We usually walk along Southam Road to get to Leamington parkrun, it’s a great way to warm everyone’s sleepy muscles, and honestly I’m at that annoying age where I can’t get up and *just run* without my legs reminding me how foolish I was Every. Single. Day. until Monday evening.
Walking along the road we see familiar and some new faces all heading in the same direction: singles, couples, friends and families – you can usually tell the ones coming to parkrun – Today we encountered unexpected walk-in drizzle (7% chance of rain the BBC said!) but still everyone was keen as ever to get going on the 522nd Leamington parkrun.
Being the last Saturday run in July the crowd was awash with the blue t-shirts of 5k Your Way, Move Against Cancer who joined representatives of 38 different clubs including Spa Striders and Kenilworth Runners
The drizzle abated to provide warm temperatures and a gentle breeze making near perfect parkrun conditions for the 369 people who ran, jogged and walked the 5km Leamington course this morning. A big welcome to the 49 first timers who joined us (I hope the Big Hill wasn’t too much of a shock) including four juniors Ben, Johnny, Rowan and Willow. We hope to see our newcomers again soon!
Massive congratulations to the 50 athletes who made the most of the fine conditions to record new Personal Bests, including 3PBs from top 10 finishers Louis, Simon and Marc. I would love to tell you about the amazing first place finisher person and time however that will have to be a mysterious “unknown” for now. I’m sure someone saw who the mystery person was, but sadly when he/she crossed the finish line your race reporter was somewhere around the halfway point 15 minutes behind…
We had several fantastic milestones to celebrate: Frances Osborne completed her 100th run, Ian Beasley concurrently completed his 100th run and 25th as a volunteer (and kindly posed for a photo), Bruno who ran his 150th and Andy Edge who ran his 250th on his 50th birthday! Well done team Edge! I hope someone treated you to something from the Café to celebrate.
Of course we wouldn’t be able to run without our amazing volunteers who marshal, scan, time keep etc… thank you so much to each of the 41 of you. New volunteers are always needed to keep everything running smoothly, so please sign up to help.
Same again next week everyone?
The event was made possible by 41 volunteers:
Susie TAWNEY • Malcolm FRY • Lisa HARTILL • Trevor ROTHWELL • Saty KANDOLA • Daniel FLEMING • Melanie BEASLEY • Mark DEAN • Sukhwant Singh KANDULA • Sara REES • Duncan ROBERTSON • Helen BRAITHWAITE • Bill LILLY • Tommy O'MEARA • Jeremy POPE • Amy HARTILL • Michael JOHNSON • Satty SINGH X • Mandy BARNETT • Helen WILKINSON • Ian BEASLEY • Katharine GIBLIN • Peter CROWLEY • Georgie ACTON • Bonny LANDSBOROUGH • Ivan PAVLOVIC • James MOFFATT • Richard MOFFATT • Zoe SCANNELL • Jack BRADLEY • Joanna PRATT • Ruby DHAMI • Jay MADAN • Oliver SHORE • Krys PIETRECKI • Xavier FLEMING • Cade BROADHURST • Elodie FLEMING • Tony BRAY • Pauleine REED • Harry SHORE
Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Leamington parkrun Results Page.
The male record is held by Matthew ARMSTRONG who recorded a time of 15:22 on 6th October 2012 (event number 77).
The female record is held by Charlotte TAYLOR who recorded a time of 17:09 on 23rd February 2013 (event number 97).
The Age Grade course record is held by Monica WILLIAMSON who recorded 98.23% (19:45) on 25th September 2021 (event number 478).
Leamington parkrun started on 23rd April 2011. Since then 20,641 participants have completed 179,951 parkruns covering a total distance of 899,755 km, including 27,452 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,977 individuals have volunteered 14,038 times.