By Amelie Ray

Wonderful weather for this week’s event as even the cows seemed to relax a little as I spent an enjoyable morning seeing all the lovely volunteers’ smiling faces as they arrived to make this parkrun happen.

Over the past few months I have been able to take on a number of roles throughout the events as a part of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh award with the improving weather certainly making the early start more bearable.

As a part of my volunteering aspect of the award I can see the innerworkings of the parkrun over the 12months I will spend here with timekeeping being a favourite role of mine as everyone makes the final sprint and shows pure determination.  I admire everyone who manages to finish this course.  So, well done to all the runners this week.

  

This week we had 16 first timers and visitors from Croydon, Harrogate, Morley, Pocklington, Nottingham and Stonehenge.  It was lovely to see you all, and a welcome to both the brilliant first-time volunteers Becky Oldridge who helped to set up the course and Alan Hague who marshalled and gave everyone a much-needed cheer on from the bottom of Hill 60.

These events wouldn’t be possible without the amazing volunteers who help each week so if anyone else would like to lend a hand just get in touch via our website

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/beverleywestwood/futureroster/

Congratulations to Emma Toulson on achieving a milestone of 50 parkruns!

This week a junior runner finished second and it was only his first parkrun!  William Ostler (JM11-14) finished in 22:06, one second ahead of his dad.  Some amazing running from the juniors this week as half of the PBs were achieved by them so congratulations to

• Zach Barker
• James Byass
• William Newsam
• Adrian Foulds
• Harriet Crowther

and congrats also to all the other speedy juniors who may not have got a PB but all ran extremely well.  

  

This week 154 people ran, jogged and walked the course.  Of the 16 first timers 8 were making their parkrun debut and 8 were visiting from other events.  11 people recorded new personal bests and representatives of 17 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 34 awesome volunteers:

Ian TASKER • Helen STORR • Maria HUTCHINSON • Louise BARRETT • Christine WHITEHOUSE • Kay FARROW • Steve FARROW • Susan HERDSMAN • Ian HAIRSINE • Martin GREENSILL • Patrick MARSHALL • Alison NICHOLSON • Amelie RAY • Becky OLDRIDGE • Cindy MCANDREW • Melissa MALTON • Julian MINSHALL • Angela ACKLAM • Anne MARRIS • Polly CAMPBELL • Chris GIBSON • Brian CRESSEY • Stephen NEWTON • Gillian ROBINSON • Ed HUSBAND • Alan HAGUE • Brian GENT • Matthew FRAMPTON • Nicholas MORRELL • Grace NEWTON • Barbara GENT • Louis HAMMOND • Samuel JACKSON • Joel NEWTON

This week's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Beverley Westwood parkrun Results Page.

The female record is held by Becky BRIGGS who recorded a time of 18:20 on 17 August 2019 (event number 6).
The male record is held by Kian WILES who recorded a time of 16:00 on 23 October 2021 (event number 50).
The Age Grade course record is held by Carol BAKER who recorded 87.60% (21:14) on 23 October 2021 (event number 50).

Beverley Westwood parkrun started on 13 July 2019.  Since then 4,237 participants have completed 18,260 parkruns covering a total distance of 91,300 km, including 3,439 new Personal Bests.  A total of 384 individuals have volunteered 2,921 times.

Lots of BWp love

Amelie

 

 

 

 

 

By Martin Greensill

It was a sunny but slightly cold morning as the first volunteers arrived on the Westwood early this morning for our 78th event.  We were greeted by several cows near the start area but they soon moved away and left us to get on with setting up the course.  Our bovine buddies have caused a few problems recently with some, shall we say, over-exuberant behaviour but they now seem to have settled into their new environment.

It was reassuring to see some familiar faces (human, not bovine) as I returned to the familiar setting of BWp after missing last week's event.  I had been on a short break to Poland, where I took the opportunity to do a spot of parkrun tourism.  I went along to parkrun Gdynia, on the Baltic coast, which staged the first parkrun event in Poland in October 2011.  It was a rainy, windy morning as a few dozen of us gathered on the sea front for Event #477.  I arrived in time for the first-timers' welcome - not that my punctuality did me any good as I barely understood a word of it!

Anyway, we were soon off along the promenade and I completed the virtually flat course (5m elevation) in 21:48.  I then had a chat with the run director, whose good English compensated for my poor Polish.  Polish parkruns are typically dominated by fast young men, so I was satisfied with position 20 out of 48 participants.  Amazingly, I was first in my age category by nearly nine minutes.  Polish men in their 50s clearly have other (better?) things to do on a Saturday morning.

