So, it was perfect conditions for a wee run in the park. Well it must have been as we experienced the remarkable feat of both male and female course records being broken on the same day. Now, before I go on, will caveat that we did not shorten the course for event #42!

Other than the blitzing of course records it was a standard event – a fair few new faces, dozens of PBs, lots of smiley, happy people running and a cracking bunch of volunteers. Yes, this is parkrun.

You should know by now that we love parkrun and we love the parkrunners and the parkvolunteerers (these are genuine words – your dictionary must be out of date) but we came away with one eensy, teensy, tiny, wee gripe. One of our runners came up to us at the end a wee bit disappointed as one or two fellow runners got past him by cutting the corners off. Now, I say that’s just not fair. There was a lot of effort put into Falkirk parkrun to come up with a route that uses the trail and track through the park. We measured it several times. We even arranged for an official measurer to come and confirm so you can be sure you have a proper 5k PB. If people cut corners, they are not running a 5k event. The worst bit though is that they can upset not just a fellow runner, but also that wonderful person who has given up their time to direct you along the right path (eh, that will be the marshal I’m talking about here). So, if you are one who cuts corners, feel free to keep doing so, just not at parkrun J

OK, let’s get back to the positive stuff.

One thing that has been very noticeable over the last few weeks has been the number of runners supporting other runners. Now that we are back to our official finish at the big tree, it’s obviously far more open and provides a better opportunity for that finish straight encouragement, but it’s not just that. We are seeing several people running with others to help them either towards a PB or just to help them get round. This all adds to the community buzz. If you are one of these people then well done you – you are helping to make this event really special.

I will finish by saying congratulations to all the runners and a heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers.

Keep running, keep smiling, and don’t forget your barcode.

Spikey

Men's placings:
Andrew DOUGLAS (SM25-29) of Inverclyde AC, was first in 15:06 - second win in second appearance.
Peter MOFFETT (SM25-29) of Falkirk Victoria Harriers, was second in 17:41 - 1 previous win.
Robert John WATSON (VM40-44) of Musselburgh & District AC, was third in 17:49.

Current standing in the Men's annual points competition:
Gavin LIDDLE (Unattached) 3204 pts.
Brian LEES (Unattached) 3015 pts.
James DALGLIESH (Unattached) 2546 pts.

Women's placings:
Sarah INGLIS (SW20-24) of Lothian RC, was first (5^th overall) in 18:01 - first appearance.
Tracey BRINDLEY (VW35-39) of Ochil Hill Runners, was second (8^th overall) in 18:54 - 2 previous wins.
Claire MOFFETT (SW25-29) of Falkirk Victoria Harriers, was third (11^th overall) in 19:43 - 2 previous wins.

Current standing in the Women's annual points competition:
Julie Ann SCOTT (Unattached) 3245 pts.
Alison MARVEN (Unattached) 2911 pts.
Caroline MCDERMOTT (Unattached) 2760 pts.

The following runners recorded the best Age Grade scores:
Andrew DOUGLAS (SM25-29) was graded 85.43 % for the time 15:06 (first overall).
Sarah INGLIS (SW20-24) was graded 82.15 % for the time 18:01 (5^th overall).
Tracey BRINDLEY (VW35-39) was graded 80.42 % for the time 18:54 (8^th overall).

This week there were 124 runners, of whom 12 were first timers and 45 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 12 different athletics clubs took part.

The Sweatshop prize winner for April is  Laura CROMPTON.

Laura will get a free pair of runnning shoes from Sweatshop.

Thanks Sweatshop.and well done Laura.

What a beautiful morning for parkrun. As I entered the park I enjoyed the view of the big house and the grounds. I marvelled at how lucky I was to have such a beautiful park on my doorstep. And if it wasn’t for parkrun I wouldn’t even know it! I’d heard of Callendar Park before but never ventured there until invited to view it by Derek Carswell, the founder of Falkirk parkrun, away back in 2010. Oh, that seems such a long time ago. Now Callendar Park seems like a home from home. I know so many of its routes, I’ve been in the big house quite a few times, I’ve played on the bouncy castle and in the play park, I’ve made The Stables Tearoom my regular spot for a snack and I’ve made some fabulous new friends (all this as well as a FREE, TIMED, 5k event every Saturday). I’ve a lot to thank Derek and parkrun for.

I’ve probably mentioned this before but the core team are great at this setting up malarkey. I remember when we started in July last year, arriving at 7:30 every week. Then as we became more confident at it and got a runner to do the pre-course inspection we moved that to 8:00. Then we discovered the joy of two wheeled course inspections and it gradually moved towards 8:30. We’ve been meeting up at 8:45 for the past few weeks and were all done and dusted by 8:55! Well done team. (This didn’t stop me being a few minutes late in starting Event 40 but that’s another story for another day).

The volunteers began to arrive around about 9. Thank you to

Colin REID, Courtney FURMAGE, Graeme KAHAN , Jacqueline MACINNES , Jim MCLAREN, Lesley MCGIFFEN, Lesley MCGUIRE, Lisa FURMAGE, Louise HOPKINS, Lynsey SIMPSON, Nuala  SCOTT, Simon HOPKINS, Stuart SMALL and Tom GREEN

Our day started off with Spikey showing off his London Marathon medal. Well done Spikey we are so proud of you. Then it was time for the first-timers briefing. According to the results there were 13 first timers – so how come there were only 2 at my talk? This seems to be a recurring theme in the race reports. If you are bringing a new person along to parkrun, please encourage them to come to the first timers briefing. It gives us a chance for them to speak to us and for us to see their faces as well as pass on any relevant information. It’s for safety too, and hopefully it will add to their experience of feeling welcome and being part of the parkrun community.

I started the run after Brian Lees had tied his laces. Come on Paula, can you not make sure he’s dressed properly before coming out?! *joking* We had thought initially that there was a smaller than normal turn-out but as you all spread out over the horse shoe we realised that there was probably about 130ish runners, so that is about average.

The first three past the big tree were Brian Turner, Colin McCluskie and Kenneth Rankin of Falkirk Victoria Harriers in times of 17:29, 17:58 and 18:49.

First lady home was Karen McCluskie of Linlithgow AAC in 22:53 (any relation to Colin? I’ve no idea). Shona Young from Lothian RC in 23:50 and Julie-Ann Scott is 23:54.

A wee mention for our juniors:  How fantastic are they? Well done to you all. They were led byAndrew Fischbacher of Linlithgow AAC in 5th place with the time of 19:24. In position 94 with a time of 29:21 was Ally McKay. Ally is one of two (the other being Lisa Furmage) Duke of Edinburgh Award participants who are completing the service part of their award by volunteering at our event. Ally is also doing the physical part of his award by running every other week. Congratulations on a great time Ally, thanks for helping us, and well done on gaining your Club 10 membership this week.  It’s not all about first places though. We also had an amazing 54 PBs out of 137 runners. Brilliant! Core team member Paula Lees managed to bag a new PB. Well done Paula. And for those of you who weren’t first, and who didn’t get a PB, you came, you ran, you did it! Well done.

Geek alert: It took the combined brains of me, Graeme and Douglas to sort out the results this week. It was after 11:30 by the time we finished. But we managed it and we also found out a cool wee bit of the application that we haven’t noticed before. So results processing will be even easier now that we’ve discovered this new functionality. Well strictly speaking it isn’t new; we’ve just never noticed it before.

See you next week: JK, JammyKaz, Karen, HoiYou (answers to all of these names)