In general, parkrunners don’t need much encouragement to dress up, so for parkrun to fall bang on Halloween, you can imagine the number of ghouls, witches and… Minions flocking to their nearest event for 9am today.
Shilpa Iyanna was the latest to cross the spectral seas to the Netherlands, turning up at Amsterdam Bos. Returning to the scene of the crime, Roberto Marzo was at Sirenhello in Gallipoli, where he’d run at their inaugural event back in August. Roberto repeated his first place finish, in a time almost a minute quicker, with kids Luca and Elena finishing in 2nd and 3rd to complete a family podium. With only 8 finishers, there can’t be many of our members who’ve run in a smaller parkrun field!
We only had a couple of others venturing outside the North-East this weekend. Chris Jones could be found all the way down on the spooky south coast at Portsmouth Lakeside, while it’s heartening to see Alex Taylor quietly building back up from injury, today running at the supernatural Sale Water near Manchester.
After last week’s Norwegian exploits, Lena Lou picked up her second first-lady finish in a row, floating through the no-less exotic environs of Stanley at Oakey Park. Can she make it a hat-trick next week? Wouldn’t put it past her… Over at the haunted historic house of Ushaw, it was a case of double-couple, toil, but hopefully no trouble, as Tom & Gill, Lucy & Rob ghosted their way around a suitably foggy route, with course PB’s for Tom & Gill. New member Jack Ashley heralded his official Claremont arrival with a fantastic overall PB at Leazes.
Cate and I travelled out into Northumberland to visit Kirkharle Courtyard. Although the Halloween atmosphere was slightly offset by beautiful autumnal sunshine, the volunteers did their best. Enthusiastic costumed marhsals lined the course, with the briefing delivered as a rhyming poem by a giant pumpkin. Cate finished as third lady, and this marked our completion of every north-east parkrun (until the next one inevitably pops up in a few weeks)! Breakfast in the Running Fox next door is to be recommended.
