School's Out

 

Run Director Lucy addresses the crowd 

Warming up on the start line 

It may have been the first day of half term, and a glorious one at that, but 83 young participants chose to spend their Saturday morning completing parkrun in the sunshine at Bushy on Saturday.  Some may have been reluctant to give up their first lie-in of the holiday, and therefore, had to be dragged out of bed.  Others may have been bribed, but based on the post event smiles no one seemed to have regretted it.

Daniel JELFS (JM11-14) was the fastest of the group, finishing a mighty 7th place in 16:39 minutes.  A member of Thames Turbo Triathlon, Daniel knocked off over 30 seconds from his previous best time.  He was followed closely over the line by Connor FOLEY (JM15-17) who finished 9th in a time of 16:48.  The fastest young woman was Poppy MITCHELL (JW15-17) of Epsom and Ewell Harriers who was placed 77th with a 23-second PB and a finish time of 19:52.

There were a number of visitors among the 83, many of them at taking part at Bushy for the first time.  Harvey and Toby, both participating in the 10-years and under category, were visiting from Doncaster with mum Emerald and crossed the line almost together in 40:18 and 40:19.   Samuel and Zara hadn’t travelled as far with Mum, Sheridan  – their local parkrun is Nonsuch.  However,  Zara (JW10) asked if they could visit Bushy because it’s her favourite parkrun and Samuel (JW11-14) was happy to oblige because he was looking to run sub-20 minutes.   Samuel’s time of 19:38 was almost 40 seconds faster than the last time he ran at in the park.

 

Harvey and Toby from Doncaster , visiting Bushy for the first time with Mum, Emerald 

 

Samuel achieved his goal of sub-20 minutes, and was running with Mum Sheridan and sister Zara 

 

There were also a number of young runners participating in their first ever parkrun.  Rufus and his dad Charles were both running for the first time, as was Toby CHARVIN (JM10) and his father Sacha.  Alessia CROALL (JW10) was persuaded to run for the first time, joining sister Sofia and parents Katie and Simon who have done 20 parkruns between them.

 

Rufus chose Bushy for his first ever parkrun, accompanied by Dad, Charles 

 

As ever the younger generation was also well-represented on the volunteer rota on Saturday.  Bushy couldn’t run without its regular pool of volunteers and there are plenty of roles to fill so newcomers are always welcome.  This week’s tally of 69 included Joe MURPHY and Katie KNOTT, aged 15 and 17 years respectively,  who were managing the timing between them as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award.  So a big thank you to both of them and to the rest of the crew:

Volunteers

We are very grateful to the volunteers who made this event happen: Richard BATE, Max BAYON, India BENJAMIN, Nick BLANCHARD, Andrew BLYTH, Roger BROOKS, Helen CARRINGTON, Jocelyn COLLIE, Ruby COLQUHOUN, Sian COOLEY, Lara DENARO, Carol DICKINSON, Lorraine DILLAMORE, Jack EDWARDS, Richard EVANS, Sadie EVANS, Jake FOX, Erin GOODWIN, John GREAVES, Izabel GRINDAL, Stella HAMMOND, Tracey HARDCASTLE, Mac HARROWELL, Nicole HAVRANEK, Jack HINDE, Heather HODGE, Robert HODGE, Andrew HOWARTH, Susan HOWARTH, Dewi JAMES, Gemma JONES, Ali KENNEDY, Richard KENNEDY, Katie KNOTT, Margaret LE FRANC, Clare LE VOIR, Colin LEA, Mike LIGHTFOOT, Aisha LIVINGSTONE, Iain MACLENNAN, Fiona MCANENA, Rodney Howard MCCULLOCH, Susie MCNICOL, Diane MULLEN, Ryan MULLEN, Barbz MUNRO, Emma May MURPHY, Joseph MURPHY, Isaac NOVELL, Keara-Valentine O'BRIEN, Emily PEAD, Rosie RENDALL, Jacqueline RICH, Stewart ROSE, David RUEGG, Liz SAVAGE, Duncan SCOBLE, Jill SMITH, Wendy STOKES, Pauline STONES, Iwona STUBBS, Carol SWAFFER, Lucy THATCHER, Charlie THOMAS, Michael TROTT, Alexa TYNAN, Simon WESTGARTH, Adrian WINFIELD, Fran WYLDE

Why not get involved and volunteer?

