The run report this week has been written by one of our milestone runners. Take it away Sian.

Wake me up before you go go ... it was an icy start to the day as run director Danny Smith checked over the course and a team of dedicated volunteers ventured over to Pomphrey Hill bright and early to don their hi-vis. At home I was still perfecting my blue eye shadow and putting on my leg warmers for my 80s themed 100th parkrun. Some 80s references may slip into my run report!

Get into the groove … after an incredibly prompt start at 9am, we set out on our three laps of Pomphrey, including our favourite muddy, steep hill. There were plenty of splashy puddles and increasing amounts of rain to ensure that my attempts at a dodgy 80s “perm” didn’t survive the first lap but also plenty of cheery support from our hi-vis heroes.

Don't stop me now ... 360 people - and some dogs - ran, jogged or walked over the finish line this morning. The fastest time was 17:04 from Johnny Suttle and an impressive 50 people set personal bests - probably eager to get to the end and warm up with cups of team and bacon sandwiches.

Nothing’s gonna stop us now … 32 people did their first Pomphrey Hill parkrun and 10 of those were doing their first ever parkrun. One of them was my friend Kate Marks, who has just finished a Couch 2 5k and choose my 100th parkrun for her first. I asked her what she thought of it. “I enjoyed seeing you dressed up! I didn’t enjoy ‘up Pomphrey’ but it will grow on me. And it was lovely to see such an inclusive event and have the support of a few friends running it!”

Time after time … I wasn't the only one celebrating a landmark run. I spoke to Hayden Neale-Bates who was also doing his 100th parkrun at an impressive eight years old. He was visiting from Abingdon and told me he wanted to do a different parkrun for his 100th and chose Pomphrey as it was on the way to meet his new baby brother. “I had fun running at Pomphrey. There was a lovely view from the top,” he said. It was good to meet you and your family Hayden - and thank you for the cakes.

Regular Pomphrey Hill volunteer Mike Kimber was also celebrating a landmark run, albeit not a t-shirt one. He has run parkruns in 81 different venues but wanted to come home for his 150th run today. After this morning’s run he was planning to go to the pub for a celebratory breakfast.

I need a hero ... thank you to everyone who responded to run director Danny's appeals for help this week. parkrun couldn't happen without its volunteers. If you'd also like to be a hi-vis hero please check out the volunteer page.

I’d like to say thank you to everyone who participates in and helps with Pomphrey Hill parkrun for being part of my journey to 100 parkruns. This run report brings me to a level 42 on my number of separate volunteering occasions, which seems appropriate as Pomphrey Hill parkrun feels like ‘Running in the Family’.

(Apologies to anyone below the age of about 30 if this run report feels like a lot of random phrases!).

Danny Smith

Run Director

Pomphrey Hill parkrun
Event number 295
9th November 2019

This week 360 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 32 were first timers and 50 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 34 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 32 volunteers:

Sheena ALI • Michaela CHARLESWORTH • Steven BURGE • Janet JENKINS • Neil EVANS • Anne BURGE • Thelma GARNER • Ian JONES • Ella BURCHILL • Richard HARRIS • Björn HEISLER • Sian HARRIS • Ris SCOTT • Daniel SMITH • Kate ROSE • Stephen JENKINS • Stewart CUNDY • Andy BUSH • Anna CLARKE • Philip RILEY • Louis CLARKE • Bridget HALLETT • Martyn POOLE • Aaron DUNFORD • Charlie BUSH • Karen STEPHENS • Michele COOK • Steve MOODY • James DORRELL • Kevin RICKERBY • Mike DIMOND-JONES • Neil HARRISON

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Caroline LAVIS who recorded 86.86% (26:30) on 12th October 2019 (event number 291).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 10,012 participants have completed 69,960 parkruns covering a total distance of 349,800 km, including 12,925 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,041 individuals have volunteered 6,747 times.

We’ve had many sporting clashes with parkrun recently –Kipchoge’s sub-2 hour marathon challenge and of course the rugby world cup. This week we had the Rugby world cup final where England battled with South Africa – would this affect attendance?

The weather is a big factor for some of our fairweather runners – with forecasts of rain and high winds closing a number of local parkruns including those hosted at some National Trust properties.  Add into the mix a number of cancellations for Bonfire Night celebrations. Would the cancellations cause an influx of visitors or scare them all away?

