Saturday 28th January 2023 and Victoria Park was a sea of red with the Ashford Striders Ashford parkrun takeover. What a special event for our takeover as it was also Ashford’s 400th event since beginning at the park in October 2013!
Striders provided all the marshals and volunteers for Saturday’s event, even providing pacers for a variety of times and supplying all important cake to the wonderful runners and walkers.
Ashford parkrun
Alongside all the cheers, claps and encouragement on the side lines by the Striders, we also had some impressive runs from members. Maybe the in-house competition of closest pacer to their time wins extra cake helped.
First through the finish for Striders was Andrew Maund with an incredibly speedy time of 20.34. Next through was our 1st pacer of the morning, Adam Booth coming in at 21.35 (pacing 22mins). Jack Farrant continued his PB streak going from strength to strength with a new PB time of 23.01, well done Jack and Mark Niles (pacing 24mins) finished in 23.46. Hot on the heels of our 25mins pacer was Keith Haynes with a finish time of 24.57 and first lady home was Hazel Turner finishing in 24.58, being only 2 seconds off her pacing time (25mins). Justin Burden came in at 25.31, Ian McCutcheon in 25.37 (pacing 26mins), Disco Dave Helme in 26.35 (pacing 27min) and Jason Brice in 27.32. Our 28mins pacer, Darren Laker finished in 28.08, Scott Hawkins achieved a time of 28.42 and our 29min pacers Mandy Cooper and Claire Green crossed the finish line only 1 second apart with times of 28.48 and 28.49 respectively. Michelle Bryant was next through the finish tunnel at 28.58, Dave Winchester (who decided he would rather give his daughter a great time at parkrun by accidentally using her barcode) and Kevan Strand remained side by side all route and crossed together with a time of 29.02. Rachel Tomsett got a time of 29.18 then Andy Found and Vicky Stevenson (both pacing 30mins) came home with the exact same finish time of 29.32, what a great pacing pair! Achieving a fabulous sub 30 PB was Rachel Misson finishing in 29.42. Great running!
Next finishing was Catherine Wall in 30.27 followed by Jason Sanders (31.10), Lee Standen (31.16) and Adam Thomas and Kay Hunt (both finishing in 31.34). We then had our 32mins pacers Siobhan Hagan finishing in 31.50 and winning the title of closest pacer to their time was Jason Kennedy finishing in 32mins on the dot!!! Impressive pacing Jason, hope you picked up a 2nd cupcake! Rita Cooke crossed the line in 32.08, Sally Davidson-Daniel secured a PB with her time of 32.49, brilliant running, Lisa Fulcher got a time of 33.32 (pacing 34mins) and also bagging herself a PB was Delia Millen with her time of 34.35, well done. Angela Craffey came through the finish tunnel in 34.57 and then at her first Ashford parkrun achieving a time of 35.03 was Melissa Dawkins, what a great morning to try out your first Ashford parkrun. Michelle Brice got a time of 35.03, pacing 36mins were Victoria Shrubsole and Sharni Copham achieving close times of 35.46 and 35.47 respectively and the final Striders PB of the morning was achieved by new member Ash Robinson with a time of 36.25, well done and welcome to the club! Claire Hall-Dawson came so close to her pacing time of 38mins with 38.03, Joanna Whitehead finished in 42.19, Rick Newman in 42.35 and Jo Mason as guide runner finished with a time of 42.35. Closing the striders pack was Lisa Gribbin whom was the morning’s tailwalker and ended the parkrun in 55.32.
Phew, well done everyone for some great running and huge congratulations to all the pacers who really put in the efforts to get runners home as close to their time as possible.
Thank you to all the Strider volunteers that braved the cold Winters morning setting up, marshalling, handing out leaflets, scanning, timekeeping and manning the cakes, there’s so many of you to mention individually but you know who you are and your time was very much appreciated by all.
Finally, thank you to all involved at the club for helping to make Ashford Striders first parkrun takeover of the year a successful and fun one. Here’s to more throughout 2023.
Parkrun tourism
With so many Ashford Striders heading to the local parkrun, we didn’t have any members travelling further afield this weekend.
Races
There were no races this weekend to report but the calendar is looking busy as the year goes on and we have exciting news for Ashford Striders, 2023 will bring our first ever associated race! Watch this space with details to follow very soon! This will definitely be one to ensure you have on your race calendar!
As the first month of the year draws to a close, huge well done to all the members that took part in RED January (very fitting) and to all Striders, keep up the great work, the amazing club encouragement and happy running into February!
Report by Kirsty Theobald.
