Lost and Found

A sum of money was found before the event this week. We also still have a ladies pink hooded top that was left last week. If you think these are yours please get in touch. If the money is not claimed we will add it to the parkrun fund.

South Bucks 10k Road Race

Black Park parkrun is organised entirely by volunteers, and it is done on practically no budget, instead relying on the generosity and ingenuity of volunteers and runners to provide what is required. In order to provide a small budget however, the core team that organises the weekly parkrun are organising a 10k road race to raise some funds.

This event is being held on Sunday 3^rd October at 9:30am.

The race itself is 2 laps of quiet roads near Black Park, entering the park for the last 300m and finishing near the regular parkrun finish. The course has been officially measured and certified, and we think it should produce some fast times. There is a map of the course here.

Entry forms will be available at the registration desk each week until he race is full (just 300 places), or we also have a website where you can enter online: http://www.southbucks10k.org.uk

The one thing we will need however are some volunteers to help out on the day with tasks like car parking, marshalling, drink stations etc. If you think you could spare a morning to help out then we’d love to hear from you.

Photographs

If you want to see the weekly photos in maximum definition please visit the Picasa page of our excellent photographer Mr George Mardall: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/georgemardall.

Videos

Some of you may have noticed Paul Dolbear running with a small video camera strapped to the side of his head. The results of this can be found here.

Race Report

A bright crisp morning, with perhaps the first hint of Autumn, saw 190 runners toeing the line in Black Park for our 59^th event. The heavy rain of the previous few days had left a few puddles, but otherwise the conditions were well set for fast times, and this was proved when over a quarter of the field set new personal bests.  

In his 8^th appearance, Edward Donovan of Les Croupiers RC won for the 2^nd time in a time of 17:39. Giuseppe Rivelli took second in 17:58, whilst Oliver Christopher Jones of Ealing, Southall & Middlesex AC placed third in a time of 18:05.

In the Ladies race, Alicia Hickey of Maidenhead AC won for the 3^rd time in 4 starts in a time of 20:20. Alicia finished 16 seconds ahead of Gretchen Bourdillon who completed the course in 20:36, with Vanessa Taylor of Hillingdon Triathletes just behind in 20:39.

In today's Age Graded competition, Margaret Mardall recorded a performance of 85.58%, whilst the top male athlete was T Alun Jones of Handy Cross Runners who scored 79.76%.

In the points competition Grigor McLeod has a lead of 139 points over second placed Steve Parsons. Barbara Allen leads Margaret Mardall by 62 in the ladies competition.

This week there were 190 runners, 31 of which were first timers. 58 runners recorded PBs, bringing the total number since the Black Park event started to 1746. In this time, 1388 runners from 92 different clubs have completed the race 6529 times covering a distance of 32645 kilometres.

The male course record is held by Rowan Axe who ran 15:56 on 01/05/10, event #42. The female equivalent is held by Dani Barnes who ran 19:05 on 14/08/10, event #57.

Category winners this week:

JM14               Samuel Broad

JW14               Emily Bowles

JM15-19          Peter Allen

JW15-19         Abigail Broad

SM20-24         David Michael Brooks

SW20-24         Alicia Hickey

SM25-29         Oliver Christopher Jones

SW25-29         April Jane Foronda

SM30-34         Edward Donovan

SW30-34         Gretchen Bourdillon

SM35-39         Giuseppe Rivelli

VW35-39        Vanessa Taylor

VM40-44        Guy Woollett

VW40-44        Marie Reynolds

VM45-49        Vince Ellerby

VW45-49        Gillian McAllister

VM50-54        Steve Hyett

VW50-54        Allison Allen

VM55-59        T Alun Jones

VW55-59        Pat Bacon

VM60-64        Bob Hardman

VW60-64        Margaret Mardall

VM65-69        Stewart Smith

VM70-74        Tony Merritt

VM75-79        Rachhpal Bath

Video taken on Saturday, 21st August.

  http://vimeo.com/14400050

Sunday 3rd October. South Bucks 10k Road Race. Entry details and information at www.southbucks10k.org.uk

Phew! It was humid today!

If you find smudges in this report it’s because the sweat from this morning’s run is still dropping from my brow. Yes I did get out there and do my bit. No PB unfortunately.

I don’t know how you found the temperature for the 58^th running of the Black Park parkrun but for me it was extremely humid. Perhaps that’s why the winning times were not so fast.

New signs.

The observant amongst you may have spotted that we have replaced our home made, hand crafted, versions of Km signs and direction arrows with a new set  professionally made. The company who have provided these for us free of charge is a local company Display Signs (www.displaysigns.net). We are grateful for this contribution which goes some way to making Black Park parkrun a very polished operation. 

PBs still keep coming.

Despite that comment on slower times we still had 32 PBs, which included the first and third placed runners and the first female finisher, Tamsin Neale, improving by 1 second. Tamsin also improve the female age category record for W35-39 with 78.05%.

Also in the age category Alun Jones of Handy Cross Runners scored  80.03% making him the best performer of the day.

Welcome to first timers.

I hope the 19 first time runners enjoyed there visit to Black Park and we look forward to welcoming you all again. Just for the record if all the Black Park registered runners turned out on the same day we would celebrate an attendance of over 1,600 runners. Personally I hope it stays at manageable levels for our operation as well as your running comfort.

Your photos.

Remember if you want to see photos in maximum definition, once loaded, go direct to the link here http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/georgemardall.

South Bucks 10k Road Race.

Today we displayed flyers for the South Bucks 10k road race to be held on the 3^rd October. The race HQ will be in Black Park. The organising team from Black Park parkrun are putting this race into the runner’s calendar with proceeds going towards maintaining extras at Black Park parkrun without any charge loaded onto the Saturday run.