The volunteer roster wasn’t looking desperately healthy and with a few volunteers having to drop out for various reasons, an emergency email shout out went to all those who opt in to our emails. With a full roster confirmed at 5pm Friday night I knew at least some folks would turn up!

We are very grateful to the volunteers who made this event happen, to those that volunteer weeks in advance and to those who knew the weather forecast and who still chose to volunteer, our thanks go to:
Emma BAKER, Rosalyn CASTLE, Michele COOK, James DORRELL, Aaron DUNFORD, Julia EDWARDS, Anna FORD, Meryl GRIMSHAW, Tiernan GRIMSHAW, Adrian GRIMSHAW, Alyssa GRIMSHAW, Janet JENKINS, Stephen JENKINS, Mike KIMBER, Rebecca LONG, Bev MILES, Caroline MILKINS, Martyn POOLE, Philip RILEY, David SHELDON, Karen STEPHENS, Lucy SWARBRICK, Jackie THORNE, Chris THORNE, Charmaine Petra TODD, Sam WELLS

Didn’t they do a wonderful job? As Jenny Green posted to our Facebook page
“Thank you so much to all the volunteers for this morning!” and Gary Woodruff “Thanks all. Every volunteer I encountered was happy and smiley today. Made the run more fun.”
In the end, come 9am we had 145 runners including 14 first timers of whom 3 were doing their very first parkrun. Samir Baj was kind enough to write in our visitor book “Was my 1^st ever 5km run. It was windy, rainy and was perfect for the running. Enjoyed every bit of the run. Will definitely come again.”

I’m not sure if it was the wind blowing you around or the keenness to finish in time to see some of the rugby within the pavilion, 9 runners achieved a PB today – congratulations Samuel, Finn, Daniel, Emma, Gordon, Kady, Amanda, Nancy and Carole!

Milestone runners today included Martin Slade and Chris Donaldson who each completed their 50^th parkrun – congratulations to you both. We look forward to seeing you in your new red t-shirt. Extra special recognition to Martyn Poole who today completed his 25^th volunteer stint as photographer (thanks for the chocolates too!). Martyn earned his 50^th milestone t-shirt last week, will this week be ordering his purple volunteer shirt which I’m sure he will wear with equal pride. Martyn has taken the time to write how much parkrun means in his blog – do take a look at that. With thanks for his photos that can also be found here.

As we go into November and December our thoughts turn to Christmas, New Year and in just 6 weeks, our 300^th event. We have lots of plans to celebrate these occasions so do keep an eye out on our Facebook page and run reports for runs that may encourage a little dressing up. For Christmas and New Year runs to go ahead, we need assurances that we will have enough volunteers – please email us if you are able to volunteer for any event in the remaining 2 months of the year.

Happy running!

Meryl Grimshaw
Run Director

Pomphrey Hill parkrun
Event number 294
2nd November 2019

This week 145 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 14 were first timers and 9 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 19 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 26 volunteers:

Adrian GRIMSHAW • Janet JENKINS • Alyssa GRIMSHAW • Meryl GRIMSHAW • Tiernan GRIMSHAW • Jackie THORNE • Chris THORNE • Anna FORD • Julia EDWARDS • Caroline MILKINS • Stephen JENKINS • Mike KIMBER • Philip RILEY • Rosalyn CASTLE • Charmaine Petra TODD • Martyn POOLE • Aaron DUNFORD • Karen STEPHENS • Michele COOK • Lucy SWARBRICK • Bev MILES • Sam WELLS • James DORRELL • David SHELDON • Emma BAKER • Rebecca LONG

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Caroline LAVIS who recorded 86.86% (26:30) on 12th October 2019 (event number 291).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 9,980 participants have completed 69,600 parkruns covering a total distance of 348,000 km, including 12,875 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,040 individuals have volunteered 6,715 times.

Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy our Halloween event. Clearly, it's not just the Strictly dancers that like to start the Halloween festivities early - or maybe it's just any excuse for parkrunners to dress up! It was great fun to look after this event, but the full report from the event comes from guest writer Katie Pinnington. Katie has run 166 of her 326 parkruns at Pomphrey Hill, and here are her thoughts from Event #293. See you all next week!

