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Race Report 145 |
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Who needs Crispy Corner, when we've got walkers...
It was a good day for walkers at Leeds parkrun's 145th event Saturday 24 July 2010). Stuart Walker, running his 8th parkrun crossed the line in 21:52. His new PB was a total improvement of over two minutes since his first parkrun, and earned him 58th place out of the 212 finishers. Louise Walker of Rodillian Runners made her parkrun debut, finishing 27th of the 74 female parkrunners, setting herself a 27:31 target for future runs. Loiuse Williams and Tess Horsby-Smith reminded everyone that you can still put in your 5k effort by walking it on those days when you don't feel like running it. And of course parkrun welcomes you whether you want to run, jog or walk.
But it was another bunch of walkers that were even more noticeable than those named above. Firstly Lauren Whelan. Like Tess and Louise she walked the course. But Lauren, an International race walker, went round in 26:28 - just 12 seconds short of her 5km walking PB for 5k. It earned the 17 year-old from Manx Harriers 20th place in the ladies race. The male race walkers in the field chose to abandon their walking gait, and Brendan Boyce and Alex Wright, ranked 1 and 4 respectively in the UK, went head to head at the front of the field. It was Alex who came out on top, winning the race in 16:15 - a time only bettered 3 times in the past 12 months. Brendan was second in 16:54 - a time that puts him into 40th place on our all time list. Behind them the Fitzhugh/Eastwood duel was won by Daniel Fitzhugh, who cased hard to try to keep with Brendan, and though beaten by 22 seconds, he earned his 2nd PB in two weeks.
There were PBs for all three of the first three ladies. Myra Jones took 28 seconds off her best and dipped 20 mins for the first time to win in 19:59. A 4 second improvement on her PB earned Pamela "Lulu" Lomoro second place in 21:48. And 6 seconds was the improvement for Karen Pearse who took third place in 22:22.
In all there were 57 PBs recorded on Saturday. Three "50 Club" runners got PBs. Ian Rosser, in his 57th parkrun took 3 seconds off his best, Amanda Jane Birkby in her 72nd parkrun took 19 seconds off, but pride of place is Janice Marshall. In her 87th parkrun she sliced 29 seconds off her time to record her first improvement on her PB since October 2008. Great stuff. And great stuff from our pacers too....ladies reduced to tears having achieved long sought after PBs and guys running out of their socks "...making sure the orange vest stayed behind me..." This is what we want to see.
We welcomed 42 first timers to parkrun, on a day when we also applauded Andrew Wilson clocking up his 100th parkrun. He becomes only the 5th parkrunner at Leeds to reach this milestone. For the 42 first timers….walk, jog or run…...their journey is just beginning.
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>RESULT ERRORS<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< |
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If you have ever experienced a result error, what you saw on the website was wrong please visit http://www.johnswebs.co.uk/ and fill out the form.
Even if you have emailed in before. Results can only be fixed if you fill out the form.
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parkrun Report 144 |
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New male Age Grade Record...and more
The 188 parkrunners that gathered on the start line this week confirmed the thoughts of the team of volunteer, it was a good morning to be running. The men's race again saw a tussle between Daniel Fitzhugh and Steven Eastwood - 1 and 2 for the past two weeks - but this week they were overshadowed by Robert DeGiovanni, John Convery and Neil Armitage, who broke away from the group on the last last lap. A first win in his first run for Robert, as he finally broke John Convery to win by 18 seconds in 16:27. For Neil a PB 17:10. Winner of the past two weeks, Daniel Fitzhugh also notched up a PB 17:23, but that didn't stop him being beaten into fifth by Steven Eastwood who also recorded a PB 17:17. The quality front end was underlined by last week's third placed Paul Tranter also reducing his PB by 12 seconds, yet coming in 8th.
The ladies race had a slightly different look this week. Sharon Williams, who last won at Leeds parkrun by skittering over the snow on Boxing Day, dipped under 21 minutes to win by 36 seconds from Alison Boyle. Alison set a PB, and her second please puts her second on the ladies points table for the year. There'll be no points next week though, as Alison will be competing in the (slightly) longer Switzerland Ironman. Monika Lichtinger had her third podium finish in three weeks...finishing third.
Ed Halliday in his 39th Leeds parkrun took 9 seconds off his PB set in November 2008, and there was a second PB in two weeks for Carol Bull who broke 35 mins for the first time in her 21st Leeds parkrun.
