265 runners were safely shepherded in by the Michael Sikora on his road to recovery following various upper limb breaks.  His path as well as that of 37 first time Richmond parkrunners, 39 runners who finished with personal bests and the rest crossed that of her Majesty a few days previous and flattened the grass of the Sheen roundabout to Sheen gate ‘hill’ in preparation for the marathoners of today (Sunday).  

It was relatively balmy this week and a bit of a shock for those runners with finely tuned thermostats so I am sure those running today (are they insane given the number of hills in the park and the number of times they have to run them?) would have been grateful for a chillier Sunday.   The warmer weather, however, may have suited one of our runners who had travelled really quite far to join us.  

If Ruth Calderbank from Stratford-upon-Avon AC or even Alison Nash from Arena 80 AC thought they were off the beaten track then John William Ffooks for Dinamo Anananarivo must have felt like he was running on another planet.  Dinano Anananarivo is in Madagascar.  I always feel rather smug about the variety of wildlife on offer in Richmond Park but we can’t quite match the aye-aye, flying fox or tenrec.   Anyway, John VM40 - 44 ran Richmond for the first time today and finished in a time of 26.10.

Darren James Tanner (SM35-39) and Nick Wright (SM35-39) both recorded personal bests to come in first and second respectively with times of 17.06 and 18.10.  Conor Kissane-Wood (JM15-19) came in third with a time of 18.16.

For the women I am a tiny bit confused.  According to the results page Edward Dier (SW20-24) came in first in a time of 19.42.   Sue Kumbleben (VW50 - 54) in her first Richmond run and representing Barnes Runners came in second with a time of 21.25 and a very impressive age grade percentage of 79.22%; while Gemma Cory (SW30 - 34) of Ranelagh came home third in 22.01.

Of the other personal bests today - picking two who prove that you can better your times despite the number of parkruns you have under your belt  - Edward Dickinson (VM55-59) in his 83rd run came home in a time of 23.05 and Nigel Capon (VM50 - 54) in his 128th run finished in a time of 22.45.

Finally a huge and genuinely heart felt thanks to Lou on her retirement from Race Director duties.  Parkrun would not happen without the volunteers and given how many of us rely on parkrun for our general well being the quiet responsibility of the race directors is huge.  Thank you, Lou, and have a happy happy time in deepest, darkest Surrey.

 This week, results were delayed - not till 20.51 on Saturday did text messages ping in: which only points up how amazing parkrun is. Well over 19,000 people, running for free in 137 parks around the world, get their times (everyone who remembers their barcode!) usually within 2 or 3 hours, thanks to the efforts of teams of wonderful volunteers. Once in a while, the parkrun servers play up, as IT occasionally does, and invariably someone is working to put things right - parkrun happens every Saturday, come rain or shine, but we must never take it for granted or forget the heroes who make it happen! You have of course all volunteered, so why not do it again? Contact Varuna at richmondhelpers@parkrun.com and earn maximum points - remember, points mean prizes in October!

Talking of rain or shine, 280 of us enjoyed typically excellent Richmond parkrun weather (a great improvement on recent weeks, so I'm told). And talking of volunteers, Josh Roberts gave his last pep talk as director before devoting himself to triathlon training - there was warm applause as Andy Caie presented him with a bottle of champagne. Karen Weir's 1 May news item also broke the news that Lou Davies is moving away - Saturday 19 May will be her last day in charge. One replacement, Ally Salisbury, not content with learning the ropes this week, ran a PB; the other, Rachel Fulljames, broke her forearm two weeks ago but we were glad to learn that she's recovering well and hopes soon to be back.

There were 36 First Timers - 27 running their first ever parkrun, 9 with previous experience at lesser venues trying their first Richmond parkrun. Alan and Mary Matthews, Banstead Woods regulars, were on their 88th and 97th respectively, which only goes to show how long some people take to find the best parkrun. Before the start, Josh showed his typical consideration for others by encouraging a group of cyclists through - the massed ranks parted like the Red Sea and, after initial hesitation, they gracefully acknowledged the spontaneous applause!

Leading First Timer Henry Hughes of Thames Valley took the lead in 18:18, his first venture south of the river in two years (19 parkruns total) - an easy 70.49% (age-grade%s assume importance when you get to my age!); second was Richmond regular Jack Congdon in 18:55, followed by Lloyd Grayston in 19:04. For the women, Colette Hewitt ran 20:54 - an excellent PB by 16 seconds after 2¾ years - her first win in 17 parkruns and scoring the highest age-grade% of the week, 81.18%; second was Jayne Groucott in 21:16, and third Selina Graham in 21:45 on her first ever parkrun.