Adrian.

A wet, but mild morning greeted marshals and parkrunners at Pomphrey this morning. Regular marshal Steven Jenkins told me that he loves starting his weekend with parkrun and is not put off by a rainy forecast... appropriate clothing and footwear were the order of the day. parkrun couldn't happen without our fabulous volunteers and there were 27 of them who decided against staying in a warm house watching the rugby and instead chose to stand in the rain encouraging the 176 runners and walkers who slid and splashed their way around the course through the mud and rain.

With it being the last Saturday before Halloween, we were encouraged to forego waterproof clothing in favour of fancy dress. Despite the weather, there were some fabulous outfits:

I was particularly impressed by the marshal dressed as a mummy who managed to stay in character throughout the run and Frankenstein who had to take it easy up the hill to avoid losing his head.

No parkrun would be complete without milestones or cake and this morning we had both with Martyn Poole (dressed as Jason) doing his 50th parkrun and Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler completing her 100th. Well done to you both, thank you for the cake!

There were 16 people who experienced the hill for the first time, thank you to those that signed the visitors book, we are glad you enjoyed the course and hope to see you again.

"We have come from Worcester as we needed a 'P' as part of a parkrun challenge. It was wet & dark when we left home, but well worth it for the lovely welcome by the very enthusiastic lady that did the 1st timer briefing. Loved the fancy dress, especially the 'mummy' marshal - very spooky. Great atmosphere & good course, shame about the 'hill' - very tough!! Great tourist run, thank you. Debbie & Claire".

Finally, to the 3 people who did parkrun for the first time this morning, welcome to the parkrun family! I hope you too will build lasting friendships with the many people who come together on a Saturday morning to share a love of chatting and the outdoors (with a bit of running or walking thrown in).

Katie.

Pomphrey Hill parkrun
Event number 293
26th October 2019

This week 176 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 16 were first timers and 17 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 26 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 27 volunteers:

Katie PINNINGTON • Adrian GRIMSHAW • Steven BURGE • Janet JENKINS • Anne BURGE • Meryl GRIMSHAW • William LEE • Catalina LEE • Debra PARSONS • Victoria BURCHILL • Ella BURCHILL • Rose BURCHILL • Ris SCOTT • Richard BREAKSPEAR • Stephen JENKINS • Martin GRAHAM • Philip RILEY • Trudy REED • Duncan GOUGH • Charmaine Petra TODD • Steve COPPER • Kay ARKINSTALLL • Michele COOK • Gary WOODRUFF • Monika BLACKWELL • Bev MILES • Mike DIMOND-JONES

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Caroline LAVIS who recorded 86.86% (26:30) on 12th October 2019 (event number 291).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 9,966 participants have completed 69,455 parkruns covering a total distance of 347,275 km, including 12,866 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,038 individuals have volunteered 6,689 times.

Pomphrey Hill parkrun; Event number 292; 19th October 2019

It was a slightly wet and cold morning, but the weather forecast was good and a few soggy leaves were not going to get in the way of our Autumn Pacer Event. A team of willing pacers arrived, armed with safety pins and a determination to help and encourage fellow runners. Every available high vis vest was put into good use and the pacer team gathered ready for the off. And what a success they made of it! 57 new personal bests were recorded at this week's parkrun and we like to think that number is, in part, due to the pacers' efforts. And what a group of perfectionists pacers are, with most getting to within a few seconds of their target time. Fabulous achievement from everyone.

Speaking of fabulous achievements. Anyone who is eagle eyed, will notice a new addition to Pomphrey hill parkrun roll of honour.  Congratulations to Caroline LAVIS, who last week achieved a personal best time of 26:30 which is an age category VW 70-74 record and a new age graded course record of 86.86% across all categories. Everyone on the Pomphrey hill parkrun team applauds your effort!

It would seem Caroline's efforts have started a trend, as this week Estelle Lowe, a first timer at Pomphrey,  posted a new JW10 age category record time of 20:54. Congratulations on not letting that pesky hill get in the way of a great time.

This week 289 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 7 were first timers to parkrun and 13 were new to Pomphrey. We had a whopping 57 recorded new Personal Bests. Well done to each and everyone. Representatives of 26 different clubs took part.