Joe who was doing the timing for only the second time, with Katie  

 

 Volunteer Co-ordinator Wendy, making sure everyone knows their role  

 

 

Stella and Steve deliver the first timer's welcome 

 

Young volunteers helping to manage the funnel and sort tokens 

Among the other young people participating at Bushy was seven-year-old Eben, who has completed the course for three weeks in a row now having done a Couch to 5k programme with his mum Caroline.   It wasn’t his fastest time because he happily talked most of the way round according to Caroline, and was looking forward to an ice-cream at the end.  Another mother-son partnership was Jennifer and Christopher.  It was Christopher’s (JM10) 12th parkrun and a good way to get rid of any nervous energy ahead of the big match on Saturday night - Christopher was wearing his Liverpool FC shirt.

 

Eben with Mum, Caroline 

 

Christopher running with Mum, Jennifer 

 

Sisters Grace and Jess ran with friend Matilda 

 

A slightly older participant with a big event to look forward to was Darren PEAD from Sydney.  Darren is in the UK with his family to see the Abba Voyage concert at the Olympic Park in Stratford.   He and wife Lucille ran the course on Saturday while daughter Emily volunteered to be a tail-walker.  Darren had travelled the furthest of our international visitors but there were others from Brisbane, South Africa, Ireland and Spain at this week’s event.

 Darren Pead, visiting from Sydney and running with wife Lucille 

For other participants Bushy was the big event because they were celebrating significant milestones.  Richard FLETCHER completed his 700th run, admitting that it taken him a little while to get there having been the second person to reach 500 runs in January 2014.  Travel and other priorities have checked his participation rate since then but Richard said he still loved Bushy.  “Where else can you go on a Saturday morning and meet 1,000 mates, and have a run and a coffee.”

 Richard Fletcher having completed his 700th run 

 

Three participants qualified for a 250 t-shirt on Saturday.  Ian ELDEN from Haverhill RC and Samuel HENSHALL from Run Walk for Life, both visited Bushy for the first time to mark the occasion, while Rachel VAUGHAN is a regular having run 238 of her 250 parkruns in Bushy.

 

Samuel Henshall celebrating his 250th run 

 

Six participants reached the 100 events milestone, while 10 made it to 50.  Jacob (JM10) was among the 11 to reach the 25 event milestone, and sprinted to the finish as if the t-shirt depended on it.  He couldn’t quite match the PB he achieved last week and finished with dad Tom in 24:40.  Big sister Alice (JW11-14), made it a family affair finishing a minute and a half later in 26:10.

 Here is Lizzie Ingham celebrating her 100th parkrun with friends including Danny Jackson doing his very first

Jacob and Alice, running with Dad Tom 

 

Total number of different events isn’t considered an official milestone but it motivates a large number of parkrunners.  Peter ARMSTRONG from Northwich chose Bushy as his 50th location and dressed up for the occasion, channelling his inner Braveheart – apparently that is what the Bushy start looks like.  However he forgot to check with his friends Tim and Lorraine who accompanied him to Bushy and poor Lorraine had to keep her distance due to  her aversion to tin foil.

  Peter Armstrong from Northwich celebrating his 50th parkrun location  

 

Visitors from Dorset 

Elijah was happy after knocking off more than two minutes from his PB 

Alex supported by friend Oscar 

Sam slept through the whole event while Mum, Christine, did all the hard work  

Capturing the moments, local friends 

The famous double funnel 

The finish is in sight 

 

 

MILESTONES LIST

The fastest male finisher on Saturday was James HOAD of Thames Hare & Hounds who finished in a new PB of 15:50.  Fastest female was Nina MARTIN of Basingstoke & Mid Hants AC who finished 41st in a time of 18:47.

Fastest men

 

Fastest women 

 

 

Fastest young men

 

Fastest young women

 

Top 5 age grading men

 

Top 5 age grading women

 

 

This week’s 1,209 runners brought the total of number of participants to 68,323 at Bushy who between them, have clocked up 666,829  finishes, 86,882 PBs and a staggering 3.33 million kilometres.

 

Tail walkers not looking in any hurry to finish 

 

Izabel Grindal

 

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