Hi folks and welcome to another (not) parkrun run report. I haven't got into the habit of regularly recording (not) parkruns myself although I have done a couple. I still find it heart warming though to see the photos of familiar faces who have not only done their (not) parkruns but have done them at Pomphrey. See if you can spot all ten of the adult pomps people in these photos taken by Martyn Poole.

I wonder if we will have any (not) parkrunners in halloween dress to show you next week?

You can see all of the week's (not) parkrun results here

It was great to see our highest ever number of (not) parkruns this week with 66 (not) parkruns recorded from 25 parkrunners.  Special mentions go to Mike Messenger for his first (not) parkrun; to Nigel Jennings, Lyn Jenkins and Hayley Bennett for (not) parkrun PBs; and to Lyn again for a very impressive age grade score of 80.52%.

Thanks to everyone for keeping things going and do continue to enjoy your (not) parkruns!

William

There were no challenges from us this week, but many of you challenged yourself to your own run around your regular route/Pomphrey Hill/somehwhere brand new!

This week Becky Cox completed her challenge of running around Pomphrey Hill an insane amount of times. Joined by her mum and the rain they did 13.5 miles around Pomphrey this week (a half marathon!). In total they have completed 60 laps of Pomphrey making it 60 miles up and round Pomphrey. They are pictured below - congratulations!

Congratulations to Debs Fry who managed to do her fastest (not)parkrun in a long time! Keep going!

Above are a couple of Pomphrey regulars completing their (not)parkrun by passing the pavilion. Luckily it was a relatively nice day! Well done!

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/pomphreyhill/results/notparkrun/?date=2020-10-11 - Here's the link for the weeks (not)parkrun results. Congratulations to Nigel Jennings, Paul Castle, Mike Kimber, Sarah Taylor and Lyn Jenkins for achieving a PB this week!

See you soon, Ella

It's October and how the season has changed. The autumn is most definitely upon us with wet weather, windy days, the leaves are changing and quite a few folks have put the heating on in their homes! For some this is the best time to get out for a run. On a crisp cool morning, catch the sunrise and let the feet hit the pavement.

This weekend is the birthday weekend for parkrun as a whole, 16 years ago on 2nd October 2004, 13 runners and 5 volunteers turned up to Bushy Park in Teddington, London for a free, timed, 5k.  Little did they know what they had started.

With the recent announcements that parkrun won't be returning at the end of the month, as many had hoped, we now look for alternative ways to keep parkrun in our hearts and minds. To that end, this month, parkrun UK have launched parktoberfest!  Get together with friends, family and neighbours (where you can or even virtually) and complete as many (not)parkruns as possible in the month of October. Do let us know how you are getting on, share a photo from your run and you can feature in our run report.

Well done to the 27 parkrunners who have logged their (not)parkrun results so far. Congratulations to Derek McSweeney and Patrick Lewis for their PBs and welcome to Ruth Johnstone and Mike Kimber who ran their first (not)parkrun.

Regular runners at Pomphrey include Tony Graham and family who posted this:

"Vicky, Liam and myself started parktoberfest with a soggy reverse Pomphrey, along with Gary Woodruff and Robin & Debs Fry. Quite amusing that Strava has a segment called 'Down Pomphrey!'. My dilemma was 'do I credit Reverse Pomphrey as a freedom run or a (non)parkrun!?' I went with (non)parkrun #23 as it wasn't the official clockwise course! "

For many runners, the weekend has been dominated by the Virtual Virgin Money London Marathon. Some will call it a marathon, others could call it eight and a half (not) parkruns. Cheering out on the cyclepath near the base of Pomphrey Hill parkrun, I saw many familiar faces of Run Directors and regular parkrunners as they ran past. Well done to everyone who toed the start line this morning in what they knew would be horrible wet and windy conditions.

Run Director, Adrian Grimshaw

Familiar parkrunners from Staple Hill running club

Familiar parkrunners from Staple Hill running club

Familiar faces from parkrun

Run Director, Steven Burge

Run Director, Catalina Lee

Familiar faces from parkrun

Familiar parkrunner from Emersons Green running club

Familiar parkrunner from Emersons Green running club

Familiar parkrunners from Stanbridge fliers

Run Director, William Lee

Familiar parkrunners from Staple Hill running club

Familiar parkrunners from Staple Hill running club

Former Event Director, Anne Burge

Familiar parkrunner from Emersons Green running club

Congratulations to everyone who laced up and ran 5 or 42.2km this week. Keep running, stay safe and stay healthy.

Meryl Grimshaw
Run Director

I had anticipated that this report would centre on the return on parkrun around the end of October, as Danny started to outline in last week's Pirate report. However, we received the news this week that parkrun cannot restart in England by the end of October as we had hoped.

Just as (not)parkrun doesn't have quite the same buzz as a normal Saturday morning, this news will be a disappointment to many. Of course, against the backdrop of the rising number of COVID-19 cases since the original restart plans were announced, this decision was expected and is entirely sensible at this point in time. There will be a whole spectrum of feelings out there, and whether you are desperate to return or still feeling slightly nervous about any gatherings, rest assured that parkrun Global are constantly monitoring the situation in all countries that they would normally operate in with a view to starting events as soon as it is safe to do so. The current approach centres on some research, that parkrun themselves commissioned, into the risk of COVID-19 transmission at outdoor physical activity events. The evidence points to there being negligible risk, despite what appear to be fairly large gatherings - and many UK events attract much larger numbers than Pomphrey Hill. At a time when all of us are asked to keep social gatherings below 6 people, a parkrun wouldn't feel quite right as soon as October. From so many perspectives, we all hope that the tides turn on this in the not too distant future.

If you want to catch up further on the details, the handful of parkruns that have now restarted, and with the next developments, keep an eye on these YouTube channels:

parkrun - parkrun global branded content, you'll have to skip past the weekly quizzes and warm-ups (unless that's your thing!)

WithMeNow - the unofficial parkrun-related podcast, that featured Pomphrey in episode "finely grated tree".

(not)parkrun

(not)parkrun does continue - you can see all the results from this week here. Well done to all 26 runners who completed 39 (not)parkruns between them. There were 2 first timers to (not)parkrun - Karen Cooper and Danny Smith, and 5 completed new PB times.

Other runs

Many still head to Pomphrey for their regular running fix:

Debs Fry: We were there as usual, started from the new start and had my best time this year!

Janet Jenkins: We were there - myself and Jenny Dodd for our weekly catch-up. Saw a few familiar faces. In and out of Pomphrey. William, Vic, The Cox family, Serena but missed Gary Woodruff and gang again!

Hayley Bennett: We were there! Nice walk up Mr Hill and a bacon sarnie!

Others were enjoying runs wherever they could:

Carole Pugh: After doing my day job as a District Nurse, I came home and went straight out to do my virtual 5K Race for Life & Suicide Prevention Bristol x

Roz Glover: On Thames Path ticking off mara #75

It just remains to wish you all a good week and to keep safe. Hope to catch you soon.

Adrian.