Milestones

We had 2 junior parkrunners achieving 10 runs this week, well done to Josh Dean and Taylor Skidmore (Taylor, we appear to have missed one of your runs on our records, but on the plus side this does mean that you get to celebrate no.10 all over again if you would like!). Sarah Handley achieved the fabulous 50 mark and Chris Kirk reached a fantastic 100. Congratulations to you all.

Including the wonderful group of pacers, this event was made possible by 37 volunteers. I know we say this every week but we could not do this without you. Thank you so much for your efforts towards making parkrun such a success. Special thanks to Helen Spilsbury on her 25th volunteer stint!

We also had lovely feedback about how friendly and helpful everyone was, which was great to hear.

James HAWKINS • Holly VICKERS • Ian TILEY • Adrian GRIMSHAW • Steven BURGE • Karen DYER • Alyssa GRIMSHAW • Meryl GRIMSHAW • Neil NEWMAN • William LEE • Anna THOMAS • Rose BURCHILL • Wendy GWINNETH • Daniel SMITH • Emily BUTTERWORTH • Stephen JENKINS • Andy BUSH • Beth SUTTON • David SUTTON • Trudy REED • James MALLABONE • Becky BRESSINGTON • Lynn DAVIS • Helen SPILSBURY • Caron FINN • Sam COSSEY • Deb FARRELL • Barbara SULLIVAN • Jenny GREEN • Sally GARNETT • Michele COOK • Kerri VAUGHAN • James DORRELL • Kevin RICKERBY • Mandy ROBINSON • Nancy SHELTON • Isabella VAUGHAN

Upcoming Events

On the 26th October we are celebrating Halloween. You are welcome to dress up in your spookiest outfits and join us for a monster event.

At the Halloween, 26th October event we will NOT HAVE the use of the overflow carpark. Please think of alternative ways to arrive at Pomphrey and be considerate to the residents when arriving and finding parking. If you can walk, cycle, lift share or arrive on a broom we would be very grateful.

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Caroline LAVIS who recorded 86.86% (26:30) on 12th October 2019 (event number 291).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 9,950 participants have completed 69,279 parkruns covering a total distance of 346,395 km, including 12,849 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,037 individuals have volunteered 6,662 times.

Trudy

Run Director

Rain, fun and new friends

Pomphrey Hill parkrun event number 291 was a soggy affair and was attended by 282 people, who ran, jogged or walked our course. It was a damp morning, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the runners who had turned out, and the community feel around Pomphrey Hill was as strong as ever. Well done to all who took part!

Pomphrey Hill parkrun event number 291 coincided with an event in Vienna, Austria, in which Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge was set to become the first athlete to run a marathon in under 2 hours. Eliud Kipchoge made history by completing the distance in 1:59:40, the fastest time ever recorded. It’s been reported to me that the event in Vienna was followed closely by some of our parkrunners on their mobile devices apparently while they were parkrunning!

At our event, there were again lots of astounding performances: We had a whopping 53 new PBs, including from our first two male finishers, David Waters (18:53) and Joe Gillett (19:01). A massive well done to all who attained PBs and for smashing it in the rain! The third male to cross the finish line was Brian Rob in a time of 19:48. Lucy Broom was the first female finisher in a time of 21:26, followed by Ella Smith and Helen Clark, who both clocked 21:54.

Milestones were achieved by Donna Toon and Jason Robinson, who completed their 50th parkruns. Jason has run every one of his 50 parkruns here at Pomphrey Hill and thinks that although it never gets any easier, he has enjoyed every one of them. Donna was standing right behind me at the pre-run briefing, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to speak to her afterwards. Many congratulations to you both on your milestone runs!

Dean Clark, who I chat to regularly, noted that the turnout had been good, considering the weather was really miserable. He also commented that it is always nice to say thank you to the marshals when you run past and they cheer you on and give you lots of support. I wholeheartedly agree! The success of Pomphrey Hill parkrun hinges on the commitment and efforts of our fabulous volunteers. So special thanks to all our volunteers, who on Saturday were: Rob BOARDMAN, Ella BURCHILL, Rose BURCHILL, Steven BURGE, Anne BURGE, Michaela CHARLESWORTH, Michele COOK, Stewart CUNDY, James DORRELL, Ruth DORRELL, Hannah DYER, Meryl GRIMSHAW, Joanna HARVEY, Izzy HARVEY, Aimee HEARN, Stephen JENKINS, Ian JONES, Bev MILES, Andrew PRATT, Ris SCOTT, Lucy SWARBRICK, Anna THOMAS, Michael WALKER, Gary WOODRUFF.