Other notable milestones include Trevor Patterson earning a black shirt with his 100th parkrun (97 at Richmond), and Libby Brown's PB by a cool 16 seconds on her 70th Richmond parkrun. The excellent conditions helped 45 runners achieve PBs, but spare a though for those who just missed out: Richmond regulars Suzanne Wise and Edward Dickinson were very close - two seconds behind and tieing respectively - and recent convert Mark TB Williams from Bushy was only seven seconds adrift. Anyone with PB ambitions should listen out for the start and be ready to set off smartly so they aren't held up - typically, those at the back take more than 15 seconds to cross the narrow start line. We look forward to even more PBs next time!

"Richmond" and "regular" go together - Sally Woodward Gentle has run 28 of a possible 31 events so far this year (15 October 2011 to 13 October 2012), just ahead of Agnieszka Dolinska on 27. Of the men, Dzinny Gavars and Pawel Przepiorski have both run 30, closely followed by Sean Egan on 29. (Dzinny, who celebrated his 100th Richmond run this week, last year ran 47 out of a possible 51: the other four were barcode forgotten twice and visits to Abingdon and Bushy!)

Those of you familiar with Bushy reports will know you can't have too many stats. I'll spare you the full A - Z (that's Aikin to Zillig, btw) and leave you with the gender table, showing rough equality to age 34 (women outnumbering men this week), then generally more men - of course, it's quality not quantity that counts!

Richmond parkrun nº237 12 May 2012

Age Category	Women	Men	Total
Unknown	-	-	26
J14	12	10	22
J15-19	5	4	9
S20-24	6	6	12
S25-29	11	7	18
S30-34	16	11	27
V/S35-39	11	21	32
V40-44	16	13	29
V45-49	11	30	41
V50-54	11	21	32
V55-59	11	9	20
V60-64	1	10	11
V65-69	0	1	1
Totals	111	143	280

(First Timers were evenly split 18F, 18M)

 I'm off to sample the delights of Glasgow this week - have a great one,

Andrew

After several years of dedicated service to Richmond parkrun I am very sad to say the Lou and Josh are stepping down from the Race Director team. Lou is moving away from the area (although not that far that we won't see her from time to time, I'm sure) and Josh needs more hours in the day due to work and training commitments, but he also has promised to come back and see us when he can. Both Lou and Josh have been an integral part of the team and made my life so much easier as well as being enthusiastic and great advocates of parkrun. We will miss them both, but I'd like to say thank you very much to them and wish them lots of luck in the future. Don't worry you haven't missed your chance to say goodbye. Josh's last Saturday in charge is 12th May and Lou's is 19th May.

And so to the Hello! I am very pleased to say that without any arm twisting at all we have 2 new volunteers joining the team. I am sure they are faces that many of you will recognise and they have both been involved with parkrun for a while, so welcome to Rachel Fuljames and Ally Salisbury. The ladies will be learning the ropes over the next few weeks ready to take up the own slots in the rota in the summer. So please take the time to come and say hello to them, it can be a bit daunting at first standing on that bench adressing 300 adrenalin fuelled runners, but I know they will do a great job. Be nice and remember your barcodes too - it really will make their lives a lot easier.

And I couldn't go without a mention for Dan and Andy who have not been given any choice and are continuing to be an essential part of the team - thanks to the both of them too!!! Myself and you, the runners are very lucky to have such a strong team behind Richmond parkrun, and its not long till our 5th birthday either, so here's to many more years of Richmond parkrun.

Karen

The winner of the much coveted Richmond parkrun Monthly Sweatshop Prize for April is Mabel Dalrymple. The prize is awarded to the athlete who has shown long term dedication as well as consistency and improvement over the month.

I think Mabel is the youngest recipient of our fabulous Sweatshop prize, at the very tender age of 13 she has already done 54 parkruns and 51 of those were on our course at Richmond. She has been running with us since 2010 and has just run 10 straight weeks in a row whilst managing 4 PBs and a fastest time of 24.07. She is obviously enjoying her parkruns and with the regular effort she is putting in Mable is seeing some great results. She really is a great example to other kids and many grown-ups! It is very important though that running and training is all about having fun at this age – PB’s are a bonus. But seeing children pick up the parkrun habit and growing up into healthy and active adults is one of the very rewarding parts of being involved with parkrun. So well done Mabel and enjoy your new trainers and lots more parkruns.

