We also have a birthday cake for cutting up in the Brewhouse after the race.

There'll be a charity draw and......the presentation of our next batch of participation T shirts.

These will be for:

Juniors - 10 Club T's

Isabelle Lewis, Joseph Somersall, Evan Wynne, James Foulkes-Nock, Emma Wookey

50 Club T's

Michael Dury, Neil Sidney, Juliette Sidney, Eddie Hiscocks, Paul Harmes, Tony Wildy

Well done all

Chris

March 24th will be our 53rd Newport parkrun and so our first birthday! It's been a year in my life that I'll never forget.

The story started in September when I had the good fortune to be in Eastliegh & did my first parkrun. Wow! We needed one of these!!! A short time later Paul & I were begging funds from Kerry Griffiths of Newport CC Sports & Leisure. Happily Kerry was the champion we needed & helped us get things going applying for funds.

Worried about the size of the commitment I was more than grateful to get willing support from Nick, Yvonne, Jules & julia from our running club, Gareth & Kelly from NEWT and Peter, Gareth & Sian from Caerleon RC. The core team was formed. Howard was to join later as Mr Reliable.

The first meeting at Tredegar House was not all smooth. My idea to start in the main car park did not go down well with groundsman Bob. But I didn't know Bob then. A man of few words but with a can do attitude that i was to get to know. Anne Tame, the manager of Tredegar House loved the idea & we all agreed that plan B scheme was worth a go.

The core team was trained in February 2010 by Anita from parkrun office. Then we ran a few test events on club nights to get used to the bar coders & timing system.

We held two pilot events in Tredegar House grounds with willing guinea pigs from the three clubs, San Domenico RC and a few others who had offered their services.

Using the original course, which started & finished in the overflow car parkrun we included a sprint up and down the car park with a U bend in the middle. The feedback was either that they loved it or hated it. We tested the timing system with 30 runners and we were ready to go but......would anyone turn up?

I had advised Newport CC that my expectation for the first 3 months was approximately 50 participants based on how Cardiff parkrun started. So imagine my suprise & happiness when Event 1 attracted 125 participants. Things built up steadily. ther were no shortage of runners!

Then in early summer thanks to a group travellers who parked on our (then) start/finish line, we had to move to course No 2. This was a great success as it was a faster course during the summer months and a whole new crop of PBs resulted.

As winter moved in the grass section became quite wet under foot, so it prompted a rethink. Not wanting to go back to the original course and with a preference to parking in the main car park so that access to the Brewhouse is easier, the latest course (No 3) was conceived. Hey presto! This one is even faster, so lots more PBs resulted.

The good news is that we can stay with this course. My meeting this week confirmed that National Trust are right behind us and we seem to have a good future for Newport parkrun.

All my thanks go to the parkrun core team and the ever increasing number of happy smiling faces on Saturday morning, not forgetting our sponsors Newport CC, Lucozade Sport, Adidas, London Marathon & Sweatshop.

Chris

Event Director

Newport parkrun

Hi

As you know, parkrun is organised entirely by volunteers. When I looked back over the records for the 40 events in 2011 I was amazed and pleased that we had over 100 volunteers, that’s 2 every week but I also have to admit that organising volunteers is a little difficult, what with being people available on certain weeks and not being available on others etc, etc. I’d like to try it a slightly different way.

We’ve put together a page on the Lliswerry Runners’ website that describes the jobs that need to be done http://www.lliswerryrunners.com/webpage/id/82

If you go to our Volunteer tab on this site you’ll see the roster for the next 6 weeks and who’s doing which job. More importantly there will be gaps. This is where we need help.

If you’d like to read the descriptions and pick a date and a job you can then drop us an email at newportoffice@parkrun.com . Also it doesn’t have to be in the next six weeks. If you like you can offer to help on any Saturday no matter how far ahead (within reason). Our parkrun computer allows us to record volunteers for any number of weeks ahead. If things change and you can’t make it – no bother we can always rearrange.

See you soon.

Nick Pringle

Christmas Eve - Fancy dress. 0900 start as usual

Prizes for best adult, junior and ....top dog!

Meet afterwards in the Brewhouse for mulled wine and a sing-song.

New Year's Eve. 0900 start as usual.

Get that run in....then you will have the glow of virtue all day!

We wish all Newport parkrunners a Happy Christmas and a great New Year. Thanks for supporting our local event & keep it going in 2012!

Chris & the core team

......if you are wondering what you have to do to become one of the Sweatshop monthly prize winners just read on.....

Nick Jackson, by his own admission is not an elite athlete but he's completed 29 Newport parkruns of which 16 have been PBs! He has managed to improve his time by more than 9 minutes. He has continued to improve. In November he improved his PB by almost a minute.

Arriving early to most races, he is always appreciative of the effort which goes in to organising the parkrun and has been a volunteer marshal himself.

Nick has shared with us that he has lost a significant amount of weight & is often early to bed on a Friday night :)

Nick ....keep it up!

Chris & the core team (comprising of Caerleon Runners, Newport & East Wales Triathlon & Lliswerry Runners)