That was the fifth venue I've attended in Poland (10 parkruns in total) and each one has been well organised but not that well attended.  Gdynia, for example, is a city with 245,000 inhabitants but the average attendance at its only parkrun is 99.  Be that as it may, I have always had a warm welcome at these parkruns (most young Poles speak some English) and enjoyed them all.  I can also recommend Poland as a great place for running.  It is larger than the UK but has a much smaller population (only 37 million) and it's cheap and easy to go off and explore the many forests, lakes and mountains.

Back to Beverley and this week 190 people ran or walked our challenging but scenic course.  Of the 21 first timers 17 were visitors from other events and 4 people made their parkrun debut.  42 people recorded new personal bests and representatives of 20 different clubs took part.  We welcomed visitors from the following places:

• Market Rasen
• Reading
• Scunthorpe
• Sleaford
• Worcester
• York

Our visitor from Reading was Emma GRENSIDE, who was completing her 325th run - not an official milestone but impressive nonetheless.  A member of Reading Roadrunners in Berkshire, Emma was making her debut at our event.  We hope she enjoyed her visit and will return one day.

Hi-vis heroes

The event was made possible by 28 volunteers:

Helen STORR • Louise BARRETT • Kay FARROW • Susan HERDSMAN • Ivor ROBERTS • Martin GREENSILL • Anji WARD • Patrick MARSHALL • Jennifer WELLOCK • Clare GARDINER • Pam POMA • John PARISH • Angela ACKLAM • Joshua SMITH • Chris GIBSON • Julia PEPLOW • John NICHOLLS • Kerry HARVEY • Stephen NEWTON • Gina-Marie PECKITT • Ed HUSBAND • Brian GENT • David SPENCER • Lesley MORRELL • Grace NEWTON • Barbara GENT • Samuel JACKSON • Joel NEWTON

We are always looking for volunteers and really appreciate any help you are able to give.  Besides contributing to your local community, volunteering gives a sense of achievement and satisfaction and is a fun way to make new friends and improve your social life.  If you are interested in volunteering, please contact us here: beverleywestwood@parkrun.com.

Remember that volunteering does not preclude you from running or walking.  Various roles can be performed before or after parkrun, such as course set-up, event close-down, or writing the run report.  For example, regular volunteer Stephen NEWTON helped with set-up (with his children) and did the first timers' welcome today, then ran the event and even got a PB.  In fact several people who volunteered for set-up recently recorded PBs afterwards.  Is volunteering a factor in their success?

Just as it is pleasing that new volunteers have joined our ranks in recent months, it was also good to see the return of a familiar face in Gina, a BWp volunteer from the early days, whose cheery demeanour was very welcome as we tackled Hill 60 this morning.

First finishers

The first finisher was David TYAS (VM 35-39) in a personal best time of 17:51.  It was 'Lucky Thirteen' for David as he achieved this on his 13th run here.

The first female across the line was Sarah SELLENS (SW 35-39) with 20:48 for 8th place overall.  That was Sarah's fifth PB in her nine runs on the Westwood and her first top 10 finish here.

The first junior home was Jacob JORNA (JM11-14), who recorded 22:19 for a commendable 18th place.

The first female junior was Harriet Bishop (JW11-14) in 27:42.

The highest age-grading score was achieved by Beverley AC member Mark DALTON with 79.77 per cent for 20:06 (equalling his PB and placing him 7th overall).

Milestones

The following achieved running milestones:

• Jack PERCY (junior) – 10 runs
• Michael DUDHILL – 25 runs
• Anne FITZPATRICK – 25 runs
• Lee BAILEY – 50 runs

Two BWp stalwarts achieved milestones for volunteering:

• Anji WARD – V25
• Ed HUSBAND – V50

Hope to see you next week for our event on Jubilee weekend!  Wear red, white and blue, bring a picnic and join us for fun and games immediately after parkrun.

Lots of BWp love

Martin

Statistics

This week's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Beverley Westwood parkrun Results Page.

The female record is held by Becky BRIGGS who recorded a time of 18:20 on 17 August 2019 (event number 6).

The male record is held by Kian WILES who recorded a time of 16:00 on 23 October 2021 (event number 50).

The age grade course record is held by Carol BAKER who recorded 87.60% (21:14) on 23 October 2021 (event number 50).

Beverley Westwood parkrun started on 13 July 2019.  Since then 4,163 participants have completed 17,864 parkruns covering a total distance of 89,320 km, including 3,378 new personal bests.  A total of 381 individuals have volunteered 2,858 times.

By Ed Husband

parkrun promotes inclusivity.  Everyone is welcome.  There is no single winner – everyone is a winner at parkrun.  parkrun encourages participants of any ability to take part and prides itself on being accessible to all.  It is recommended that wheelchair users check the suitability of the course first, as unfortunately some courses are not wheelchair friendly, but this should not stop an individual from getting involved – you can join the fantastic team of hi-vis heroes and you will be made very welcome.