And we have have a new male age grade record holder. All parkrun events use Age Grading to help athletes compare results. Age Grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your sex and age group to produce a score (a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people's performances even though they might be a different age and a different sex to you - the higher the score the better the performance. Congratulations to John Convery. Running in the 45-49 age group he recorded 86.67% - the highest ever age grade for a male at Leeds parkrun, beating Mike Boyle's 85.56 set in September 2009. Nine runners achieved 76% or better, 8 of which finished in the top 11 race places. A good morning for running? It certainly was.
Join us on Saturday for the Leeds Gold event, and another good morning for running.
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Race Report 143 |
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Bradford parkrun steals the limelight.... or does it!
Whilst Bradford parkrun was indulging in official launch celebrations, there was a certain sense of deja vu going on in Leeds. The weather was again the same mix of clouds and sunshine, and the pre race speech returned to the theme of the "100 club" as Sam Dooley, George Kainyek and Paul Sanderson were awarded their black "100" shirts and jackets courtesy of Nike. The men's race was again a straight fight between Daniel Fitzhugh and Steven Eastwood, with Paul Tranter, Stephen Savage and Roy Huggins again in the pack trying to hang on to the leading two. Steven held off Daniel for more than 4km, but again the strength of the more experienced parkrunner told. Daniel finished just 2 seconds slower than last week - Steven two seconds quicker.
The ladies race was another " as you were" affair with Ellie Dooley and Helen Palmer fighting out 1 and 2 with Monika Lichtinger holding third. This time Ellie pulled out injured at the 2km mark and Helen and Monika took advantage to each improve on their 2nd and 3rd places of last week. Helen's winning time was just 9 seconds down on last week, Monika just 3 seconds adrift of last week's effort.
Gwilym Thomas put in his second pacemaking stint in two weeks, and again looked like the pied piper as a mob surrounded him in the early stages. Behind him we had three pacemakers aiming at 25, 27:30, and 30 mins which gave the field a chance to see pacemakers in front and behind. The sight of one of the pacemakers offering loud verbal encouragement to Claire Devrill and she ducked 28 minutes for the first time certainly attracted attention from those recovering around the finish area.
No deja vu for Charles White and David Edwards. Although they had 34 previous parkruns between them, they had all been at Heaton Park. I hope you both had a pleasant experience.
And that's the good thing about deja vu. If you enjoyed it, they go back and do it again. We look forward to seeing you all back next week......
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Race Report 142 |
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Sorry these are really late, hopefully you will still get as much enjoyment in reading them even if they were a few Saturdays ago.
For the second week in a row we had a cool pre-race, warm running conditions when the sun came out, and then a cooler post race as the sun disappeared behind the clouds. The impact of the Jayne Tomlinson race in Leeds the following day and the University summer break saw a smaller than normal field of 150 take to the paths of Hyde Park. Three pacers were included in the field. Gwilym Thomas set our quickest paced run at 21:00 minute pace. As he completed the first lap he risked being boxed in by the scrum of runners keen to run sub 21. Ahead of him, the race had become a head to head with Daniel Fitzhugh and Steven Eastwood trading the lead. In the end the more experienced parkrunner, Daniel, came out on top to notch his third win. Dave McGuire was rapidly closing in on Steven, but in the end fell short by just 9 seconds. The ladies race was equally fascinating with Helen Palmer leading from Ellie Dooley through the first lap, only for Ellie to pull away during the middle of the race to finish 35 seconds ahead of the winner of event 135. Another former winner, Monika Lichtinger came in third.
Muriann Carey-Campbell, Rachel McCarthy and Les Bradshaw all benefited from Joe Hogg setting a 33:00 minute pace, while Adrian Engaelander and Angela Monks attained PBs by coming in close to Jeff Parkinson's 26 minute pacing. The 21 minute pacing proved most successful though, with Leroy Sutton, Mathew Burton, Peter Twigg, Graham McKenzie and the aforementioned Ellie Dooley all clocking sub 21 PBs. Gwilym will be setting a 20 minute pace this coming Saturday. Will this bunch step up to the mark?
There were 11 first timers this week, including oldest runner in the field Ken Kaiser. More than 1 in 6 achieved PBs including Andrew Nicholls, Jonathan Brown and Neil Warnock. Just 43 seconds and 12 places separated these three, who have clocked up nearly 100 parkruns between them.
Caldos cafe, which is under new ownership, was open after the race, and the discussion at one point was around this week's obstacle on the course. Last week we had horse manure, but this week it was cornflakes. Who knows what we'll find next week. Why not join us and find out.
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