We'd like to thank Hugh Brasher of Sweatshop for his generosity and to congratulate Mabel on her achievement. Her prize is a new pair of running shoes fitted at the Teddington Sweatshop.

Looking back over Event History and clicking on a number of runs at random I think that was a bit of a record.  Serge Lourie, today’s tail runner, is well known for his shaggy dog stories perfectly timed to the duration of a run.  He has been known to tell a tale lasting over an hour to get his fellow runners through the pain of the British 10k.  It looks today that he left three unknown runners behind.  Zara Robinson, however, came home just in front of him cutting 2 minutes off her previous time so the Lourie patented pacing technique may well have worked.

There were an additional 40 pbs today - and an impressive number from our younger runners. Elizabeth Werndle (JW15-19) in her 39th run took 50 seconds off her previous pb to finish in 30.30. Cleo Byrne (JW14), Hannah King (JW14), Harrison Caie (JM14), Frances Bingham (JW14), Georgia Isaac (JW15-19) and Zara Robinson (JW14) all got pbs.  

In terms of anniversaries, today Chris Griffin (VW50-54) clocked up 50 runs.  His first run was in 2010 with his personal best being recorded February of this year.  Penny Merrett of Ranelagh also ran her 50th run today.  Penny’s first run was in 2007.  I may have got this wrong but I think Penny also ran the Paris marathon a couple of weeks ago.  (She was one of many Richmond parkrunners who have completed marathons over the past few weeks - more of later.)

Clocking up an even bigger milestone today was Gillian Clare Smith and her hounds.  Their combined 10 legs finished today in a time of 27.44.   Her Richmond parkrun personal best is 23.46 with a fabulous age grade of 73.98%.  Gillian first ran at Richmond on 2 August 2008

At the front of the pack, first for the men was Eoin O’Connell (VM40-44) finishing in a time of 18.13 and representing Serpentine; Charlie Smith (SM25-29) came in second with 18.36 and Simon French (SM30-34) was our third named runner coming home in 19.02.

Rachael Holmes (SW25-29) of Ranelagh finished first for the women in a time of 21.50. Katharine Comisso (SW30-34) came in eight seconds later to claim second place and Lorraine Grady (VW45-49) came third in a speedy 22.36.

The remarkable Jacquie Millett (VW55-59) came 6th for the women finishing in a time of 23.29  and coming top of today’s age grade league with 80.34%.  I really don’t know how Jacquie does it.  She ran the London Marathon last week and finished in 3.43.  Looking at the photographs she also smiled for 3.43 and talking to her today she enjoyed every second.  I think she is possibly superhuman.  

 This week's race was a bridesmaid- a bridesmaid to the rather longer one that happened on Sunday in which many of our number took part. But first Saturday. It was a brooding morning, unsure whether to rain or shine. I wondered how many would turn up, given that our marathon runners should all have been resting for the day ahead. But we had a very healthy 321 runners and one lone heron in the pond at the start.It was an even squashier start than usual with people dodging puddles as well as each other. But as we spread out on the run up the first hill, the sun decided to shine a little and the rain kept away. It was a race of real achievements. Jon Newey was first man in 17.56 in his first Richmond parkrun and one of a number of over 40s who dominated the top places. First woman was Dee Smale in 21.32 and an over 50. Very well done-you give lots of motivation to us veterans. At the other end of the age scale, an amazing first Richmond parkrun by Alexander Khlaf who came in under 20 minutes and is in the 14 and under age group. He was one of 48 first timers. There were also 49 PBs-well done to all of you!And, despite what I said earlier, Andrew Brown could not resist a run although he was in the marathon. But it was as tail runner.

There was a real battle at the very impressive front of the pack with Mark Windsor (SM20-24) in his first Richmond parkrun and representing the Welsh club San Domenico RRC coming in first in a time 16.55.  Only 3 seconds behind him and with a new pb was Dan Higgins (SM30-34) a far more season Richmond runner with Paul Cheetham (SM35-39) finishing in 3rd position for the men in a time of 17.34 also with a personal best time.

