The Start

Run Director James Rouse gave a rousing introductory speech at the starting line, praising the contributions of regulars Susie and Alex Galloway, who are moving across North London after this run, and congratulating stalwarts Anita Afonso and Alex Pellew who brought their lovely week-old daughter Sofia to her first-ever parkrun.  Perhaps her earliest memory will be of sweaty runners poking their heads into her buggy for a closer look!

Results

Rather appropriately, Alex G recorded his tenth win here, in a time of 17:27 - just 5 seconds off his personal best.  Alex's first of those ten wins was at the first Scrubs parkrun, nearly a year ago.  Second and third were two first-timers: Glen Turner (17:45) and Andy Bickerstaffe (18:59) respectively. Congratulations to both of you and we hope to see you back at the Scrubs again.

First Female home was Matilda Ferrand, in the JW14 category, with a tremendous time of 23:22.  That gives her an age grading of nearly 70% and knocked 41 seconds off her PB from last week.  I seem to be mentioning Matilda every week, extremely impressive running.  She must be chuffed to see her name on the parkrun winners' list.  Clare Nwokoro was second female in 25:00 exactly, a new PB for her too and the achievement of a goal - I know her partner Chin has been pacing her towards that time and it's just a shame that he's in the States and missed it!  Third female was Elizabeth Draper in another fantastic time of 26:21, which was 1:19 faster than her previous PB.

It's difficult to mention every great performance outside the "medal places" but here are a few at random: Rosemary Britton, Rachel Barnes and Thomas Batt beat their PBs by a minute or more; Sam Britton earned his "10" shirt with a PB in the JM14 category; and Santosh Rai ran here again for the first time since earning his 100 club shirt.  I love the way these runs aren't just about the winners; people are improving and achieving goals like this all the way through the field.

Motivation

One of the young lads was struggling with a niggle of some sort after the first lap and had to take a breather.  Glenn Britton, the footballers' coach, stopped with him, encouraged him to carry on with the run, and coaxed him all the way round by talking to him to take his mind off the discomfort.  I was running close by and could hear Glenn saying things like this: "See, it didn't hurt then, did it?  All that time we were talking, you didn't feel it, did you?  That's because you were thinking about something else. Think about the next flag. Look, you're nearly there!" and so on.  Then as we approached the finish he urged another lad to sprint up the final slope - we told him the time was currently 25:30 and he shot off like a youth possessed. 

Scrubs anniversary

Saturday, June 9th will be the Scrubs parkrun anniversay and we should commemorate it somehow.  There's an idea floating around that we could run the course backwards (I think this means going round the course clockwise instead of our normal anti-clockwise route, rather than each of us physically running backwards!).  Any ideas are welcome - a theme of some sort?  Fancy dress?  Post-run birthday cake?  Please share your ideas on the Wormwood Scrubs parkrun Facebook page, or click on "Comments" below to leave a message here.  Let's hope for a big turnout on the 9th, it would be good to beat our attendance record on the anniversary!

Vanessa Rayner's quote of the week - 1:

"I quite enjoy getting older.  It means that your Age Grading improves without you having to run any faster."

Vanessa Rayner's quote of the week - 2:

Vanessa at the halfway stage: "Well done, keep going!"
Me, running past: "Well done Volunteers!"
Vanessa: "If you can still talk, you're not running fast enough!"

Photos

Hugh Fraser took some great photos today which will appear on the Photos tab above within a day or two.  If you can't wait that long, in the meantime you can see them at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78869216@N05/

Finally

A big thank-you to the volunteers.  All eight volunteer posts were filled this week after a flurry of offers.  As James said at the start line, volunteering can be even more enjoyable than running!

See you all next week.

Tim Barlow

Results

Sean Renfer and Alex Galloway were well out in front for the whole run, finishing in 17:11 and 17:36 respectively, followed by Steph Reynolds, who was first female and third overall in 20:20.  Bernard Mooney was third male in 21:15.  Claire Harwood was second female in her second run at the Scrubs, knocking over a minute off her PB with a time of 22:26, and Matilda Ferrand in the JW14 category was the third-placed female, with another PB of 24:03.  The three young Ferrands (Matilda, Oliver and Aidan) seem to have a little family tussle going; on the age-graded placings, they came 4th, 5th and 6th out of the 40 runners today.  Well run, well run and well run!  Lots more stats on the results tab above.

