As I write, Keswick parkrun is operating from its third venue. The railway line is our home, of course, but Storm Desmond forced a relocation to the lakeside. Having moved back for a while, we are in Fitz Park whilst the repairs take place. I set up the move, before disappearing on a trip abroad, leaving everything in the very capable hands of the Saxby family. It was quite strange coming back, therefore, to a course, and routine with which I was not particularly familiar or practised.

Luckily Lance Saxby was happy to run the show for one more week allowing me a little acclimatisation time. I am told that we received an excellent reintroduction back into Keswick parkrun life, with an hour of nearly continuous torrential rain. Upon trying to complain, I was was put firmly in my place with the comment that it had only rained twice during the six week school holidays, once for two weeks, and once for four! I thought I had better say no more. I joked about this with some visiting runners, and they went away laughing at what great banter us Northerners always have, clearly not picking up on my Hampshire accent...

Since many of our volunteer team have clearly spent much of the summer very wet, I'll make sure to say thank you to all involved in Keswick parkrun over the summer. Mike Hirst has obviously been much appreciated as the provider of the tent around the scanning area, but I know lots of you have supported our event, so thank you one and all.

Fitz Park has unsurprisingly seen some fast running, on the flat course, and this week, Maciej Bialogonski was the first of three runners to complete the route in under seventeen minutes, in 16:32. Maciej, of Bristol and West AC, was followed in 16:37 by George Rudman, and 16:57 by Tom Humphries.

Helen Newberry, also of Bristol and West, was first female finisher in 18:37, with Lydia Davis in 20:29 and Isabel Mastrolonardo in 21:58.

The course produced another 23 personal bests. I'll be trying to get one myself, before we move back to our sparkly new railway line! Well done all.

Looking ahead to next week, you may be aware that Lakeland Trail Races are coming to town. They will be using the park, but we will be on as normal, and will be working together to ensure a smooth running of our event.

The volunteer roster is more or less full for this week, but if you would like to join our fantastic team in the future, and it's a great way in to the parkrun community, get in touch on keswick@parkrun.com

A few statistics are included below, and all the results are on our web page. See you all again soon.

This week 148 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 44 were first timers and 23 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 33 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 13 volunteers:

Lance SAXBY • Dawn SAXBY • Sian SAXBY • Peggy CAMPION • Mike HIRST • Sarah BLUNDELL • Anna HUMPHREYS • Stefanos STEPHANOU • Marie LEE • Duncan BOOTH • John E MERRITT • Helen HUMPHREYS • Laura HALL

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Keswick parkrun Results Page.

The male record is held by Sam STEVENS who recorded a time of 15:29 on 27th August 2016 (event number 117).
The female record is held by Hayley CARRUTHERS who recorded a time of 17:22 on 1st September 2018 (event number 221).
The Age Grade course record is held by Shirley Rose GIBSON who recorded 89.85% (25:37) on 24th August 2019 (event number 273).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 12,949 participants have completed 40,879 parkruns covering a total distance of 204,395 km, including 6,231 new Personal Bests. A total of 394 individuals have volunteered 2,946 times.

We're on tour again - but not far away this time.

It looks like we're going to be good to start running in Fitz Park on Saturday. There may be periods when the railway is open and has access, but there are going to be enough interruptions that we need to get cracking at our new, temporary venue.

I'll have someone at the station platform to guide runners who aren't sure, or who haven't got the message, but otherwise, we'll gather in the park just outside Café West ready for five laps and a coffee.

I'm still awaiting official confirmation, and changes to the website to come through, but I'm confident enough to put a call out for volunteers. Get in touch at keswick@parkrun.com if you would like to help.

See you Saturday!

Adam

This one has been coming for some time, and now it's here - our course has been fenced off for the rebuilding work to begin. At the moment, only a few metres have been shut, but they block access from our start area, and there was only ever 2.5km to the next barrier. That means there is now not space for a parkrun on that route, and the access will decrease before it improves.

I have put things in place for a speedy move to Fitz Park. Whether that can happen in time for this Saturday remains to be seen, but I suspect we'll have a cancellation or two before we are up and running in the park. Please be patient about that.

Our course, as I have mentioned in previous articles, will be a five lap route around the park - not ideal, of course, but I have outlined the reasons for that elsewhere, and ask for your patience with that too. If our route is really not your thing, you're not being unfaithful by going up to Whinlatter parkrun for some hill training. I hope that some of you will continue to support Keswick parkrun, and of course, Café West during this period.

All the details that you need to know will appear on the website in due course, and I'll keep putting things out there on social media. Watch this space!

Lots to report since I last wrote. It was good to see the Café West Mascot running with us last week. Westie was joined by a crew of coloured pencils, which did not look like the easiest way to run! Our relationship with Café West has been a close one from the start, and they seem to absolutely "get" the parkrun ethos, and I think we have a good appreciation of their ethos too. Long may the partnership, established over many cups of coffee, continue.

I need to update everyone on the situation with our route, too. Work is due to begin imminently on the reconnection of the Keswick to Threlkeld route, of which our parkrun is a part. This could mean losing access to our course as from Monday, but Cubby's Construction have been proactive in working with us so far, and it is possible that we will have continued access to our route on Saturdays. Gambling on this is why I have held off moving the course thus far. That gamble may fail, and if it does, we could face have a week or two of cancellations while everything is updated, and we move to Fitz Park. I am trying to avoid that, but the only way to guarantee it would have been to move ahead of schedule, and I did not really want to do that. Our special course is widely appreciated. I am meeting with the Lake District National Park, and Cubby's Construction in the early part of the week, will make a decision then, and spread the word widely. Please share this message when it gets out to help spread the word.

