The rain is just a state of mind, and it seemed ok in the end. Certainly volunteering on the platform was ok (!), our timekeepers ran the phone app beautifully with phones sheltered inside plastic bags (so don’t forget that tip if you’re volunteering) and most runners returned not looking too soggy!

I always enjoy seeing and chatting to the tourists, and they seemed to represent Bournemouth to Scotland this morning. I hope the contingent from Carlisle, representing Parkinson’s awareness, enjoyed the course too.

Our first two finishers came through scanning without their barcodes this morning, so being a teacher, I sent them into the corner to think about what they’d done. Meanwhile, Thomas Logie got to claim third place, for first known parkrunner…

We’ll done to Holly Wootten, our first female finisher, and well done to the 30 of you who recorded PBs.

Jenni “not you again!” Cunniffe (sorry I’m always so rude to you Jenny!) continues to run with baby clearly very on the way, and Lesley Tickell put a top stint in with the buggy. Very impressive, you too.

I’ll be mainly drying gear out, sorting tokens, and drinking coffee, and if you’d like to be part of the volunteering fun next week, please get in touch via keswick@parkrun.com

The usual stats are all below. Look forward to seeing you all again soon.

This week 219 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 80 were first timers and 30 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 58 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 14 volunteers:

Adam CAMPION • Peggy CAMPION • Mike HIRST • Paul TITLEY • Jane MCGREGOR • Ian TEASDALE • Joanna ROLLS • Craig SCOTT • Duncan BOOTH • Evie ROLLS • John E MERRITT • Kate JONES • Dawn TITLEY • Mark GASCOIGNE

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

The female record is held by Hayley CARRUTHERS who recorded a time of 17:22 on 1st September 2018 (event number 221).
The male record is held by Phillip CROUT who recorded a time of 15:20 on 4th September 2021 (event number 310).
The Age Grade course record is held by Lyn THOMPSON who recorded 93.63% (21:59) on 14th August 2021 (event number 307).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 15,002 participants have completed 47,392 parkruns covering a total distance of 236,960 km, including 7,249 new Personal Bests. A total of 464 individuals have volunteered 3,407 times.

Many thanks to another fine volunteer crew. We seem to be getting into a routine now, and despite occasional problems with the phone app, I think we’re getting there.

I’m aware that being asked to use a phone app is off putting for some potential volunteers, but it has gone really well so far, and I can’t tell you how good the results processing is with the new system!

The new course has caused plenty of controversy, and as I’ve mentioned here before, I’m sure there are some fell runners who have headed to Whinlatter never to return (!) but we’re getting some lovely shiny PBs! Well done to all who did - I noticed second, third and fourth place were all PBs, including one for Keswick AC’s Steve Hebblethwaite. I noticed how fast I’d have to be to get into the top twenty nowadays, and my daughter jokingly, I think, suggested drug testing at the finish! Seriously great running you lot. Well done again!

I enjoyed welcoming a few familiar faces from Carlisle, who were in town as a result of their event being cancelled. Nice to say hello to ex-Event Director and Ambassadors Andrew Graham and Kev Mulvey, Lindsay Graham (current Carlisle ED, I think?) and Sarah Hamilton, Event Support Ambassador for North Cumbria. I’ve missed off lots of friends from Carlisle and DH Runners - apologies and hope you had a great run on our “new”/old course!

As I write, we are still looking for some bar code scanners and a number checker for this coming week. Please get in touch with me at keswick@parkrun.com if you’re able to help.

This week 302 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 147 were first timers and 43 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 74 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 14 volunteers:

Sarah HAMILTON • Clare CROUT • Adam CAMPION • Mike HIRST • Paul TITLEY • Storm HAYWARD • Nicola JACKSON • Roy WATKINS • Tiffany PLATT • Duncan BOOTH • Jenni FARRER • John E MERRITT • Geoff TOOGOOD • 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 Lyn THOMPSON who recorded 93.63% (21:59) on 14th August 2021 (event number 307).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 14,622 participants have completed 46,446 parkruns covering a total distance of 232,230 km, including 7,061 new Personal Bests. A total of 457 individuals have volunteered 3,349 times.