Many thanks to the volunteers

who made it all possible.  If any of you haven't volunteered before, I can recommend it highly.  It's inspiring to watch the sheer effort and determination that the runners put in, whether they're out among the leaders or performing personal heroics further down the field.  It's easy to forget how tough it is for most people to run 5k, let alone improve at it week after week.  As they say, even if you finish at the back, you've still lapped everyone who stayed in bed this morning!
 

New parkrunner in town

Congratulations from all of us to Anita Afonso and Alex Pellew on the arrival of their baby girl this week.  Rumour has it that the family will attend next Saturday's parkrun and we can probably assume the young lady already has a barcode.  Is there an age category such as "JW<1"?! Great news.

Farewell to Alex and Susie Galloway

Sadly for West London, the Galloways are moving to North London in a couple of weeks and will switch their parkrun home to Ally Pally or Finsbury Park.  They've also both been pillars of the Scrubs parkrun; Alex won the first event, back in June 2011, and Susie is top of the Female Points Table by such a big margin that she's won the annual title already.  They'll be at the Scrubs for a farewell run next week.  Good luck to both of you for the future.

Incidentally, when Alex G told us he was moving house, our first response was: "what's your nearest parkrun?"! This led us to wonder if parkrun is becoming so popular now that this question will creep into conversations about property values. Perhaps estate agents might start to add "distance to nearest parkrun" on sale particulars, just above "nearest tube station... " and "in the school catchment area for..."  Similarly, I had a health check last week and the doctor asked me what exercise I did.  I said, "I do 5k runs every week," and quick as a flash she replied, "parkrun?"  So perhaps the medical questionnaires of the future will say, "Do you eat your 5-a-day?  Do you drink less than 21 units of alcohol per week?  Do you own a parkrun 50 shirt?"
 

Photos

I wandered round the course during the run and took a hundred photos which can all be seen under the Photos tab above.  The runners and the Scrubs look happy and glorious in the sunshine, please have a look.  There are also a few snaps of the runners relaxing in the TVH clubhouse afterwards, busier than I've seen it so far, probably a Scrubs apres-parkrun record!

Keep running and keep spreading the word.  See you next week...

Tim Barlow

Imagine the scene: quarter to nine on a murky morning in West London.  A good turnout of 34 parkrunners are gathering at the Scrubs of Dreams, and the volunteers are ready to go:  flags out, check;  numbers ready, check;  finish funnel set up, check;  timer...  timer...  er...  the timer is not in the box.  Don't panic.  Yet.

The timer might be in Alex's car.  It's not in Alex's car.  Alex is in Alex's car.  Alex's car is in the car park.  Suddenly Alex's car is no longer in the car park,  it's moving rapidly towards Alex's house.  The timer is in Alex's house.  We hope.

Last week I wrote that our run director, James Rouse, looked like a good man in a crisis, and this was his chance to prove it.  He calmly led us all to the start line and began the pre-run briefing, knowing he couldn't let us start until Alex returned with the timer.  So James played for time:  "Hello, good morning and welcome.  Anyone here for the first time?  Oh yes.  Fantastic.  A round of applause for the first-timers please.  Great day for your first visit,  I hope you all like mud.  Let me explain the course to you.  It's all in this half of the park, so if you find yourself among the football pitches, you're lost... "

After a few minutes this filibuster was brought to a merciful end by the sight of Alex, jogging out of the gloom, having set a new PB for the drive in a reasonably-priced car between his house and the Linford Christie Stadium.  His other half Anita is expecting a baby within the next two weeks, so this was great practice for Alex in case the offspring commits the cardinal error of beginning his or her entry into the world on a Saturday morning.  Knowing Alex's recurring habit of not quite ever winning a parkrun, I predict that the anticipated urgent phone call will be triggered at about 9.10am next Saturday, when he's way out in the lead...

