After the rain, with the Thames running high and with whispers of ‘flood warning’ it was with some trepidation that a group of us ventured down to Rye Meadow on Friday evening to inspect the course. What a relief, yes it was a bit muddy and there was standing water very close to our finish position but we weren’t going to have to change the route or cancel. So early this morning we  had a crack gazebo erecting, cake baking, fizz delivering, balloon and flag positioning fancy dress wearing volunteer team setting up for our 1^st birthday celebrations as well as fulfilling the usual volunteer roles.

We had a record turnout. 134 runners turned up, that is 14 more than our previous highest field. There were 33 were first timers and a number of new faces from other parkruns who joined us for our first birthday celebration.

Men's placings:
Richard KEMP (SM30-34) of Abingdon Amblers AC, was first in 17:56 - 9^th win in 23^rd appearance.
Julian HEHIR (VM50-54) (Unattached) was second in 19:36 - 2 previous wins.
Michael DEERING (SM30-34) (Unattached) was third in 19:53.

Women's placings:
Lauren SALISBURY (JW14) (Unattached) was first (21^st overall) in 22:01 - first appearance.
Kirsty READE (VW35-39) of Didcot Runners, was second (26^th overall) in 22:27.
Vicky TILLING (JW14) of Abingdon Amblers AC, was third (34^th overall) in 22:54 - 3 previous wins.

JM14 placings:

James MOORE (JM14) (Abingdon Amblers AC) was first home in the youngest age category in 21.38, he not only joined our birthday party but went on to his own afterwards. Joseph RICHARDSON (JM14) (Unattached) was second in 22.05, a new PB and Oliver HYDE (JM14) (Unattached) was third also with a PB of 22.50.

JW14 placings:

Lauren SALISBURY (JW14) (Unattached) appears here again as first  in this category but as you will have read above she was the first female home overall in 22.01. This is her first appearance, let’s hope we will see her again. Vicky TILLING (JW14) (Abingdon Amblers AC) appears above as third placed senior women but is second in the junior competition in a time of22.54. In third place was Charlotte BARWICK (JW14) (Abingdon Amblers AC) in 26.30

 Once the run was over prizes were awarded:

Male points winner , Julian Hehir 4056 (bottle of wine awaiting). Well done Julian.
Female points winner, Chris Doran 3015 (bottle of wine). Chris is a regular runner and volunteer and was on duty today both as a volunteer and as a runner.
JM14 points winner, Kieran Beech 2599 (cup)
JW 14 points winner, Annabelle Juffkins 780 (cup awaiting)
Volunteer of the year, John Harvey (bottle of wine awaiting) . John has volunteered 25 times as one of our regular photographers and has been with us right from the start and his great photos which appear on the parkrun website and on facebook really promote our parkrun and his pictures have come into use on a few occasions to help us make sense of glitches in the results. We do let him run sometimes as well!
Spirit of parkrun prize, David Rayner (running shirt donated by fit2run) .David has run 11 parkruns, he is not the fastest runner but he is determined and keeps coming back for more and  has knocked 3 minutes of his time since he started. Keep on running David and will keep on cheering as you cross the line smiling
Fancy dress, Maria Hamilton (£10 voucher donated by fit2run)...achieved today as parkrun became a planned interlude in her long run in preparation for Comrades ultra marathon, tutu, club vest and medals. Champion!

Thank you to Caroline who made the lovely cakes and purloined the helium balloons which have now hopefully been returned to the child’s party they were intended for.

And then what a surprise! I also would like to thank you for the kind words, lovely flowers and champagne. It is a privilege to be involved in parkrun. When I agreed to be event director I didnt quite know what i was letting myself in for and although it is time consuming it is worth every minute when I turn up on a Saturday with the other volunteers and watch parkrunners of all ages, shapes, sizes and pace run 5km with such spirit, determination and fun.

Please look out on this site or facebook for the great photos of today’s fun which Rich our photographer has taken.

Parkrunners are volunteers and volunteers are parkrunners... in other words, without volunteers we cannot function. If you would like to help then please email abingdonhelpers@parkrun.com.

See you next time

Lucy

Please join us for our first birthday run tomorrow morning. We have inspected the meadow and we will be able to run safely. It is muddy in places so please take care.

See you tomorrow, fancy dress jubilympics, cakes and prizes!

Congratulations to Mike Shepherd who is the winner of our monthly Sweatshop prize which is a pair of new trainers.  Mike has completed 20 Abingdon parkruns and has volunteered 16 times. You will recognize him as one of our run directors but he has regularly volunteered in other roles. The smooth running of our parkrun requires regular tweaking of procedures, infomation and processes. Mike is behind the clever ice cube trays for our position tags, the first aid kits carried by our marshals, the parkrun mobile that the run director carries .His attention to detail has helped us on a number of occasions to sort out glitches we have had with the results. Thank you to Sweatshop.

First of all, deepest apologies for the mix up with the times.  We had problems with the timer at the start, and thought we had added the correct amount of time to all your results.  But obviously not, so we have asked parkrun to add the true amount (38secs) to your times (ie the winner ran in 16:58).

98 stalwarts (our second best turn out) braved very wet conditions today at Rye Meadow, including 22 first timers.  It was great to welcome a small group of boys and teachers from Abingdon Prep school with many of them putting in some very good times.  They swelled the number of U14 runners to 17 (17% of the field)- hopefully the wet weather won't have put them off and they will return to see how much faster they can run on a dry course.  One of their number, Henry Insley, in his first parkrun, set the impressive time of 20:47 and was the first U14 home and his sister, Flora, was the first JW14 in 21:02, both beating their mother to the finish!

Congratulations to Jonathan Cornish of White Horse Harriers who won again in 16:58 (his 7th win out of 9 runs) and to Suzanne Enhard who was first lady again in 19:54.

Eleven clubs were represented including 16 from the Abingdon Amblers and there were several runners who had recovered enough from the London Marathon last Sunday to make an appearance.  Particular congratulations to Eileen Naughton from Didcot Runners, who not only slashed 100mins off her previous time, finishing in 3:47 but also got a PB today. It was nice to welcome Richard Moss and Becky Thurtell from darkest Bushey park (the spiritual home of parkrun) and Jamie Bagnall from Oxford parkrun.

Don't forget that next week (May 5th) is Abingdon parkrun's first birthday and there will be various prizes for people's efforts over the last year as well as CAKE!  I am told that good weather has been ordered too!  So let's see if we can break our current record turnout of 120 runners.  There will also be a prize for the best fancy dress in the Jubilympics theme.  So now's your chance to brush the dust off your crown and dress up as a queen in sporting attire!

If you haven't yet taken part in the SparkLE survey http://www.parkrun.com/sparkle, please consider doing so.  Amongst other things, it provides useful statistical info for parkrun HQ to quote when selling the benefits of a free, timed, local, weekly 5km run to those places that need extra proof of the benefits that we all enjoy. 

As always many thanks to all the volunteers who braved the weather- if you would like to volunteer in future Abingdon parkruns, please e-mail abingdonhelpers@parkrun.com .

And finally congratulations to our 2 parkrunners Caroline and Adam who got engaged yesterday- I can foresee a themed parkrun being planned near their big day!