The level of commitment and dedication that goes into preparing and coordinating parkrun events, but also into any follow-up work, never ceases to amaze me. For example, in my post-run chat with Gary Woodruff, our photographer, I learnt about the time-consuming work of Gary’s role, which takes up around 6 hours on a Saturday afternoon and involves: looking through the 2,000 to 3,000 photos that Gary takes at each event; eliminating pictures that are embarrassing or don’t comply with parkrun policy; selecting those where runners are in their most flattering posture as he wants everyone to look their best; etc.

Thanks so much, Gary, for volunteering your skills and your time! We really do appreciate it. I also learnt that it costs him an estimated 20 pounds per parkrun in terms of wear and tear on his equipment. Still, he prefers doing this to a night out in town (which would be more expensive) and also prefers it to running up the hill himself, although he also goes running outside of parkrun. You can find Gary’s photos, together with photos from our previous events, by following this link:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/pomphreyhill-parkrun

;

Finally, a special mention goes out to parkrun visitors Spencer Hewitt (from Arizona) and Jonatan Stigsson (from Malmö in Sweden), who came in 60th and 61st in a time of 24:38 and 24:40 respectively on their first ever parkrun. They were visiting us with their friend, parkrun regular Robert Lovell. When I asked them about their impressions of and thoughts about parkrun, Jonatan noted it looked like people were happy, even though it was raining, while Spencer said he was happy to make some friends and have fun. I enjoyed hearing about their travels as Church of Jesus Christ missionaries and trying my rudimentary Swedish on Jonatan. Roligt att träffas och jag hoppas att vi ses igen!

Note that we will have a pacer event next week and the following week will be our Halloween event. See you then!

Written by Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler

Thank you to Elisabeth for a fabulous run report.
Pomphrey Hill parkrun
Event number 291
12th October 2019

This week 282 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 13 were first timers and 53 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 24 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 25 volunteers:

Aimee HEARN • Michaela CHARLESWORTH • Ruth DORRELL • Hannah DYER • Steven BURGE • Anne BURGE • Meryl GRIMSHAW • Anna THOMAS • Ian JONES • Ella BURCHILL • Rose BURCHILL • Ris SCOTT • Elisabeth HIPPE-HEISLER • Stephen JENKINS • Stewart CUNDY • Michael WALKER • Joanna HARVEY • Izzy HARVEY • Michele COOK • Gary WOODRUFF • Lucy SWARBRICK • Bev MILES • James DORRELL • Andrew PRATT • Rob BOARDMAN

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Caroline LAVIS who recorded 86.86% (26:30) on 12th October 2019 (event number 291).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 9,930 participants have completed 68,990 parkruns covering a total distance of 344,950 km, including 12,791 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,032 individuals have volunteered 6,625 times.

After lots of overnight rain, and continued heavy showers, conditions at Pomphrey this week were a little damp. Nevertheless there was a warm atmosphere among the volunteers and runners as is always the case. It was probably a morning for being active rather than standing around so a special thank you to this week's volunteers:

Michaela CHARLESWORTH • Neil EVANS • Thelma GARNER • Jackie THORNE • William LEE • Catalina LEE • Vic GARNER • Andrew HOBBS • Ian JONES • Rose BURCHILL • Yvonne LOGAN • Stephen JENKINS • David HEMMINGS • Lee DYER • Jacquie CARN • Sam COSSEY • Barbara SULLIVAN • Phil COSSEY • Michele COOK • Kevin RICKERBY • Nancy SHELTON • Mike DIMOND-JONES • Rob BOARDMAN

Congratulations to Lynn Davis who completed her 50th parkrun with a posse of supporters.

Well done Lynn, thanks for the cake, and we look forward to seeing you in your red milestone t-shirt very soon. Fellow Run Director Danny Smith also very kindly contributed some post-parkrun cake as he was celebrating his 5th birthday as a parkrunner.

First over the finish line was Liam Wilson in a time of 17:12.

