This week saw the return to our shores of a former Claremont and parkrun stalwart in Sumanth Nayak, over on holiday from his home in California. As well as being Claremont’s Membership Secretary, Sumanth was the driving force behind the creation of Leazes parkrun. Disappointed as he was that there was no run at Leazes this weekend, he decided to run at Gateshead, where he had been one of the run directors prior to setting up Leazes. Twelve sky blues joined him to run up and down Saltwell Park’s hills, with Dave Manners making it 13 as he handed out tokens. Fittingly, he was the first of us to cross the line (I kept up with him until about halfway!). It was also his 400th parkrun, so it made for a joyous occasion as he met up with parkrun friends past and present.
Across the river, Peter Noble ran Town Moor parkrun as part of running 42K (ie a marathon) to celebrate his 42nd birthday, thus proving that you don’t have to be mad to be a runner, but it helps!
Claremont PBs this week belonged exclusively to our female runners – so a big well done to Claire Taylor in Barnard Castle, and Lena Lou and Niamh Garratt at Blyth.
We had runners in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and spread ourselves even further afield to Finland and Italy. Ann Smith ran around a lake in Helsinki, on what looks to be a very nice course.
Meanwhile, our three runners in Italy provided us with three podium finishes. Jack Shawcross and Aoife Monaghan ran around the old city walls in the beautiful Tuscan town of Lucca, where Aoife was 1st lady and Jack finished 3rd overall. Further south, on the coast of Puglia, Roberto Marzo took part in the first ever Sirenhello parkrun – and duly won it. Mind you, there were only 11 competitors!
Clare Jeffray was our only ‘British’ podium place – Clare was 2nd female at Cotsford Fields.
