The recent heatwave continued into the weekend, the hottest June day on record in the UK occurring on Friday. Despite the temperature already surpassing 20 degrees at 9am, this didn’t stop a bumper turnout at Leazes, many Claremonters joining to bid farewell to Ailsa and Harry before their move to Edinburgh next week. No doubt our paths will cross again some day!
Despite the sadness of losing more members, there was hope for another potential Claremont star of the future, with Roberto Marzo accompanying young son Luca as he completed the course in under 23 minutes! The heat also didn’t prevent Heather Steel running a now standard swift time at Riverside, finishing as 3rd lady in the process. It did perhaps cause something to melt in the servers at parkrun HQ, leaving some people waiting a little longer than usual to receive a correct result. Everyone affected obviously reacted to the situation in a calm and rational manner.
Despite ‘official’ club tourism taking place next Saturday in Darlington, there were a sizeable number of us spread around the UK this week. We shall attempt to work our way down the country in order (roughly)…
Jonathan Smith became the second Claremonter just this month to head across to Fell Foot in the Lake District. The original York parkrun began its storied history at the racecourse back in 2012, but Luke Woodend was at its younger sibling, the Community Woodland event only starting at the end of January this year. Heading down the M1 towards Sheffield, Aaron Mansell could be found at Hillsborough, a spiritual cousin to Leazes, as Sheffield Wednesday’s famous stadium sits just over the road.
Over the county border into Nottinghamshire, Tom Tinsley & Gill Milne joined the band of merry men and women at the majestic Sherwood Pines, with Lucy Keating slightly further south in the next adjoining shire, at Abbey Park, Leicester. Out west to the Midlands, Rose Hawkswood had a break from her duties at Leazes to run round the somewhat larger body of water of Edgbaston Reservoir. After this relative cluster around middle-England, David Lydall took himself well over 100 miles further south to Netley Abbey near Southampton, almost ending up washed into The Solent and out to sea.
Bringing it back to the North, Scotland in fact, Becky Webster rocked up at an alphabet-chaser’s favourite, Oriam on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Cate and myself, visiting Glasgow for a concert, opted for Ruchill, north of the city centre. Leafy and undulating, with a great view of the city from “tap o the hill” (one of the many encouraging messages chalked on the ground), this charming little parkrun was being visited by both a bride and groom and a 40th birthday entourage, who both had dedications marked on the course for them (see photos)! It was a little muggy, but thankfully a few degrees cooler than the asphyxiating conditions we’d experienced when fleeing Newcastle the day before. The briefing described the course as a whale, the large & small loops on the map resembling the creature and its tail. Thankfully we didn’t push so hard that we ended up blubbering.
Last but not least, Oakey Park in Stanley became the North East’s latest parkrun today, making that five new events in the last 8 months (or six in the last year, Heritage Coastal Path having celebrated its first birthday last week). Ryan Thompson and Sarah Taylor were in attendance with some Full Circle friends, the total number at this inaugural run standing at a not-too-unwieldy 306. No doubt the next couple of weeks will see large influx of interest before numbers start to settle.
