DRY JANUARY – SO FAR …
Not a comment on the progress of a resolution to abstain from consuming alcohol for a month, which this week’s report writer didn’t make anyway, merely an observation concerning our good fortune with the weather so far this year. What a contrast with 12 months ago, when Woodside Gardens were about to sink under a deluge of rain which made the course impassable and unusable on far too many Saturdays.

This dry spell meant that the 128 runners who participated today enjoyed almost perfect conditions underfoot which, coupled with the cool start to the day, probably explains why 23 new PBs were achieved. It was also very encouraging to welcome so many new faces, 37 in all, a mixture of tourists and first-timers, some of whom were attempting to maintain their resolution of getting fitter in 2019.

One of the newcomers, to Woodside though not to parkrun, Jamie Goss was the first to finish in 19m11s., and the first female to cross the line was Sophie Weguelin in 23m21s, a new PB. Definitely also deserving recognition is Lou Frost, who achieved her fourth consecutive PB and who is now over 6 minutes faster than in her first appearance in May last year - what fantastic progress!

The event was made possible by an amazing turn-out of volunteers, 21 in all, with an age-range spanning an incredible seven decades. A huge thank you this week goes to:
Linda DOWELL • Darren PRICE • Kay MITCHELL • Tony MILES • Nigel SMITH • Peter HARWOOD • Prue BAKER • Nigel MUSSETT • Peter ALLEN • Janet ALLEN • Sarah BUNCE • Isabel ROCHE • James WEBB • Sue WARD • Bette KEEPING • Sam SNOOK • Liz SANDERS • Carl HUSSEY • Steven MOORE • David PETERS • Ray NEEDLE

Finally, and congratulations if you’ve managed to read this far without the aid of alcohol, a plea for your cooperation. We had to deal this week with a justified complaint from a neighbour in Ridgeway Lane who was unable to drive out of her property because someone had parked across her gateway. So, if you come to parkrun by car and you haven’t left your car at Priestlands Leisure Centre, in the M&S car park or in the car park off Ridgeway Lane (3 options there) and are forced to park in the road, please avoid blocking someone’s driveway. We know it could have been someone unconnected with parkrun, but we promised to do what we could so that this problem doesn't occur again.

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found, as usual, on the Lymington Woodside parkrun Results Page.

Delete as appropriate or tick as many or Other.

1^st run ever

1^st run since Christmas

1^st run in 2019

1^st run at Lymington Woodside

No matter what the reason, the first run of the year can always be daunting, so it was so good to see so many 1^sttimers attend the briefing. Keeping it short to:

1.   Got your barcode

2.   Smile on the way around and say hello to the marshals

3.   No matter what you do you will have a PB

hopefully put the anxieties to one side, before they joined the rest of the runners for the main brief.

Chilly conditions that were not accompanied by frost and a good weeks worth of dry weather, allowed for a firm run. It also meant that we did not have to tinker with the course too much.

Well done this week goes to the 24 - 1^st timers and also Brian Gale from Roundshaw Downs, who kept quiet that he was running his 100^thparkrun today with us – Obviously did not want to write too many autographs.

So a sound start to the year. Hopefully last years trend of cancellations due to another “Beast of the East” and weeks of rain, will not be repeated. We do our best with your safety in mind.

Thanks for coming along and hopefully see you again soon. Good running in 2019.

Steve - RD

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Summary:

This week 97 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 24 were first timers and 11 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 10 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 18 volunteers.

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Lymington Woodside parkrun Results Page.

Lymington Woodside parkrun started on 9th July 2016. Since then 3,711 participants have completed 12,790 parkruns covering a total distance of 63,950 km, including 2,419 new Personal Bests. A total of 207 individuals have volunteered 1,754 times.

 

2018 - THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS

In our last event of the year, 107 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 15 were first timers and 33 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 12 different clubs took part. The event was made possible by 15 volunteers. First across the line was Ben Standage, Rebekah Gardiner, in 6th place, was the first female finisher, Felix Allen and Poppy Wardle the leading juniors.