There will be a supply of flyers each Saturday until the race sells out. Please help yourself to one if you intend to run. If 10k is too much for your fitness just now how about dropping us an email and volunteer to help on the day. We have not yet reached our volunteer target numbers.

Left behind kit.

Saturday's donation to my wardrobe is a ladies pink fleece top. Not quite the colour to suit me but thanks for the gesture. If you want it back it will be in the operations shelter each Saturday ready for collection.

Race report

Ian R WRIGHT (VM45-49) of Croydon Harriers won the race in a time of 18:21. This was Ian’s 3^rd run at Black Park and his first win.

In second place came Joe HAPPE (VM40-44) representing Orion Harriers  recording 18:45 just 24 seconds behind. Nigel SULLIVAN, (VM40-44) of Burnham Joggers placed third in a time of 19:11.

Tamsin NEALE (VW35-39) of Burnham Joggers won the female category race in a time of 19:18. This was her 10^th win and as reported earlier was a PB and age category record.

Tamsin beat Ali YOUNG (VW35-39) of Chiltern Harriers AC by 52 seconds. Ali was timed at 20:10. Alison ALLEN, (VW50-54) of Burnham Joggers was placed third in a time of 23:31.

In the points competition Grigor MCLEOD has a lead of 110 points over second placed Nigel SULLIVAN. Barbara ALLEN leads Margaret MARDALL by 72 in the ladies competition. 

Just to remind you target hunters the male course record is held by Rowan AXE of Cardiff AC who ran 15:56 on 01 May 2010, event #42.

The female equivalent is held by Dani BARNES of Newquay and Par AC who ran 19:05 on 14 August 2010, event #57.

Keep on running and above all make it enjoyable. Best of luck to those running the Burnham Half Marathon on Sunday.

General Overview.

The weather for event #57, was a little damp after early drizzle. However the course underfoot was in reasonable condition with just a few puddles, which could easily be dodged or hurdled. It did not prevent 2 of the course records being broken – see below. However by the time our volunteers adjourned for coffee just after 10am the rain came down for real and rather spoilt the party. I had plans to go out with my camera but shelved the idea. Maybe next time.

Our attendances are holding up at about 150 (143 recorded today and 2 unregistered who were not added to the results). I feel that ably justifies our existence, as I know many regulars are away on holiday at this point in time.

Upcoming Events.

May I draw your attention to the “upcoming events” link on the “news” page. Two events are listed. The Burnham Half Marathon next weekend on Sunday 22^nd August and the South Bucks 10k Road Race on the 3^rd October. Have a look and see if they interest you. More will follow as we get the information.

New Running Store in Windsor.

For those of you who are insatiable shoppers you will now find a Sweatshop store in Windsor. The address is 14a-15a The Arches, Goswell Hill, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1RH. Remember Sweatshop are generous sponsors of parkrun and deserve your custom.

Photos and Video.

Many of you view the photos each week and I am sure you like to see yourself. We have now taken our media coverage one stage further by adding a rolling video of the run taken on Saturday 7^th August. The links are shown below.

The video will be re-run again taking a back marker starting position and running through so more of you will be on the shots.

Though you can see the stills on the website photos gallery, they are displayed out of sequence and poor reproduction quality. The direct link below resolves both those issues.

Video   http://www.vimeo.com/13965620

Photos   http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/georgemardall

The video was taken by Paul Dolbear and our regular photographer is George Mardall.

Race Report.

Record goes in the Age Graded league.

Today’s Black Park parkrun, event #57 14^th August, saw 2 long-standing records broken. In the Age Graded league Margaret Moody scored 88.89% overtaking Margaret Mardall’s score of 88.14%. Margaret, who represents Veterans AC was running here at Black Park for the second time. She is also a member of Handy Cross Runners.

Ladies’ race record also broken.

The ladies seem to be taking all the honours this week, as the ladies course record was also broken. In her 1st appearance, Dani BARNES (SW20-24) won in a time of 19:05. Dani runs for Newquay & Par AC, which I believe, is some way from Black Park. In fact quite a way to travel for a 5k run. We were pleased to see her as well as raising the ladies standard even higher. You can see a picture of Dani on the side image.

Tamsin NEALE (VW35-39) representing Burnham Joggers was in second place just 15 seconds behind. Tamsin was telling me last week, after setting a PB with 19:19, that she was now only 4 seconds short of the ladies record. That was last week! Emily ARMSTRONG, (SW20-24) of Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC was placed third in a time of 20:51. 

Men’s Race.

In his 2nd appearance, Simon MILLETT (SM20-24) of Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC was first overall in the race in a time of 17:08. This was Simon’s first win in 2 visits to Black Park.

Chris BRADFIELD (SM35-39) representing Datchet Dashers took second place recording 17:50. Daniel GOOCH, (SM25-29) was placed third in a time of 18:37. 

In the points competition Grigor MCLEOD has a lead of 74 points over second placed Vince ELLERBY.

Margaret MARDALL leads Barbara ALLEN by 13 in the ladies competition. 

I always like to list the number of first time runners with us and this week there were 17.

Congratulations also to the 43 runners who recorded PBs.

Thanks especially to the volunteers who brought together this race. Have you put your name down? We are not a club as such and do not have a natural base of helpers on which to draw. We rely entirely on volunteers to keep it going.

The male course record is held by Rowan AXE (Cardiff AC) who ran 15:56 on 01 May 2010, event #42. The female equivalent, achieved on this run, is held by Dani BARNES (Newquay & Par AC) who ran 19:05.