Another comment I made in last week's report was this: "I've done 28 parkruns, mostly over the winter, and it hasn't rained at any of them."  Today it drizzled throughout, so that'll teach me to gloat.  The ground was soggy, and we could have had mudbaths on the North Side Ditch, where I paused to take some photos of runners slipping and sliding like ducks landing on ice.  Sadly my camera battery went flat and I'm sorry I didn't catch more runners in this distress, it's great fun.  I'll try again next time.

In these conditions, only four of the 34 runners recorded new PBs: Anna Theophilus, Adam Britton, Pierre Muller and Lucie Emerson, so hearty congratulations to you, and to today's twelve first-timers.  We hope you all enjoyed the run.  Please come back again, you'll go like the clappers when it's dry and be dead certs for a PB!

The female winner was first-timer Eve Goodhart, with a very impressive time of 22:11 in the JW14 age category.  This put her in second place overall on the age grade figures, with 70.85%.  Second female home was the aforementioned Anna Theophilus with a PB of 22:55, and third was Claire Harwood in 23:37.

Male winner by a country mile was Sean Renfer - a perfect ten wins out of ten runs at the Scrubs! - followed a couple of minutes later by Milan Misak in second, and then Alex "Each Way" Pellew in third, racing without his car this time.

The Canine category winner was the speedy little dog seen eating grass just before the start (there's a picture of this under the Photos tab above).  I'm going to try it next time, maybe he knows something we don't.

William Goodhart beat me by a nanosecond (honest) after a lung-busting final sprint.  I was behind him on the final bend and I sneakily tried to overtake him (I'm ashamed to say I actually held my breath so that he might not hear me gaining on him - anybody else ever done that..?!), but he checked me over his shoulder and accelerated too quickly for me.  In the spirit of parkrun we shook hands afterwards, it was great fun.  Well run that man.

Lastly, good luck to Rob Ferguson, who's running the Greater Manchester Marathon tomorrow, probably in even wetter conditions.  He did the parkrun today for a bit of a loosener, and "jogged" round in 24:23.  He's aiming for around 3 hours in the marathon, otherwise he might miss his train back to London.  Now there's an incentive!

For more statistics please check out the Results pages, and join us on facebook for a gossip.

See you next time!

Tim Barlow

Our ranks were swelled by four friendly first-time visitors from the Pudsey Pacers RC, without whom we wouldn't have broken the record, and our regular team of young footballers from the Acton & Ealing Whistlers FC. There were a total of ten Juniors taking part, which was great to see, and five of them in the JM14/JW14 age category finished impressively in under 25 minutes. Joshua Sewell showed a lot of his seniors a clean pair of heels and was the 10th runner home, in a PB of 21:25. 

Now that we have an official drought and a hosepipe ban, it's raining every day, so the Scrubs are back to their wintery muddiness and the North Side Ditch is an obstacle course of brown puddles again. The council had mowed the grassy parts of the track nicely for us, though, and the sun came out, so it wasn't all bad, and 13 runners recorded PBs. Come to think of it, the sun usually seems to come out on Saturday mornings; I've done 28 parkruns, mostly over the winter, and it hasn't rained at any of them.  Does anyone else have this impression, or is it just me being lucky?

Anyway, back to the run. The Men's winner was Dan McKeown, who smashed his previous PB by 48 seconds, finishing in 18:16.  Robert Ferguson in second place also recorded a new PB of 18:35 and Hugh Mason was third in 19:10. 

Congratulations to Clare McMahon, who was first female home, best age grading of the day and 5th overall. Second female was young Matilda Charlotte Ferrand (JW14), with a great run of 24:30, trashing her previous best by 40 seconds and recording the 7th best age grading of the day.  Third female was Jenny Cooper of the aforementioned Pudsey Pacers. Jenny later wrote on our Scrubs facebook page: "Cracking little run, very friendly and worth the trip across London. Thanks!"  -  Jenny, if you're reading this, we're glad you enjoyed it, and I apologise for overtaking you on the home straight.  It was ungentlemanly and also indicated that I hadn't pushed myself hard enough during the previous 4,970 metres!