2018 didn’t begin well, when, after a record turn-out for our first Christmas Day event, we were forced to cancel the last run of 2017 and the first of the new year. The atrocious wet weather in January, February and March, probably the worst for some years, left Woodside Gardens in a sorry, soggy state, leading to a total of 7 cancellations in the first quarter. We hate cancelling, but we have to bear in mind the condition of the park and the fact that we do not have a monopoly on its use. It’s lucky that Brockenhurst parkrun’s Wilverly venue is not too far away, so the hardiest runners had an accessible but challenging alternative course.

Fortunately, the weather did improve eventually, going from one extreme to the other, so that we enjoyed one of the hottest summers for some years and our numbers picked up to peak in a new record attendance in August of 170. This lasted until Christmas Day, when 217 runners took on yet another new course, complete with (fake) snow! Cue a seasonal riddle: Why is Lymington parkrun like a Christmas banquet? Because it has so many different courses!

We are also delighted to welcome so many different runners, a total of 3779 since we launched, giving an average of 106 participants per week. In addition to the new attendance high, the major individual records of fastest male and female and age-related result were broken in 2018, along with 22 age-category best times. Pride of place amongst the latter must go to our founder, Mac McEndoo, who, just 6 days after his 80th birthday, smashed the 80-84 record by over 20 minutes, a time which is unlikely to be bettered by any other octogenarian.

Another parkrun star who deserves a mention for an outstanding achievement is our Course Director (not listed as a volunteer role, but we definitely have one) Darren Price, who clocked up 100 runs and even more volunteer contributions when we had only reached 109 events in total.
Darren is one of a core group of regular volunteers who would have amassed large numbers of volunteering points had the parkrun scheme still existed. What a great team!

Other celebrations in 2018 included the 70th birthday of the NHS, our own second birthday, our 100th run, and a Team GB event attended by a member of the Great Britain sailing team, together with numerous personal milestones. All these events gave a valid excuse for enjoying even more cake, and we must thank everyone who contributed to the feast.

So much for 2018, what about the next 12 months? Maybe we could all make room in our list of resolutions for the aim to introduce at least one person to the joys of parkrun? Though many of you are too young to remember the 60s TV satirical review on which the title of this report is based, I’m still going to alter slightly the name of the programme which replaced it to sum up what Saturday mornings mean to so many of us: Not so much a parkrun, more a way of life. It would be good to share this experience.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year.
Tony Miles
ED

The best thing to ask for at parkrun Christmas is dry weather, well we got that, and lots more in the way of 217 presents.

With the overnight fb posting by course expert Darren, that he had come up with something different to avoid mud, slosh and less twisty turns, after another week of wet weather, it had us all wondering what route we would be doing. Then on turning up at 7:30am I saw him putting the finish funnel the “wrong way around” and in a “different place”. This left me worried how to explain the route. However after a quick catch up, it turned out to be “Simples, just don’t worry what we have done before!”    What a great way to start the morning.

Yes, I mentioned 217 presents, well that was the number of runners who turned up. Last year we were amazed at 160+, which was a record. This year was fantastic. Thank you to each and every one, for coming along to celebrate the family parkrun Christmas with us at Lymington.

Celebrations continued with some special mentions. There was Dave Swindles, from Hackney parkrun, doing his 50^thrun, our very own Linda Dowell clocked up her 300^thrun and Caroline Woodford of New Forest Runners celebrated by having quite a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday sung by everyone.

So let’s get everyone to the start and talk about the run. Who could possibly be looking at taking a Christmas Day parkrun seriously? Well, we still had loads of runners in fancy dress, dogs adorned with coats and reindeer ears, youngsters of all ages and a few buggy pushers. We even managed to arrange for some local snow showers and music for the runners on the course outside the pavilion – check out our fb page for some great pictures.

As I touched on serious running, I have to mention Oli Hawkins (JM 15-17) , New Forest Juniors AC. Oli came in 1^stwith a recorded time of 18 mins. His time was officially 17:59:88, but the system rounds the time up. So well done Oli, but can do better! Oli was pushed all the way by Edward Rees in 18:02.

