You may have noted that there was a lot of coverage of parkrun in the press this weekend as the event celebrated it's 14th birthday. Clearly we haven't been going for quite as long (just the 4 and a bit years) but we are very proud to be part of the parkrun family.
This weekend did have a significance for our event too. In a change that will be noticeable to no-one and have no impact on our usual weekly run, Sunday was my first junior parkrun as the Harrow Lodge Event Director. Event Director basically means that I am responsible for making sure that our run can happen every week and that we have enough volunteers to ensure it is run in a safe way. I am really pleased and excited to take on the role. I love our parkrun - we have so many lovely people that come down and join us each week to volunteer and to run, we have a great number of really brilliant children that love running and want to improve and we have even more lovely children (and families) that just like getting up on a Sunday and doing something together that keeps them healthy.
One of the big reasons our parkrun is like that is thanks to our outgoing Event Director - Pete. Pete, and his family (Lucy and Samuel) have been a fundamental part of the parkrun for the last 2/3 years and will be a familiar sight to anyone who has ever come and run on a Sunday morning. I am really pleased to say that they will still be around and they remain part of our run director team but I didn't want the occasion to pass without showing them the gratitude they rightly deserve for all they have done over the past few years.
As for this weeks event - we had ideal running conditions which led to some great PB's, including some long standing one's that were finally beaten by the determined children. You know it means a lot when you hear them shouting on the finish line that they've finally done it and a big smile creeps onto their face. We were very pleased too at awarding some more wristbands - Ethan & Brooke for their half marathon, Maisie for her marathon and Dylan for completing 50 runs and getting his ultra marathon band. It takes a lot of commitment to reach that level. So well done all.
Our volunteers were as amazing and enthusiastic as ever and Rob did a great job in his first outing as Run Director (looking after the event on the day). Yet more thanks to them!
Elaine