Thank you to the volunteers: Anita, Brad, Debbie, Richard, and James Rouse, who took charge as Run Director for the first time.  James did a sterling job, appearing calm and confident even during the moments when it looked as if the entire set of results had been accidentally deleted from the laptop.  Good man in a crisis, obviously.

Two of our people, Brad and Richard, were taking part in the London Marathon the next day.  I went down to watch and wonder at those elite runners.  (I'm talking about the Kenyan fellas who win the thing, not Brad and Richard.)  Running a marathon in 2 hours 05 minutes is the equivalent of doing 8.4 successive parkruns at an average of 15 minutes per parkrun, with no stops for coffee or flapjacks. Unimaginable.

Let's hope for another big turnout next week. I find it quite motivating to watch hordes of people streaming past me on the second lap.

AND NOW FOR SOME STATS :

"He's about a kilometre ahead of us already" Brad said to me, as we trundled, comparatively speaking, past the 1k mark.  Brad wastaking it easy because he's preparing for the London Marathon next Sunday and I was running as fast as I could, so we were level. I looked across the Scrubs and sure enough, an apparition was fading quickly into the distance at roughly the speed of a ghost train. 

Known unofficially as Naz, this athlete has been the first male home in two of our last three runs, appearing as "Unknown" for lack of a barcode.  His time of 16 mins 08 seconds today would have been a course record; perhaps he's just too modest to take the glory.  Hugh Mason was second in 18:56, slashing 28 seconds off his PB.  James Malcolm took third place and stayed top of the Men's points table, 17 points clear of yours truly in second place.  For those of you who keep an eye on the Premiership table, with only eight weeks left to the end of the parkrun year I'm the Manchester City of the Scrubs - I keep slogging away but no matter what I do, there's somebody better in the top spot...

The fastest female was Joanna Zenghelis, in her second appearance at the Scrubs, with a PB of 24:15; second Ayuko Suzuki, in 26:46 and third Elizabeth Draper, a first-timer here, in 27:51.  A special mention goes to Scrubs regular Michaela Dunn, who keeps trimming her PB down and has climbed to 4th place in the female points table.  She's planning to do her first 10k race soon, in Munich, so we wish her well.

As it's Grand National day I was wondering if we should have names for the different parts of the Scrubs parkrun course, like Aintree.  The start would be on Prison Stretch.  Left turn into the Linford Christie Chicane, up Hamstring Hill, sharp left at Grand Union Canal Turn into Dehydration Ditch, down through the Acton Achilles to Lucozade Dogleg (sponsored, that one) and back onto the Stretch. Repeat, then eventually turn right at Last Gasp Gate to finish in Fagged-out Funnel.

Speaking of doglegs, I should also mention the Jack Russell who ran the course today at his owner's heels.  As the pair overtook me on the second lap, the four-legged one looked casually up at me as he skipped past and yawned as if he was just popping to the newsagent for a paper.  This lumbered me with a psychological setback which ruined any chance of a PB.  Like Naz, the little beast also forgot his barcode
(bark-code?!) so luckily doesn't appear above me in the results.

Over coffee in the clubhouse we discussed Chris MacDougall's book "Born to Run," which extols the virtues of barefoot running.  (If you haven't read it, give it a try, it's inspirational.) MacDougall describes how the earliest humans evolved into barefoot endurance runners so that they could catch prey such as antelopes, who might have been good sprinters but were rubbish at long distances.  The human hunters just kept going and literally ran the animals into the ground.  Inspired by this conversation I did a few barefoot laps of the football pitches on the way home, picturing a small but delicious primitive dog ahead of me, gradually tiring...

Tim

Stay in touch with WS parkrun on Facebook - "Wormwood Scrubs parkrun" Fan Page and on Twitter - @WSparkrun.

Interested to volunteer, or write the next Run Report? Email the team here : wormwoodscrubsHelpers@parkrun.com

Want to see the rosters for the next few weeks? Have a quick look here : http://www.parkrun.org.uk/wormwood-scrubs/volunteer