1^stlady was one of regulars from Lymington Tri Club, Gemma Russhard with another PB of 19:15.

But in true parkrun ethos and spirit, the WELL DONE has to go to EVERYONE that took part today. I really want to mention ever runner here in the report, but please look at the results on our home page for all of the names. 

It is still surprising the number of unregistered participants that we, and probably all parkruns, have every week and especially at Christmas. Come on, make that New Year’s resolution to sign up, get your barcode and come and join the parkrun family. It now stands at over 5 Million, what a family !!

Thank you Paul Sinton-Hewitt and ALL of the parkrun team at HQ for making this possible.

Also making parkrun possible every week are our volunteers. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. 

So we move onto our last run of the year on Saturday, we can’t expect the same sort of numbers, but you do need to work off those extra brussel sprouts, so come along. 

The pavilion will be open once again, it’s operated by us parkrun volunteers (Lots of thanks to my wife Teresa) as part of the Lymington Sports Association, who do a great job with numerous sports clubs in the area. Please come along and have refreshments afterwards - the bacon butties will be back on the menu.

There will NOT be an extra parkrun at Lymington on New Year’s Day (Tuesday). If you do need an extra fix of running, a full list of NYD runs are on the main parkrun website. I think the closest to us will be at Kings Park Bournemouth. But please check it out.

So that’s about it for the Christmas Day report. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing everyone all the very best for the rest of 2018 and let’s see what 2019 has to bring.

Steve - RD

 

Summary

This week 217 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 59 were first timers and 36 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 38 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 16 volunteers:

Steve HULL • Darren PRICE • Lisa MCGINNIS • David HILL • Sue PETERS • Andy JAMES • Nigel SMITH • Darryl STEVENS • Prue BAKER • Steve ANDREW • Penny MALCOLM • Angie BOND • Dennis READ • Sue WARD • Liz SANDERS • Ray NEEDLE

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Lymington Woodside parkrun Results Page.

 

Today 77 runners and 17 of Santa's little helpers enjoyed a soggy Lymington Woodside parkrun which was Santa's special costume run and featured Snowmen, Santas, Fairies and Santa Dogs!

Andy Chase was first home just ahead of 3 time Ironman Amateur Champion Sophie Bubb who did complete a dog assisted run but which was actually a dog retarded run as she consistently outran the dog!

Mac McEndoo achieved a new age related VM80-84 record with a time of 31.00 minutes!  A special mention to David Hill, well known teacher of Mathematics at Walhampton School for many years.  He ran again today with some of his former pupils and in spite of a lot of pain from his ankles completed the run.  Well done

Thanks to all our volunteers who made the run happen and all those who joined in the spirit of Christmas - see you on Christmas Day?

And to the results...

 

Lymington Woodside parkrun
Event number 118
22nd December 2018

This week 77 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 9 were first timers and 11 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 8 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 17 volunteers:

Darren PRICE • Kay MITCHELL • Tony MILES • Stuart GREEN • Peter HARWOOD • Prue BAKER • Nigel MUSSETT • Peter ALLEN • Janet ALLEN • Sarah BUNCE • Sue WARD • Bette KEEPING • Liz SANDERS • Carl HUSSEY • Benjamin WARD • David PETERS • Ray NEEDLE

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Lymington Woodside parkrun Results Page.

The female record is held by Caroline HOYTE who recorded a time of 18:19 on 14th July 2018 (event number 95).
The male record is held by Daniel BAKER who recorded a time of 16:33 on 11th August 2018 (event number 99).
The Age Grade course record is held by Jacqueline JENKINS who recorded 89.70% (27:31) on 1st September 2018 (event number 102).

Lymington Woodside parkrun started on 9th July 2016. Since then 3,613 participants have completed 12,369 parkruns covering a total distance of 61,845 km, including 2,339 new Personal Bests. a total of 202 individuals have volunteered 1,705 times.

Stuart Green - RD