It was only a matter of time before I introduced my friend Daniel to parkrun.  Today, I brought him along to BWp to volunteer.  Whilst walking to the Westwood this morning, I wondered if Daniel knew what he was about to embark on.  Thankfully the weather was kind to us.  We were greeted by friendly volunteers and Daniel was given a warm welcome by all.  As soon as he was wearing the hi-vis jacket he was smiling and he posed for a photo with RD Matt and me next to the parkrun sign.

parkrun provides everyone with different opportunities and for Daniel to attend an event in his local community is fantastic.  Our personal experiences will vary but sometimes we will share the same experiences.  Today provided Daniel with a positive one and hopefully the first of many events that we can attend together.  Daniel appeared to enjoy the positive environment, looking around watching volunteers and parkrunners arrive along with the noisy barkrunners which made Daniel laugh, especially just before the 9am start!  During the event we watched and cheered as runners and walkers passed daffodil turn.  Daniel was still mesmerised by what was going on but was starting to get into the spirit as we started our joint role of barcode scanning.  For Daniel, social interaction is important and he thoroughly enjoys interacting with people.  The Westwood provides not only a beautiful backdrop but sensory stimuli with the different smells and sounds for us to all to enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who made Daniel welcome this morning and for giving him a positive experience and a morning neither of us will ever forget.  Hopefully this is the first of many events that we will attend together.

If you are thinking of coming along to parkrun or know someone who is thinking of giving it a go, please take that step and give it a go!  There is a role for everyone at parkrun.  Wheelchair users can contact the course team at all events to find out more about the course so they can decide for themselves if it is suitable for them.

Today at BWp we had visitors from Leeds, Meltham (West Yorks), and Lanark and Peniciuk in Scotland.  We hope they enjoyed their morning on the Westwood.

Congratulations to this week’s official milestone achievers:

• Joanne Hodgson 50 parkruns
• Louis Hammond 25 parkruns
• Logan Arthur (junior) 10 parkruns

and to the unofficial milestone achievers:

• Sarah Tock 450 parkruns
• Nicola Wise 150 parkruns

Patricia Bielby finished in an impressive 25:29 and set a new BWp VW70-74 age grading record of 87.38%.  She was very close to our age grade course record for all age groups, 87.60%, set by Carol Baker last October.

Well done to Rosie Butler who completed her 12th parkrun and ran all the way for the first time.

First time visitor to BWp Thomas Edwards from Leeds finished first in 17:31.  He loved the course and found it easy to follow proving what a great job the set-up teams did.  Thank you volunteers!

Martin Greensill and Brian Cressey were notable by their absence today.  Up until this week Martin had run at all events at BWp and volunteered at all but one.  Brian Cressey has marshalled on 73 occasions, always in the same place – the tricky transition area.  With both of them away on holiday this week Jenny Wellock and Helen Storr took charge of the lap1/lap 2 transition and did a sterling job.

This week 185 people ran or walked the course.  Of the 26 first timers 6 were brand new to parkrun and 20 were visitors from other events.  29 people recorded new personal bests and representatives of 21 different clubs took part.

parkrun relies on volunteers to make the event happen.  Thank you to all the volunteers.  If you haven’t volunteered before, do give it a go; it’s fantastic to see all the runners and walkers on the Westwood.  It does give you an insight to what happens behind the scenes.  To volunteer just contact us at beverleywestwood@parkrun.com with your barcode A number.  Today's event was made possible by 29 awesome volunteers:

Frank HARRISON • Helen STORR • Louise BARRETT • Kay FARROW • Patrick MARSHALL • Jennifer WELLOCK • Allison ENGLISH • Amelie RAY • John PARISH • Matt SEYMOUR • Chris PEACH • Tom JORNA • Freddie JORNA • Dara BALL • Joshua SMITH • Lauren TURNER • Anne MARRIS • Alice JORNA • Chris GIBSON • Julia PEPLOW • Suzanne KETTRICK • Stephen NEWTON • Ed HUSBAND • Jo WHITTLE • Paul SEARS • Nicholas MORRELL • Grace NEWTON • Fiona BUCHANAN • Daniel SHAND

Today’s full results and a complete event history can be found on the Beverley Westwood parkrun Results Page.

The female record is held by Becky BRIGGS who recorded a time of 18:20 on 17 August 2019 (event number 6).
The male record is held by Kian WILES who recorded a time of 16:00 on 23 October 2021 (event number 50).
The age grade course record is held by Carol BAKER who recorded 87.60% (21:14) on 23 October 2021 (event number 50).

Beverley Westwood parkrun started on 13 July 2019. Since then 4,142 participants have completed 17,674 parkruns covering a total distance of 88,370 km, including 3,336 new personal bests. A total of 380 individuals have volunteered 2,830 times.

Lots of BWp love

Ed x