Jess Petersson (SW30-34) was 2 seconds off a pb coming in first for the women and representing Stragglers with a time of 17.15.  Zoe West (VW35-39) came in second for the women in a time of 19.36 while Agnieszka Dolinska (SW20-24), currently in first position in this year’s points challenge, finished in a time of 21.58.

There were some fabulous younger runners today - in among them were Mike Thomas, Robert Evans, Rivka Beck Sliney and Arthur Louw.  Perhaps the Easter holidays is the reason why we seemed to have so many families running today.  They included the Isaacs, the aforementioned Slineys, the Harraps, the Patels, the Whittakers, the seasoned Bowkers and were Mabel Dalrymple’s family also represented?

There were 41 first time runners in our large field and 56 personal bests, including those recorded by our fast men.  In addition, Cecily Day (JW14) finished today in a time of 24.05.  This was her third personal best in a row.  The first time was on 10th December 2011 when she completed the 5k in 28.06.  I wish I could take 4 minutes off my time in so few months.    Of the 14 runs she has completed, 8 of them have been with personal bests.

Dave Senneck (VM55-59) also recorded a personal best but this was his 69th run.  His time today was 23.37.  Although only 7 of his runs have been at Richmond his first run at this the best parkrun, was 2 years ago when he completed the course in 25.17. 

Angela Campbell (SW30-34), to celebrate her 50th parkrun, ran her fastest time yet.  She finished today in a very impressive 23.41 and represents Bellahouston Harriers.  Check out their website - they have a race where you challenge The Hairy Moo.  That sounds even more romantic than the usual offering in Richmond Park.  Perhaps we should have an outing.

263 souls braved the cold and damp conditions in another outstanding event put on by race director Helen Weir, who also handed out many Easter eggs to finishers!!

As it was the first Saturday in the month, the pacers, in their distinctive yellow tops, helped a lot of runners to achieve new PBs.  In all, there were 54 PBs and 37 first timers…so a massive 34.6% of participants ran their best time in Richmond Park last week.  Among these was Douglas Chesterton (JM14) who managed to improve his PB by 59 seconds to 19:43 and finish in 15^th place.  Well done Douglas!

First person home was Clapham Chaser, Riel Carol, who finished in 17:56.  He was followed home by Mark Delahunty in 18:40.  The leading female runner was West 4 Harrier, Helen Taranowski, who not only finished in an excellent 18:47 but also came third overall.  Second woman home was Alison Hopkins in 19:11, who was  8^th overall.

Helen Taranowski was the fastest age related runner at 80.92% followed by third woman home, Liz Killip on 78.72%.  In third place was Alison Hopkins on 78.45% followed by third man, Mitch Phillips on 77.09%.

A particular mention must be for Pat Hewlett, running as a VW75-79 who finished her 122^nd race.

At the other extreme, it is excellent that there are so many young runners taking part. There was one JW 15-19 and 15 JW14 of whom 6 managed under 25 minutes.  In the YM 15-19, there were 6 participant of whom 5 managed under 25 minutes and in the JM14 there were 14 runners of whom 4 were under 25 minutes.

It is good news that there are so many young runners…the bad news is that there were complaints from other parents about a parent who was berating their child.  The objective is for us all to enjoy our running.  Please do not put young people off running.

As an older person myself, I am delighted that 54 (20.5%) of the runners were over 50!

And finally…congratulations to John Kinsey, Suzanne Wise and Liz Killip on managing 50 runs.

Serge Lourie

The winner of the much coveted Richmond parkrun Monthly Sweatshop Prize for March is Stephen Wiggins. The prize is awarded to the athlete who has shown long term dedication as well as consistency and improvement over the month.

Stephen is a very fine example of someone who has worked very hard at his running and as a result achieved some great improvements. I had to award Stephen the Sweatshop prize this month as for the first time in its history a runner has run every single parkrun this month (and it’s a 5 week month) and PB’d on every occasion. That’s 5/5!! Stephen first ran Richmond parkrun back in 2008 so he’s been with us since almost the beginning and recently his string of running every single Saturday (except one) since 1^st Jan is paying dividends. So well done Stephen, I hope you enjoy the new trainers and your ‘run’ of PBs (no pun intended) continues for several more weeks.

We'd like to thank Hugh Brasher of Sweatshop for his generosity and to congratulate Stephen on his achievement. His prize is a new pair of running shoes fitted at the Teddington Sweatshop.