Not too much to report this week - an ace team of volunteers, and things went very smoothly.

Thank you for the positive feedback regarding my reply to the Keswick Reminder. The gentleman who wrote the original letter seemed pretty sympathetic to our cause, and there don’t seem to have been any further issues. I expect things to calm as we re-establish ourselves, and everyone becomes aware that there’s a bit of an invasion at 9:00am! Of course, I’ll reiterate the point that we do share the path, so please keep up the good work.

In fact, a group of locals did come to the start area and speak to the volunteers, saying that there was lots of local support for what we are doing, and how pleased they were to see us back. I appreciate the time they took to do that.

You’ll perhaps remember also that I mentioned the difficulties that one wheel chair user had had during the event. In fact, I spoke to him, too, after our last run, and he was really happy about with how well it had gone. We’re doing a great job of sharing the path with the variety of users out there, so well done again.

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered at any of our three return events. Things have gone pretty well, though the new app for timekeeping and barcode scanning does seem to favour the iPhone a little, which is frustrating. Android devices have generally worked, too, but have just refused to play on a coupe of occasions! If you have an android device, there’s not much you can do about it - I assume we’re just waiting for updates to the app, but I thought I’d share that information.

Details and a link to the results can all be found below, and we don’t quite have a full roster yet, so if you’d like to come down and help this week, please get in touch.

This week 263 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 101 were first timers and 54 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 71 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 13 volunteers:

Dawn SAXBY • Sian SAXBY • Sue WALSH • Dave BOTTOMS • Adam CAMPION • Mike HIRST • Paul TITLEY • Kathryn CLARKE • Duncan BOOTH • Judy MILLEDGE • John E MERRITT • Dawn TITLEY • Mark GASCOIGNE

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 Lyn THOMPSON who recorded 93.63% (21:59) on 14th August 2021 (event number 307).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 14,475 participants have completed 46,144 parkruns covering a total distance of 230,720 km, including 7,018 new Personal Bests. A total of 453 individuals have volunteered 3,335 times.

Another busy parkrun weekend in Keswick. Thanks as always to a great team of volunteers. As I write, we're looking for a couple more for this coming week, and there are plenty of opportunities for the coming weeks, so please email in to Keswick@parkrun.com if you'd like to get involved. It's volunteering, so there's no pay. You won't be poked in the eye either.

Thanks to Dave Bottoms for taking lots of photos on Saturday. They're all over on our facebook page, and I'll add them to our Flickr account when I can. I think Dave got everyone, and I've posted across some of the volunteers here...

Thanks again all.

It was great to see the trail so busy again - 312 runners, walkers and joggers. Awesome. The new surface means we are able to welcome a range of users to parkrun now.

I've included a picture of Mike here - he has a long story, but he's fighting to get fast and fit, and really trying to push himself at parkrun. I enjoyed chatting to him afterwards. As a wheelchair user, Mike's needs are a little different to others. For example, Mike needs to use the centre of the trail a little more, to avoid the camber in places. He could also be approaching fast from behind, so please try hard to be aware of this, and of course the same applies to fast runners with buggies. I think I'm just asking everyone to have a good awareness of who's around them. It raises the question of music listening, so here's the guidance:

"Though running with music isn't banned, parkrun prefer you not to run with music as it is safer if you can hear the marshall's instructions or other runners coming up behind you. They also encourage you to say hello to your fellow runners and it is tricky to have a natter if you can't hear other people."

Thanks for your understanding with that, as we learn how best to use the trail with our large summer numbers, and a variety of participants. I'm loving it, but I'm a bit nervous about August Bank Holiday weekend already!

Well done to all of you who are getting the PBs on our faster route! That's not to take anything away from those of you who jogged along having a chat. You got to enjoy parkrun for longer! Forty four PBs though! Wow!

