A week of greyness (but thankfully little rain) that saw temperatures drop somewhat, spilled over into Saturday in the North East. Overcast, cool and with little wind, perfect for running.
We had another glut of PB’s to savour, too. After breaking his course PB at Riverside for the first time in ages last week, Antony Darne casually did it again, shaving off another 4 seconds. Aoífe Monaghan followed suit at Blyth Links, but the big action was at Town Moor.
Olga Smith continued her upward trajectory, beating her parkrun PB for the 7th time in her 11 parkruns to date! Lena Lou also beat her parkrun PB from March by over 40 seconds, on her first run on the moor for 2 years. Lena will claim a first ever sub-24 time, though the deep and congested starts typical of Town Moor have left her a few seconds over officially (in Strava we trust). Joining the party, Yana Bevan ‘only’ managed a course PB, but would no doubt have been chuffed with her second-fastest ever parkrun.
On the podium this week, Harry Mawdsley racked up his 12th ‘parkwin’ of 2025 at Jesmond Dene, while Catherine Young was 1st lady for the 14th time at Fulwell Quarry alone. Sarah Kerr was 2nd lady at Blyth Links, running her 3rd fastest time of the year, all three of them having come at that same venue. Blyth is highly recommended for PB attempts (just check the wind speed beforehand…)
Our one proper tourist this week took it seriously, with Chris Jones rocking up in Berlin. To put the UK’s parkrun-fever in perspective, Berlin, a city with a population of around 4 million, finally started its second parkrun in March this year. Chris was at the original, Hasenheide, which is heading for its 8th birthday in January.
After our trip to Easington last week, Cate and I headed up the coast in the other direction. This was my second time doing Druridge Bay parkrun, the last time being 2 years ago, but I’d been in the fields adjacent to the parkrun course just six days ago for cross-country. Thankfully this occasion wasn’t overshadowed by injurious incident, and Cate thoroughly enjoyed her first ever visit to the country park, trotting around Ladyburn Lake.
I was happy that the mud and puddles from my previous attempt were absent, and of note was the woman who passed me on the second lap, finishing 10 seconds ahead with a whopping 103.13% age-grading in the 65-69 age category, reminiscent of our own Joyce Archibold!
