A muggy morning greeted the 94 runners this morning; twenty-two of them were running in the park for the first time but all of them helped to create a record attendance for this event. The Lloyd parkrun family just keeps getting bigger and bigger. They all lined up for the start to applaud the sponsors and volunteers and young Samuel Hansen who received his white tee-shirt. The big pile of tee-shirts to be handed over seems to decrease at one per event. There are still three more waiting for their owners to claim them. “Are you ready? Go” sent everyone off through the funfair, dodging the dodgems and wheeling round the big wheel. 

Lloyd parkrun had an obstacle course aspect today: dodge the fair rides! Okay, the runners only had to go between the rides, not over them, but it still added a little something to the run! I was very grateful to Geoff Pennells, Ralph Dawkins and Sean Parry who each let me know that the fair was there, to Ashley Gordon of Croydon Council who sent us the official notice and to Duncan Turner of Croydon Council for discussion re-routing options. And huge thanks to the fair ground organisers, Monty Hammond & sons, for their kindness and cooperation in moving fences etc. to enable the run to be held with minimal disruption to the route. The fair will be there for the next two parkruns as well, so we’re really glad that a solution has been found.

The weather couldn’t have been a greater contrast to last Saturday: warm and sunny with a lovely blue sky. However, the recent rain meant that some sections, such as coming down the hill, were still somewhat muddy and slippery.

Before starting the run, Debra Bourne, this week’s Run Director, took a group of the runners through the fairground to ensure that they knew which way to go. The black-on-yellow arrows, normally so clearly visible against the grass, were much less obvious against the backdrop of the brightly painted rides. Debra then lined up the 85+ runners up on the opposite side of the finish chute from normal, to provide a better route towards the entrance into the fair. The safety aspect of the announcements was, obviously, particularly prominent, although there was also a call for volunteers: we still need a couple more people for next Saturday (19th May), and a few for 26th May- please send an e-mail to lloydoffice@parkrun.com if you can volunteer.

Many thanks to this weeks great team of volunteers including Sean Parry and Kevin Hann who assisted Debra with Setup, Jenny Booth and Becky Laurence on Timer and Stopwatch, Corinne Carr handing out Numbers, Philip Howard doing Registration, and Richard Corby, Mary Shea and Alan Purchase as our Marshals – particular thanks to Richard for collecting extra arrows.

In his first appearance with us, Ben Savill (Croydon Harriers) led the runners home in 19.17, with Paul Finch (Striders of Croydon) second in 20.14 and Kieron Connor (also Striders of Croydon) third in 20.40; first woman home this week was Vanessa Kahr in 23.45 (a PB), with Anna Corby second in 26.08 and Wendy Spear third in 27.11.

Amongst the great tussles down the finishing straight were the fight for 14th and 15th between David Alderson & Paul Cripps, decided only right on the line;, for 19th & 20th, with James Sinclair just ahead of Andrew Lyne; for 39th with Oliver Gatland barely ahead of Wendy Spear; some shenanigans by Tony D to keep ahead of Ken Male for 49th position; Emily Haasz sprinting for the line encouraged by her father Steven; a great race between Sheron Bathmaker and Phobe Tomkins for 73rd and between Hannah Redzimski and Molly Abendroth for 80th. Caitlin Spalding also produced a great sprint finish at 56th.

This week’s best age-graded runs came from Michael Beecher (72.39%), Geoff Pennells (71.18%), Alan Dolton (70.22%) and Ben Savill (70.01%). While the fairground may have slowed down the start just a little, that didn’t prevent PBs for Micky Wheeler (21.36), James Lyne (22.46), James Sinclair (23.17), David Tomkins (23.35), Vanessa Kahr (23.45), Mark Purser (24.00), Les Gonsalves (obviously spurred on by winning the Sweatshop prize for last month! – 24.31), Sanjay Iyer (26.02), Euan Wilkins (26.45), Robert McCann (27.03), Oliver Gatland (27.10), Keith Cocks (27.56), Elizabeth Maynard (28.29), Tony D (28.32), Ken Male (28.34), June Lloyd (28.58), Caitlin Spalding (30.33), Sarah Tappenden (33.17), Chloe Cripps (34.12), Phobe Tomkins (34.52), Molly Abendroth (44.19) and Taniya Masood (47.32) – great running everyone!
 

After finishing, runners were able to nibble (or scoff) chocolate biscuits. Results processing then took place in the café, with previews of the pictures and results available.