Linked to this, but as part of a longer term project that extends beyond parkrun, I am looking to see how we can make the railway line even better than it was before Storm Desmond. I will be speaking to the Lake District National Park about this, but the plans are as follows: a permanent marked 5km parkrun course, with 1km markers, a permanent 10km route, also with 1km markers, which will be partly shared with the 5km route, and some exercise stations along the route. If you have ever seen a French "parcours de santé" you'll know what I am thinking of, but essentially, stations to do sets of gym workouts at set distances along the route. I am applying for funding for this, and need to give approximate costs. Anyone who can help me with a quote for any parts of this project, please get in touch via the usual email address keswick@parkrun.com

After all that...we had a parkrun. Bob counted us out and back, and got to spend some time with the ladies of Notts Women's Runners as a result. I'll post photos on social media, and if you're reading the print version of this report in the News and Star, you'll see them there. It was a bumper crowd of 313 runners - encouraged, I think, by the prospect of losing access to our wonderful course for a while. I'll take this opportunity to say a big thank you to our volunteer team, and if you would like to help out at future editions of Keswick parkrun, please get in touch through keswick@parkrun.com.

Stats are below, and I'll look forward to seeing you all again soon!

This week 313 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 106 were first timers and 38 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 62 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 12 volunteers:

Don ESSLEMONT • Leon BOND • Lorna GOLD • Adam CAMPION • Peggy CAMPION • Heleen FRANKEN-GILL • Helen HEENAN • Henry TEASDALE • Duncan BOOTH • Kathy MORRIS • Richard DOWNING • Dawn TITLEY

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Keswick parkrun Results Page.

The male record is held by Sam STEVENS who recorded a time of 15:29 on 27th August 2016 (event number 117).
The female record is held by Hayley CARRUTHERS who recorded a time of 17:22 on 1st September 2018 (event number 221).
The Age Grade course record is held by Janet KENYON who recorded 89.24% (20:17) on 25th July 2015 (event number 69).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 12,495 participants have completed 39,686 parkruns covering a total distance of 198,430 km, including 6,045 new Personal Bests. A total of 388 individuals have volunteered 2,845 times.

Firstly, many thanks to Lance and Dawn Saxby for stepping up and overseeing the running of this week's event in our absence. Everything seemed to go as smoothly as usual, except results processing. That's no-one's fault, but our laptop is getting a bit creaky. We were saved by Nic Wiseman stepping in with the junior parkrun laptop - thank you Nic! I'll speak to Lance about this, but certainly over the next few weeks, I would appreciate it if prospective volunteers for the timekeeping role could come equipped with the parkrun virtual volunteer app installed on their phone. For the moment, I am happy to use the barcode scanners, although the phone app will also handle the scanning, but it would be useful to gradually move towards the app for timekeeping as it frees us up from one particular computer for processing. If you are not happy to do this, please do not let it put you off volunteering, there will be a gradual transition.

Speaking of transitions, Cath Johnson from the National Park Office has been in touch. We are nearing the point where work will begin on the line. I am aware of a petition to prevent tarmac from being used on the route. I have stayed out of it so far, largely because a petition against tarmac is also a petition against the involvement of Highways England, who have provided a significant amount of funding. I would be happy to see a petition in favour of something, but I would urge consideration, here, as I think our priority is the re-opening of the route. I am aware that views will differ on this one. Cath tells me that we will have access to the route until at least the 12th July, but the time is coming when we need to be prepared to move.

The planned move has always been to Fitz Park. Unfortunately, the route down by the lake was becoming dangerous as drivers repeatedly used a section of the route during the run, and runner's safety is paramount. Fitz Park also allows us to continue our involvement with our partners Café West - a relationship I think we all value. My first choice was a three lap circuit of Upper and Lower Fitz park. Unfortunately, however, we have not been given permission to use Upper Fitz Park, and our remaining option, other than cancel for 15 months or so, is to use five laps of the main part of the park. I am aware that this will not be hugely popular, but we have given lots of consideration to this, and the various factors involved, but largely that of no interaction with traffic, have reduced our options to this. I hope you'll all continue to support Keswick parkrun during this period.

Lastly, of course, the run itself! A big thank you to our team of volunteers, and everyone who ran this week.

This week 223 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 77 were first timers and 15 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 36 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 11 volunteers:

Nic WISEMAN • Lance SAXBY • Dawn SAXBY • Poppy METCALFE • Catherine WETHERFIELD • Henry TEASDALE • Duncan BOOTH • Robert ROYALL • John E MERRITT • Kathy MORRIS • Jackie KNIGHTS

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Keswick parkrun Results Page.

The male record is held by Sam STEVENS who recorded a time of 15:29 on 27th August 2016 (event number 117).
The female record is held by Hayley CARRUTHERS who recorded a time of 17:22 on 1st September 2018 (event number 221).
The Age Grade course record is held by Janet KENYON who recorded 89.24% (20:17) on 25th July 2015 (event number 69).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 12,298 participants have completed 39,109 parkruns covering a total distance of 195,545 km, including 5,973 new Personal Bests. A total of 387 individuals have volunteered 2,822 times.