There were 26 PBs recorded with possibly the most remarkable coming from Tiernan Grimshaw. Mum commented "My son's first run as an eleven year old.  He lapped me saying 'keep right, faster runners coming through'.  Not only did he go sub-30 for the first time at Pomphrey, he got 26:24!!!  Thanks Pomphrey for the opportunity for him to run in a safe and supportive place." Well done Tiernan!

We had numerous comments in our visitors book.  'Lovely course, even The Hill' said three Black Pear Joggers from Worcester.  Vanessa from Evesham 'did not know about the hills but still loved it!'.  Three visitors all the way from Papamoa in New Zealand said they 'Really enjoyed the run!'.  Finally Steve from Liverpool wanted 'to say a big thank you to everybody involved with the pomphrey hill parkrun. I am sorry I couldn’t stay for a coffee and cake, you all did a fantastic job in very difficult conditions, and next time I am in Bristol I would definitely do it again and stay for a coffee and cake as well'.  That'll be great Steve - you bring the cake and we'll provide the coffee...

For me the most remarkable sight was that of the Active in Life Couch to 5k graduates completing their very first parkrun.  It wasn't the easiest of days weather-wise and our hill means that many think we're not the easiest of parkruns to take on.  But I heard one of the people involved with organising the C25k group saying that Pomphrey is their favourite because the atmosphere is so friendly and encouraging.  That's really good to hear and very pleasing since having them come along and push themselves Up Pomphrey! and round our course to complete their graduation parkruns is an inspirational sight for us all.

Next week we will be celebrating 15 years of parkrun. The very first parkrun took place on Saturday 2 October 2004 in Bushy Park, with 13 finishers and 5 volunteers. Now, 4,029,568 people have completed a parkrun, with 515,283 volunteers!  So join us next week wearing a parkrun t-shirt that you have earned or bought to celebrate this special anniversary. There will be a parkrun t-shirt group photo at the Pomphrey sign at 8:45am.

Hope to see you then

William

Pomphrey Hill parkrun - Event number 289 - 28th September 2019

This week 228 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 36 were first timers and 26 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 24 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 23 volunteers:

Michaela CHARLESWORTH • Neil EVANS • Thelma GARNER • Jackie THORNE • William LEE • Catalina LEE • Vic GARNER • Andrew HOBBS • Ian JONES • Rose BURCHILL • Yvonne LOGAN • Stephen JENKINS • David HEMMINGS • Lee DYER • Jacquie CARN • Sam COSSEY • Barbara SULLIVAN • Phil COSSEY • Michele COOK • Kevin RICKERBY • Nancy SHELTON • Mike DIMOND-JONES • Rob BOARDMAN

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Simon ANDERSON who recorded 86.78% (17:16) on 13th August 2016 (event number 130).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 9,879 participants have completed 68,397 parkruns covering a total distance of 341,985 km, including 12,673 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,030 individuals have volunteered 6,570 times.

Many thanks to Martyn Poole for this weeks run report.

Is this be the last of the nice weather? I bet we all could not believe how nice it was when we woke up.  Some may say that the heat of today was too hot and personally I was tired and exhausted when I crossed that finish line.  This, I am pleased to say, did not stop the 389 sun worshipers coming out for a morning stroll around Pomphrey. 52 were first timers and 58 recorded new personal bests. Congratulations to you all. And welcome to all who joined us from Eastville park, I hope the hill treated you kindly.

First off let me give a massive thank you to our 29 volunteers, what an amazing bunch of people we have at Pomphrey.  Without further from me, please thank this week’s high vis heroes

Danielle SUTTLE • Janet JENKINS • Lesley OOSTERBROEK • Neil EVANS • Pete BLANCHARD • Jackie THORNE • Chris THORNE • Andrew KING • Victoria BURCHILL • Rose BURCHILL • Ris SCOTT • Daniel SMITH • Stephen JENKINS • Andy BUSH • Paul F ROBINSON • Trudy REED • Daniel COOK • Joanna HARVEY • Sam COSSEY • Martyn POOLE • Barbara SULLIVAN • Tina HARDY • Michele COOK • Gary WOODRUFF • Ben SMITH • Bev MILES • Kerri VAUGHAN • Mike DIMOND-JONES • Isabella VAUGHAN

You all did an amazing job!

