improvement on her course best at Ashington! Adding to the flurry of course PB’s were Alex Harding at Denton Dene, Lucy Ward at Jesmond Dene, and Dave Roberts at Whitley Bay.
Harry Mawdsley and Mark Anderson both finished 3rd at Leazes and Jesmond Dene respectively, with Julie Cross also taking 1st lady at the former.
I took up on an offer to journey down to Flatts Lane Country Park, south of Middlesbrough. The scorching sun proved quite a contrast from my previous monsoon-tinged visit nearly 2 years ago, thankfully the majority of this beautiful course is run through woodland.
The obscenely steep hill (which has to be conquered twice!) was as tough as I remembered, but the rest of the idyllic route made up for it. Having forgotten my watch, I was running ‘blind’, and was therefore amazed to have just beaten my previous, pre-injury time!