Here are the other numbers for this week:

This week 312 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 136 were first timers and 44 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 59 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 14 volunteers:

Lorna GOLD • Sue WALSH • Dave BOTTOMS • Adam CAMPION • Mike HIRST • Samantha NEWLAND • Storm HAYWARD • Vanessa METCALFE • Katherine HELM • Ian HELM • Duncan BOOTH • John E MERRITT • Geoff TOOGOOD • Mark GASCOIGNE

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 Lyn THOMPSON who recorded 93.07% (22:07) on 7th August 2021 (event number 306).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 14,374 participants have completed 45,881 parkruns covering a total distance of 229,405 km, including 6,964 new Personal Bests. A total of 452 individuals have volunteered 3,322 times.

Looking forward to seeing you all again soon.

After the busy restart to parkrun, with an initial attendance of 230, I thought we’d settle back down a bit this week. Of course, the school holidays had started, and Boris Johnson had clearly held a Cobra meeting in which he ordered the government to send everyone to Keswick. Our New Year’s Day parkrun from a couple of years back has taught me never to panic, but I did get a few nerves jangling as the 200th runner came in, amidst a steady stream of finishers! In the end, it did settle, and we ended with 280 finishers. Among them, Peter Toes completed his 250th parkrun.

Peter has been an important part of Keswick parkrun since its inception, and now plays a key role with Keswick Juniors. Well done and happy 250th!

Andy Featherstone, director at Albert parkrun in Middlesbrough came to visit. He ran, enjoyed our course, then spotted how busy we were getting, and pitched in with the scanning with his four year old son, Alfie. Thanks both!

We also had the company of the Horsham Event Director - I don’t think we exchanged names, but a scan of the results makes me think it was Philip Liberman who I got to have a quick chatter to.

Some of you may have seen a letter in the Keswick Reminder, from a concerned couple, who were left feeling a bit anxious after an encounter with our parkrun. The letter was intelligent and sympathetic, and I’ve included my response below. For now, we’ll just monitor the situation with others users of the path, but can I take this opportunity to remind you that despite my occasional jokes, we don’t own the path! Please run on the left, and remember that when we’re running, we’re doing some PR for parkrun.

Dear Editor,

I write in my capacity as the director of Keswick parkrun. I read Dr Simpson’s letter with interest, and felt some sympathy with his situation. I would like to apologise, on behalf of the parkrun community, that you and your wife were left feeling vulnerable. The community of parkrunners are a friendly and inclusive bunch, sharing a passion together, and we really wouldn’t like someone to be left feeling that way.

Our parkrun is a fairly simple operation, and whilst the community aspect of it is the most valued, participants really enjoy being given a time for their run or walk. It’s what people use to measure progress, or complete against friends, even if for most, it’s a sociable walk, jog or run. So unfortunately, there is no way we can start runners in waves, since it would compromise the whole model.

At the start of each session, I remind participants that we are not the sole users of the path, and ask them to give way to other users of the route. I’ll especially highlight that this week, and with your permission, use your situation as an example of how we can appear to others.

We’re down at the station platform for a 9:00am start on Saturdays, and it would be lovely to see you in person.

Regards

Adam Campion, Keswick parkrun Event Director.

We now have a full roster for Saturday, so thanks to all who stepped forward. If you’d like to volunteer for future weeks, please contact me at keswick@parkrun.com.

See you all soon!

This week 280 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 91 were first timers and 62 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 65 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 15 volunteers:

Andrew FEATHERSTONE • Dawn SAXBY • Sue WALSH • Adam CAMPION • Isabelle READ • Mike HIRST • Vanessa METCALFE • Lyn THOMPSON • Mike HIND • Paul COLDHAM • Jane MCGREGOR • Jodi BEAVER • Duncan BOOTH • Mark GASCOIGNE • Alfie FEATHERSTONE

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 John E MERRITT who recorded 92.90% (38:01) on 14th March 2020 (event number 303).

Keswick parkrun started on 5th April 2014. Since then 14,238 participants have completed 45,569 parkruns covering a total distance of 227,845 km, including 6,920 new Personal Bests. A total of 450 individuals have volunteered 3,308 times.