Before I continue I would personally like to thank Trudy Reed for a fantastic job as RD, Daniel Smith for his exceptional First Timers Briefing and Ris Scott for checking the course and doing some amazing last minute trouble shooting! 

Unfortunately we missed out this week on a group photo as I think things got a little hectic with the new runners announcement and Gary being called over to take milestone pictures.

While on the subject of Mr Woodruff some of you keen eyed Pomphrey locals may have noticed him sporting a new look camera, Gary has decided to take his photography to the next level and has bought himself a new Nikon. The lens you might have noticed is huge and he thinks it may have been a mistake as the extra weight has now slowed him down running from location to location and he has even given up with Mr Hill, maybe I’ll get him to come to my gym and work on those arm and leg muscles of his.  Gary would like to apologise about his pictures this week as he is still getting into the hang of it and had to delete lots of shots that were out of focus.  I have had a look through his pictures and felt this is rubbish and every one of them looks fantastic and I hope you join me in thanking him for all the effort he puts in, not only during parkrun but uploading them to Flickr.
Any of you wondering what happened to his last camera, well I now have purchased it off of him in my journey to reach his brilliant work, starting with the below picture.  Remember Gary, no returns

A word from some of today’s runners

I had been struggling to find things to chat about this week so felt as Kate Davies Speak was joining us to support her family running this was the perfect opportunity to get some quotes in.  Kate and her husband Steve both run at Pomphrey every now and then and when they join us, they usually bring an entourage of family members only. This week however Kate was just an observer as she is due to give birth any day now. She has stopped running 6-7 weeks ago when she found herself waddling around so now, she is here to support, I did ask if she wanted to help out Pomphrey by volunteering however, I think we have missed this opportunity now.  Kate assures me that her new baby will be a future parkrunner and she will be back as soon as she can. Kate on behalf of all of us we wish you all the best and expect you to be running Pomphrey with a buggy in the near future.

While on the subject of buggy’s I caught up with Cathy Boynton who was running today the first-time post baby with a buggy.  Emily is only 7 months old and from what I gather enjoyed her first trip around Pomphrey, Cathy told me it was hot today and the hill was hard going up and coming down wasn’t much better as she had to use the buggy brake. We actually had a lovely chat and I learnt so much about these running buggies that I think I could sell them to future parkrun parents.  Andrew (Cathy’s husband) let me take out Emily for a quick run around the park to get a feel for how it handled and I was surprised at how unexpecting easy it was.  I am taking nothing away of course from Mr Hill and can only really comment when I have tried 5k myself.  I look forward to seeing them both next week and hope that Cathy had a great birthday, another milestone Cathy?

Now to finish with some Event 288 stats

First finisher was a well know person called UNKNOWN so I will move onto 2nd spot which was Leion Grogan with a time of 18:03, first female was Tiffany Partridge with a time of 22:05 No surprise that due to the hot weather both PB’s remain the same.

James Dorrell and Emily Phillips where the only juniors to celebrate their 10th parkrun, Emily run at 46:10 but her PB stays at 38:51 while James sets a new PB of 26:34 and promises me that he will soon run Ashton Court

This week we had five people celebrating their 50th parkrun
Thomas Miller ran at 23:16 (PB stays at 20:37)
Alan Brown ran 27:30 (PB stays at 26:16)
Steve Pollinger ran at 28:07 (PB stays at 25:09)
Barbara Field ran at 32:40 (PB stays at 31:53)

Onto 100 and we had just the one, Ruth Dorrell, who was joined by her son James who ran his junior 10th. James has completed his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh (13 volunteers which happens to be more than running). It was nice to see both mother and son running milestones together especially as they both celebrated with party hats and balloons.  Ruth told me that she started at Little Stoke and now runs at Pomphrey and has competed all the parkruns in Bristol.  What makes this run and joint milestone extra special is they both made their PB’s today, James at 26:34 and Ruth with 25:50, well done to both of those PB’s.  Ruth has been running parkrun since 2014 and her PB comes at just the right time as her last PB was March 2018.

Ben Smith celebrates his 25th volunteer doing all volunteer roles at Pomphrey and finished his Bronze DofE on 24 so it was nice to get two consecutive celebrations.  He was doing an excellent job of managing the finish funnel and told me that his favourite roll was tail walker but we know that’s because you get a run in there as well.  Congratulations to Ben for both of his achievements.

