The 141st Bromley parkrun turned out to be one of the toughest yet. It was miserably cold and wet and very soft underfoot following what seems like weeks of continual rain. The weather forecaster the day before noted that it was wetter and colder than we experienced during December last year … it certainly felt that way despite the fact that this is meant to be spring! Surprisingly, in spite of the atrocious conditions we welcomed another 40 first-timers to the event – I certainly hope they weren’t put off. I can’t help thinking that when eventually (hopefully) the weather does improve we are going to see attendance numbers taking off again!
In addition to the conditions a few Garmin users also said it was a very full distance this week too. I can’t say it was over the 5k because given the vagaries of holding an event primarily on grass without any fixed course markings, no event will be exactly 5k and and no two events will ever be the same – however it does seem that what appear to be relatively minor differences in the cone-positions can make a difference when you are looking to shave a few seconds off your time.
So despite the fact that we had pacers out in force – normally such events produce an absolute “PB-bonanza” - very few people managed a new ‘personal best’ this week. In fact only 34 of you managed it or about 12% of the field. Compare that to the usual average of around a quarter of the runners and typical pacing events which often yield 30-40% of new PBs. Those of you that did manage one should feel particularly pleased with yourself and should almost certainly bank another one when conditions improve.
Saturday’s event was also remarkable in one other respect in that we had our first ever J14 overall winner in William Fuller. Whilst at least three JW14 girls have won the women’s event, never before has a JM14 been top of the men’s event and Will became the youngest overall winner at Bromley so far. I mentioned Will, who is a member of the B&B Harriers U17 squad, in the report a few weeks ago when he came within a few seconds of the JM14 event record – on Saturday he was making another attempt to break it but was foiled by the conditions and fact that he had to run the entire race from the front, most of the other usual front runners being absent or taking it “easy” further down the field. Will turns 15 in another week he is running out of opportunities to capture the record, nevertheless being the youngest winner is quite an achievement as we approach our 3 year anniversary.
William Fuller became the youngest overall event winner on Saturday
The first female athlete this week was Carole Penlington. It was Carole’s 8th win in just 17 appearances at Bromley – a very impressive record. Carole appears to be one of very few event winners these days that are “unattached” (in terms of her running club affiliation). With a PB of 19:22 I would have though local clubs would be queuing up to sign her!
Carole Penlington recorded her 8th win in 17 runs
As mentioned only a small number of people did manage a PB, just 34 in fact - 10 of whom were “second-timers”. Particularly impressive therefore was the 19:24 produced by Jamie Gosnell who was running for the 47th time at Bromley and made it 3 PBs in his last 5 runs. Tony Morton managed his first PB since last November and Natasha Raggett her first since last summer. Jo Gambell amazingly managed to knock over 30 seconds off her PB and Angus Harrington edged a little bit closer towards his target of breaking 20 minutes before he turns 11. Luigi Arcuri recorded his 3rd PB in a row and there were good new best times from Sam Koburunga, Chris McCartney and Jake Leng. Well done to all these runners and everyone else that was able to celebrate a PB on Saturday. Don’t forget that if you are a twitter or facebook user it is always nice to hear from you when you are able to celebrate your next one.
Many thanks to this week’s volunteers including a good compliment of pacers. Pacing is a great way to support the event without having to miss out on a run. You also now get volunteer “credit” for pacing (providing you sign up in advance) so it is a “win win”. We have been having to scratch around a bit for volunteers lately so please could you take the opportunity to sign up in the book at registration or email Laura at bromleyhelpers@parkrun.com. Talking of scratching around, the level of donations has been falling short of consumption again recently – please remember to put a few £s in the pot every now and then so we can keep the refreshments going.
It was good to see some Bromley regulars at the Ted Pepper 10k on Sunday, although judging by the muddy individuals I saw finishing and the times recorded, it was quite a tough event. There are more local 10k events coming up, check out the report from Event 138 for details.
Thanks to This Week's volunteers
Andrew HINDS • Brian ALLEN • Chris THEAKER • Darren JACKSON • Jenny LENG • Karen BARRITT • Laura STABLES • Matt JONES • Maureen FARISH • Michael ROUGHTON • Nicky HOWARD • Pat CLIFF • Peter BARRETT • Peter ELLIOTT • Rod HARRINGTON • Russell HARMSWORTH • Sean CLARKE • Sigrid ROBSON • Soheel BHANDARI • Stephen ROBSON • Steve P SMITH • Tim SPRINGETT • Tracey Jane NORTH
The Stats
Men's placings:
William FULLER (JM14) of Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC, was first in 17:45 - first win in 7th appearance.
Fintan PARKINSON (SM30-34) of Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC, was second in 17:49.
An unknown runner was third.
Current standing in the Men's annual points competition:
Russell HARMSWORTH (Striders of Croydon AC) 3260 pts.
Stephen ROBSON (Unattached) 2905 pts.
Andy TUCKER (Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC) 2846 pts.
Women's placings:
Carole PENLINGTON (VW35-39) (Unattached) was first (23rd overall) in 20:29 - 8th win in 17th appearance.
Jane Emma WALSH (SW30-34) of Serpentine RC, was second (40th overall) in 21:21.
Anika Alison JONES (VW35-39) of Beckenham RC, was third (50th overall) in 22:07 - 2 previous wins.
Current standing in the Women's annual points competition:
Clare RUTTERFORD (Petts Wood Runners) 2941 pts.
Ellen DOUGHTY (Petts Wood Runners) 2663 pts.
Sigrid ROBSON (Unattached) 2463 pts.
The following runners recorded the best Age Grade scores:
William FULLER (JM14) was graded 79.91 % for the time 17:45 (first overall).
Stephen GLACKIN (VM45-49) was graded 77.70 % for the time 18:41 (4th overall).
Angus HARRINGTON (JM14) was graded 77.43 % for the time 20:23 (21st overall).
This week there were 277 runners, of whom 40 were first timers and 34 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 16 different athletics clubs took part.
Bromley parkrun started on 29th August 2009, and since then 2,931 different runners, including participants from 121 athletics clubs, have completed 21,676 runs covering a total distance of 108,380 km, and there have been 5,225 new Personal Bests.
The Women's course record is held by Faye Alexis FULLERTON who ran in a time of 16:27 on 28th April 2012 (event number 140).
The Men's course record is held by Steve VERNON who ran in a time of 14:56 on 4th June 2011 (event number 92).
The Age Grade course record is held by Ros TABOR who recorded a 92.49 % run (21:31) on 1st October 2011 (event number 108).
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