Christmas, a time of year when people traditionally come together with family and loved ones… and increasingly, get a parkrun in before the day really gets going, one of two days a year when UK parkrunners can indulge in their main vice on a day other than Saturday.
There was the usual healthy Claremont attendance at Leazes, both running and volunteering, contributing to a record 457 finishers (a big increase of 84, from the previous record set last Christmas)! There were a few others dotted around the North East, but many were rendezvousing with family and returning to hometowns elsewhere.
Working our way down the country, Gill & Tom were also part of an attendance record at the familiar Millfield in North Yorkshire, encouraging one of their sons to make his first parkrun foray. To the west of the county, Jim Crinnion and Peter Noble were a stones throw from one another in the Leeds area, at Rothwell and Woodhouse Moor respectively, Peter earning a zippy course PB.
Niamh Garratt made a second appearance at Alvaston in Derbyshire, while by contrast, Rose Hawkswood ran at her second-most run venue in Coventry. One county over, Ailsa Ralph debuted at Worcester. Only slightly further south, The Smith’s made a futile attempt to withdraw funds from the now defunct Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society… sorry, made their first visit to Cheltenham parkrun in Gloucestershire (indulge me, it’s Christmas)!
Sonja Fenske was in the capital at Hackney Marshes, but it was a toss-up for ‘furthest south’, between Zoë Jukes in Tidworth, Wiltshire, and Izzy Neatrour in Guildford, Surrey, sitting almost due west/east of each other. Both recorded course PB’s. Our only member parkrunning outside of England was Yana Bevan across the Severn, on her sophomore outing at Pontypool in South Wales.
Staying in County Durham, Cate and I opted to try The Demesnes at Barnard Castle, on only its eleventh event. A pleasantly undulating course run entirely on grassy trails, offering views across the valley and River Tees, the volunteers were incredibly enthusiastic, vigorously encouraging the plethora of Santas, elves, reindeer etc. around the 3 laps of the cross-country route.
parkrun do not collate their usual club report for events on special days, meaning a lot more manual searching for results required, so apologies if anyone is missing!