A note from the Run Director:

Tap water and reusable cups now available

On a hot day it was particularly great that we could announce that the Pomphrey hatch will be offering re usable cups for tap water. There is a jug of tap water on the table which you are welcome to help yourself to. Please remember to bring a water bottle to reduce the amount of waste. If you have forgotten your water bottle please ask for a reusable glass which should be returned to staff.

Upcoming Events

On the 5th October we will be celebrating International parkrun day. This is the 15th anniversary of parkrun and we are inviting everyone to wear their parkrun T shirts and join us for a photo at 8:45

On the 19th October we will be having our Autumn pacer day. If you would like to volunteer to pace then please let us know. If you would like to be involved email to pomphreyhillhelpers@parkrun.com.

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Simon ANDERSON who recorded 86.78% (17:16) on 13th August 2016 (event number 130).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 9,842 participants have completed 68,169 parkruns covering a total distance of 340,845 km, including 12,647 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,028 individuals have volunteered 6,547 times.

Trudy Reed

Run Director

Another beautiful day in paradise

Saturday morning at Pomphrey Hill was glorious as always and we had 310 people run, jog or walk our parkrun today which is a lovely number of people.

Firstly, I would like to start with saying a massive thank you to all of our volunteers who give up their spare time to make parkrun happen as well as make it so enjoyable for the Run Directors. If you too would like to be a Hi-Viz hero you can email the core team in at  pomphreyhillhelpers@parkrun.com.

We were quite busy with milestones at Pomphrey this week, we had Peter Atkinson running his 50th parkrun. Vince Lunn, Kate Flemans and Pete Blanchard were the terrific trio completing their 100th parkrun. Well done to all of you.

We also had one of our Duke of Edinburgh volunteers completing his bronze award this week. This is what Edward had to say with regards his time helping us at Pomphrey Hill parkrun.

I have learned many things whilst doing my bronze DofE at parkrun. I think it really helped me with my communication skills and working in a team. I got better at explaining what I mean to people and by the end I found it easier to convey my ideas to them. I had a go at being a time keeper, a marshal, a tail runner and many more jobs. Every parkrun was fun with a different job each week for me.

One thing I loved about parkrun was the support and strong bond between everyone. There was no discrimination or arguments, it was just a fun time. Everyone was there to just do parkrun and it didn’t matter if you ran, jogged or walked. I didn’t mind the cake at the end either!

I’d like to thank the parkrun core team for all their help and making my time there as fun as possible, especially Ris Scott as the DofE coordinator for taking the time to explain things to me.

This Sunday a group of parkrun volunteers  raised money for parkrun by marshalling the Great Run Bristol Half Marathon, we had parkrun volunteers all along the route which was lovely for the runners to see friends along the way. Also big thanks to Meryl Grimshaw and Charissa Scott for being Lead Marshall's.

See you all soon

Anne Burge Co-Event Director

Pomphrey Hill parkrun
Event number 287
14th September 2019

This week 310 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 31 were first timers and 54 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 29 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 25 volunteers:

Steven BURGE • Karen DYER • Serena GRIFFITHS • Anne BURGE • Alan COOK • Jackie THORNE • Rose BURCHILL • Andrew BOYNTON • Ris SCOTT • Dave HORNE • Ashley TODD • Andy BUSH • Pat DAVIS • Trudy REED • Kerry WARD • John WALSH • Michael WALKER • Brian DALY • Sarah COOK • Emily JEFFERIES • Nikky COX • Paula SELBY • Mike DIMOND-JONES • Edward GRAHAM • James BOYNTON

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

The male record is held by Patrick MARTIN who recorded a time of 15:37 on 4th February 2017 (event number 156).
The female record is held by Charlotte Emily TAYLOR-GREEN who recorded a time of 18:00 on 27th October 2018 (event number 243).
The Age Grade course record is held by Simon ANDERSON who recorded 86.78% (17:16) on 13th August 2016 (event number 130).

Pomphrey Hill parkrun started on 1st March 2014. Since then 9,790 participants have completed 67,780 parkruns covering a total distance of 338,900 km, including 12,589 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,025 individuals have volunteered 6,518 times.