HAIGH WOODLAND PARKRUN REPORT #59 – 17th December 2016
It is the week of the winter solstice, so the next time we meet for a parkrun at Haigh Woodland the nights and mornings will be getting lighter. Winter is over!? Discuss!
Also this week, parkrun celebrated the 3,000,000th person to sign up (which was a young lady in Perth – no pressure on her then). Hasn’t parkrun come a long way since a dozen or so runners went for a time trial through Bushy Park just over 12 years ago? In the 59 stagings of Haigh Woodland, 1,606 of those runners have been along for a run, including 103 of them today on a foggy but calm and mild morning.
The first runner home was David Taylor of Wesham Roadrunners who is well known on the road racing circuit and was appearing at Haigh Woodland for the first time. His time of 18:47 was the only one under 19 minutes on the day and this was his 99th parkrun so he will be celebrating earning his Jet Black 100-run T-shirt next time out. That time makes him the 45th fastest runner ever seen at Haigh Woodland. Regular Chris Burton finished in second place in 19:05 with Joseph Dare coming home third.
The first lady to finish was Danielle Brearton who was running for the fifth time at Haigh Woodland in her 30th parkrun. She ran a time of 21:56 which was a Personal Best time taking 32 seconds from the time she set on Boxing Day last year, and this makes her the 242nd fastest runner ever seen at Haigh Woodland, and the 17th fastest ever lady. Second Lady was Harriet Foley who also set a Personal Best time of 22:21 on her 6th appearance at Haigh in her 30th parkrun. She took 51 seconds from her visit in September. And it was a hat-trick of Personal Best times for the Ladies with Emma Porter of Wigan Phoenix coming home in 3rd place in 22:28 which removed exactly 30 seconds from her time of 3 weeks ago.
Only three runners managed to pass 70% age grading today with Paul Boardman of Horwich RMI Harriers leading the way with 73.35%, Steven Foley on 71.15% and Paul Bryers of Wigan Harriers on 70.15%.
CATEGORY RECORDS: No new Category Records were set today but there were an incredible 35 runners who managed to run a Personal Best time, which was 34% of the field, so well done to them. At Haigh Woodland parkrun the average number of Personal Bests achieved per week is 23 so we were well above average this week. What was the secret guys – because I didn’t manage it!?
POINTS COMPETITON – Those of you who keep a check on postings from parkrun central will know that the annual points competition will officially end on the last week of February. parkrun have elected to discontinue it, but for now, the Haigh Woodland parkrun points competition runs from birthday to birthday and we are just a few weeks into the second year so the tables are still taking shape. You earn points by being loyal to this parkrun because you can only get points by running here. Volunteers can earn 100 points (up to a maximum of 300 per year). The current leaders of the points competition are:
Male:
1 Kevin Edwards 709 points
2 John Haddock 600
3 David Wagstaff 519
Female:
1 Tamsin Crothers 784 Points
2 Carol Richardson 751
3 Philipa Tooms 748
44 runners today were ladies and 56 were men, and there were 15 juniors. Don’t forget that while we love the youngsters running with us, if the junior is under the age of 11 they MUST be accompanied at all times during the run by an adult.
There were 15 First Timers who joined the parkrun party at Haigh Woodland of which 3 were running a parkrun for the very first time and joining the ever growing parkrun family. On this day when we celebrated 3,000,000 parkrunners they deserve their own mention so well done to Tyler Salloum, Jude Scrutton and James Butterworth. If you can complete your first parkrun on the darkest parkrun day of the year then it will be easier after that so come back to Haigh next week and beat your time.
There were 8 runners who were shown as ‘unknown’. It’s terrible to have a brilliant run, maybe get a Personal Best, and then fail to have it recognised because you have no barcode. PLEASE …. Don’t Forget Your Barcode. Need a new barcode? Or would you like your result as a text? Follow the link to your profile from your latest results email. And remember please don’t take home your finish tokens. They are not souveniers …….. DON’T BE A TOKEN MAGPIE.
32 runners today were attached to running clubs and there were 63 unattached runners who were running for themselves.
The running club providing the most were the Horwich RMI Harriers with 5 of their runners appearing.
Since Haigh Woodland started the Wigan Harriers have been represented by 72 different runners, which is the most from any one club, with Horwich providing 53 runners.
HALL OF FAME
Those celebrating milestones with us this week were:
Harriet Foley 30 runs
Paul Boardman (Horwich) 25 runs
And those who are knocking on the celebration door include:
Victoria Holme 89 runs
Andrew Storey (Horwich) 69 runs
Chris Burton (Wigan Harriers) 24 runs
Emma Bradley of Horwich Harriers ran her 9th parkrun as a junior today so her next appearance will earn her a Junior White 10-run T-shirt.
Number of Commemorative T-shirts on show today:
Junior White (10 runs) – 2 runners
Cardinal Red (50 runs) – 12 runners
Jet Black (100 runs) – 3 runners
Green (250 runs) – 1 runner
Blue (500) – 0 runners
The top 5 attendees this week were:
Barry Shackleton (Darwen Dashers) 284 runs
Karen Shackleton (Darwen Dashers) 231 runs
Dennis Yarwood (Spectrum Striders) 158 runs
Michael Hendry (Chorley ATC) 114 runs
David Taylor (Wesham) 99 runs
These five runners have completed 886 parkruns between them.
Want to give feedback? Have anything to say or want anyone mentioned in future run reports? Are there any corrections needed to this report? Please e-mail haighwoodlandoffice@parkrun.com
VOLUNTEERS – REMEMBER that parkrun can only take place weekly because of the volunteers and marshalls who give up their time on a Saturday morning. If you want to get involved, email haighwoodlandhelpers@parkrun.com. This week, we had 14 credited volunteers so thank you all, especially given that it is winter and cold out there.
And potential runners remember that to officially take part at Haigh Woodland (or any other parkrun anywhere) you need to be registered at www.parkrun.org.uk but you only need to register once and the barcode they give you will be needed each week when you have finished the run. DON’T FORGET YOUR BARCODE.
Haigh Woodland parkrun will be hosting an additional event on New Years Day starting at 9am.
This week’s UK Stats: There were 432 parkruns, 4 cancellations, and the total UK senior parkrun population was 74,004.
Haigh Woodland parkrun started on the 31st October 2015 with 199 runners and 17 volunteers. That attendance was the record until last week when it was finally broken with 201 turning out. The course record was set in May this year by Michael Cayton in 15:48, and the female course record was set by Lindsey Brindle in November last year at 19:11. There have been 1,621 different runners on the course, representing 145 different running clubs, and they have completed 5,586 runs. The average attendance is 94 every week and there have been 1,357 Personal Bests. Runners at Haigh Woodland have covered almost 28,000Km which is equivalent to running from Wigan to New Zealand’s south island and back again.
And that’s it for the report for run #59. If you fancy writing a run report, and putting your slant on it, get in touch. We would love to hear from you.
Barry Shackleton #lovehaighwoodlandparkrun