Happy New Year!
New year means another double parkrun weekend, and the themes for this weekend seemed to be sore heads and mud.
Starting with Saturday, Ashford parkrun as usual saw the largest contingent of Striders getting in their last run of the year. Andrew Maund, one of our newest members, was the first Strider to finish in 20:49. Jack Farrant sped home to earn himself a personal best of 24:03, well done! First Lady Strider was Hazel Turner with a time of 25:03. Next was David Helme with 28:06, Vicky Stevenson 28:08, Tom Bullen 29:19, Nicola Crawley 29:35, Amanda James 29:41 and rounding out the sub-30 finishers was David Gadsby with 29:46. Andy Found finished in 31:12, closely followed by Don Dewar 31:13, then Richard Coles 31:58, Peter Broom 32:18, Catherine Wall 32:38, Martin Whittingham 33:04 and Jennifer Watts 36:31. Siobhan Hagan and Michelle Bryant ran together and finished in 37:39 and 37:40 respectively. Also running together with their son in his buggy were Rachel Theobald and Kevin York with times of 38:23 and 38:24. Gemma Coulstock, making a return to running, came in with a creditable 39:30, with Lisa Fulcher in 39:31.
Club members volunteering at Ashford parkrun were Dermot Carr, Keith Haynes, Lee Standen, Richard Randle, Simon Jackson and Terry Sellen.
Bushy Park parkrun. Justine and Jason Wearn went to London to run at the spiritual home of parkrun and came in together with a time of 34:29.
Tamsin Ritchie and Paul Baker visited the the undulating course at Canterbury, both finishing in 39:49.
Several Striders made longer journeys to their parkrun of choice. Rachel Tomsett took a trip across to the Isle of Wight to run Medina parkrun and got caught in the rain, finishing in 41:59. Heading to East Anglia, Mark Niles ran King’s Lynn parkrun in 21:20. Julie Nicholson headed up north to complete the seafront parkrun at South Shields in a course PB of 36:38, and Aimee Donohue went to the Emerald Isle to run St Anne’s parkrun in Dublin in 24:37 which was her overall parkrun PB – well done Aimee!
Onto New Year’s Day (Sunday) and lots of club members headed out early on the morning after the night before. Heavy overnight rain meant anything off-road would be wet and muddy.
Justine and Jason Wearn were still in London, and this time went to Richmond parkrun finishing in 34:22 and 34:23 respectively.
Maidstone parkrun was using an alternate course due to flooding but that didn’t mean the runners avoided getting their feet wet. The soggy Striders were Graham Troman who finished in 30:35, Sharon Gardner 35:59, Victoria Shrubsole 36:10 and Sharni Copham with 36:26. Also in Maidstone, two Striders ran the drier but tough course at Mote Park. Rachel Tomsett finished in 33:46 and Lisa Fulcher 34:05.
There were a few runners at Whitstable parkrun not feeling 100% apparently but I hope they all held on to their breakfasts. Hazel Turner was first Strider here with 25:56, Siobhan Hagan 29:19, Michelle Bryant 30:57, Martin Whittingham 31:03 and Lisa Gribbin with 32:41.
The wonderfully named Hoblingwell parkrun in Southeast London was a muddy one and Justin Burden slid round in 29:15. Not too far away was Nicola Crawley who was also getting muddy at Swanley parkrun, finishing in 27,44.
Furthest travelled Strider this week was Amanda Cooper who was taking a break in Germany and ran the hilly but beautiful Aachener Weiher parkrun in Cologne in 29:40
The only race this weekend was the Bewl Bubble run held at Bewl Water Reservoir on New Year’s Day. Danielle Moss completed the hilly and muddy 5k route in 46:23 to earn herself a medal and a glass of fizz – very well done Dani!
It’s wonderful to see lots of Striders getting their year off to a great start, I hope you all have a fun, successful and injury-free 2023.
Report by Lisa Fulcher