Some of you may have noticed there's a Fun Fair being set up in Lloyd Park right across our parkrun route...
 
I'm meeting with the fair people on Friday to hopefully organise a route through the fairground for the parkrun. If that turns out to be logistically impossible then the parkrun WILL still go ahead, but we will have to adapt the course.
 
The fair will be there for three weeks, so no guarantees on the exact length of the course for the rest of May, but we'll get it as close to the proper 5K as we can!

See you on Saturday.
 
Debra Bourne, Event Director

This was Debra Bourne’s comment on this morning’s parkrun!

Conditions were awful in Lloyd Park this morning. It was wet and cold, the course was slippery (there were a couple of falls en route) and registration had to be carried out under a sheet of heavy duty polythene. But the runners still turned up. There were over 80 starters, aged from 7 to 70 (approx!), who huddled on the start line, including 14 first timers. Announcements were kept to a minimum but there were pleasant jobs to be done like presenting Alan Dolton with his black tee-shirt for 100 runs and Phil Mazur with his red one for 50. It was also the time of the month to present the Sweatshop winner of a new pair of running shoes. This month’s winner was Lez Gonsalves who runs regularly in the park, has had a number of personal best times (although not too many recently) and has joined our team of volunteers, thereby meeting our three requirements of consistency, improvement and commitment.

Today the honours in the men’s run fell to comparative newcomers to our venue. Two junior runners from Croydon Harriers completed the course well ahead of the rest of the field, in tremendous times for the sodden and slippery conditions. Peter Chambers was first over the line in 16.47 (11 seconds outside the course record) with an impressive age grading of 81.63%, beating Mark Plackett to the finish by ten seconds. Mark achieved a personal best time and an age grading of 79.65%. For both of them it was their second run in Lloyd Park although they have both run at other parkrun events. The third man, a veteran of 93 parkruns but running in the park for only the third time, was John Foss of South London Harriers who came home in 19.26n (age grading 77.79%).

The ladies' front runner was our Event Director Debra Bourne. She was “just going to jog round” but her competitive nature does not allow her to slacken and she returned a commendable time of 23.39, almost two minutes ahead of second lady, Lloyd parkrun regular Anna Corby who finished in 25.28. Sarah Allen of Herne Hill Harriers was third lady to finish in 26.18 but had a tussle for the line with newcomer Amy Locke who was only one second behind her.

Despite the conditions there were fifteen personal best times today so very well done to Mark Plackett, Mike Procter, David Bryan, David Tomkins, Stephen Hewitt, Jane Richards, Ken Male, Nicky Robinson, Tony D, Oliver Dov, Mark Bowen, Tanya Hersey, Nancy K, Chloe Cripps and Pawan Lokwani.

The volunteers deserved bouquets (or preferably woolly gloves) today as they braved the damp and cold to make sure everyone stayed safe around the course. Today’s marshals, some accompanied by rather muddy dogs, were Robert Butlin, Richard Corby, Ella Corby, Jennifer Hershey and Mark William Booth,   Set up hero was Sean Parry, assisted by Debra Bourne, and the finish line was served by Sharon Rhys-Davies and Jenny Booth on timers, Krzysztof Klidzia with the numbers, Phil Mazur as number checker and John Chambers on registration. Haydn Wheeler took the photographs but a glitch with the camera means unfortunately that there are not many photos this week [apologies Haydn but I forgot to put the memory card back into the camera after loading the photos en route to Manchester last Saturday - Debra]. Thanks to all; it was not a nice morning and everyone helped to keep folks’ spirits up.  Hot drinks and bacon rolls in the Café seemed to go down very well afterwards!
 

The April 2012 winner of the Lloyd parkrun Monthly Sweatshop Prize is Lez Gonsalves. This prize is awarded to athletes who have shown consistency, commitment and improvement at the event.
    
Lez first ran Lloyd parkrun in September 2011 and has been one of our regular runners since then, running practically every week. He's clocked up 26 parkruns so far - and all of them here at Lloyd Park. His age-graded rating has improved by more than 5% since he started, although PBs have eluded him recently.

Lez has also shown his commitment to Lloyd parkrun by volunteering.
    
We look forward to seeing Lez continue running here at Lloyd parkrun, and running faster!
   
We’d like to thank Hugh Brasher of Sweatshop for his generosity and to congratulate Lez on his achievement. Lez's prize is a new pair of running shoes fitted at the Teddington Sweatshop.