This morning marked our first parkun in December of 2019. Last weekend’s St Andrew’s Day parkrun was 10 degrees colder than this morning, meaning we went from a white frosty morning to a very much green morning.  And green is going to be the theme of today’s run report.  As I checked the course this morning the park again was thriving as usual, we are very lucky to have Figgate Park as our parkrun location as it’s part of The Green Flag scheme, that recognises and rewards the best parks and greenspaces in Britain.
<ahref="https://images.parkrun.com/blogs.dir/669/files/2019/12/first-timers.png"> And maybe that's partially the reason people like to choose Porty as their tourism parkrun. We had 46 visitors or first timers this morning coming from all over the globe to see us, it was a pleasure having you, and welcome you back again soon.

This Morning 323 people ran, jogged and walked Porty parkrun, and thanks to me organising perfect conditions a massive 31 recorded new Personal Bests

This parkrun wouldn't happen without our amazing volunteers. Your Hi Viz heroes were...Eleanor MACKENZIE • Ann RAUTENBACH • Robert MAIN • Richard MUDIE • Oliver FERIA-YATES • Ross J NICOL • Fiona NICOL • Gary HALL • Laura PLUMB • Graeme SYME • Nico FERIA-YATES • Elaine BERRI • Dorothy GROOBY • Laura HARRISON • Rachel WARREN • David WOOD • Quinn UNGLESS • Keith ADAMSON • Dan PERREGAUX • David MILNE • Diana BARDSLEY • Elaine WILSON • Matthew WELDON

Milestone Awards

Laura Dickson completed her 50th parkrun today, and has run our parkrun 30 times! Well done Laura!

Mary Hockenhull also completed her 50th parkrun this morning, her 46th at Portobello.  Mary says she is very chuffed to get to 50 parkruns, and has thanked all the volunteers who make it happen week in and week out, She also says parkrun has changed her relationship with running for the better.  I have to agree with that one Mary, running at parkrun has definitely helped me enjoy running so much better that it did before.  Well Done Mary!

And we finish the Green theme with Mike Lieberman starting his parkrun journey in 2011 (4 years before Portobello parkun had even started) today joined the exclusive club, 250 parkruns, claiming his green 250 T-shirt!  Like I said on the pre run brief, 127 runs at Portobello, 381 laps of the park! It is such an impressive stat!  Mike always gives a nice thank you to the volunteers as he runs past,  I feel its a really nice thing to do as you run the course showing appreciation to the Hi Viz Heroes, Mike is also a keen volunteer with us, and I would like to show my appreciation to you for your volunteering also. Mike congratulations on reaching 250 parkruns.

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

I cant beat any better news than this so I will finish here, have a great weekend everyone, hope you enjoyed your morning with us, and we will hopefully see you back soon.

Ross.

A very crisp morning today. Luckily, no rain yesterday so it was safe to run. Quite different from the waterlogged park on Wednesday.

The Friends of Figgate Park were at the finish today selling calendars and food for the ducks/swans. Thanks for joining us guys. It was great talking to you all. Thanks also to everyone who bought something from them. This helps them raise funds that are used to keep the park in such a nice condition for us all to use.

I got talking to a chap this morning who’d just come to the park last Saturday morning for a walk and found hundreds of runners jogging round. It was great to see you’d come back as a parkrunner this week. Welcome to the family!

I was really taken aback by the number of first timers on such a cold morning, 59 of you out of 330 people running, jogging or walking were new to Porty or parkrun altogether. An amazing 40 of you got personal bests! Come on guys, didn’t I say that it wasn’t a PB morning ;P

Well done to Tom Power on both his 50th parkrun and a PB this morning. He was neck and neck with Ross Nicol, one of your Run Directors, who also got a PB. The first time for both of you under 21 minutes, brilliant!

Well done to Keith Adamson for 50 parkruns with us at Porty. Great to see you out there every Saturday!

Another of our regular Run Directors, also the Event Director at Inverleith Junior parkrun and your Volunteer Coordinator today, Sandy MacDonald, volunteered for the 150th time today. He’s now clocked up 84 separate days as a Run Director! This is an amazing achievement, congratulations Sandy and many thanks from us all for your dedication to Parkrun! Inverleith Junior parkrun is a timed 2k event for 4-14 year olds, every Sunday at 9.30am at Inverleith Park, Edinburgh. If you have kids, it’s a great way to get them enthused about running.

There were quite a few excited volunteers this morning when we realised that there was a chance that our male course record could be broken. Jaryd Clifford came home in 15:23, only 2 seconds outside our record. I thought, no problem, he can just come back next week and try again but sadly he flies back to Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday. He’s promised to visit us again in a couple of years to have another go as he really enjoyed the course!

Well done to Charlie Copp on a great run in challenging conditions. I hope you’ve warmed up again now!

I’d like to say an extra special thank you to Alison Rowe, who was volunteering on the funnel today, for the help she gave the guys handing out the tokens! Great to see all the volunteers helping each other.

Great also to see so many young volunteers. Lovely to see how you get in the spirit of parkrun.

And a final big thank you to my wife, Yvonne, who took one look out of the window this morning and decided to made a big pot of soup to warm me up when I got in at lunchtime!

The core team would really love it if you could come and join us for coffee or tea each week after parkrun at The Studio Edinburgh (formerly Planet Cafe) on Baileyfield Road, almost opposite the finish. It is great to hear all your stories and achievements whilst warming up or drying off. We go over and have a coffee whilst your Run Director processes the results and volunteers sort the finish tokens ready for the next week.

If you’d like to volunteer, please mail portobello@parkrun.com giving your barcode number, the role(s) you would like and the date(s) you can help.

Have a great rest of your weekend.

Robert

Representatives of 44 different clubs took part in this week’s run. The event was made possible by 25 volunteers:

Andrew FRASER • Sarah DAVIS • Mike LIEBERMAN • Sandy MACDONALD • Heike ULFERTS • Andrew SHAW • Brian REID • Robert MAIN • Robbie YATES • Paul REDMOND • Oliver FERIA-YATES • Lisa DRYBURGH • Ross J NICOL • Alison ROWE • Rachael SINCLAIR • Nico FERIA-YATES • Charles NAPLES • Calum BRUCE • Kuba SKRZYNIARZ • Louisa GROTRIAN • Eoin O SULLIVAN • David MILNE • Samuel KERINS • Michael CRAIG • Matthew WELDON

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

The male record is held by Andrew DOUGLAS who recorded a time of 15:21 on 7th November 2015 (event number 29).

The female record is held by Jo WILLIAMS who recorded a time of 17:13 on 26th May 2018 (event number 157).

The Age Grade course record is held by Susan BURNS who recorded 92.66% (20:39) on 28th July 2018 (event number 166).

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh started on 18th April 2015. Since then 11,603 participants have completed 64,648 parkruns covering a total distance of 323,240 km, including 11,162 new Personal Bests. A total of 883 individuals have volunteered 4,763 times.

FIBONACCI DAY!

November the 23rd (11/23) is Fibonacci Day.  The day honours one of the most influential mathematicians of the middle ages - Leonardo Fibonacci.  The date November 23rd is celebrated because when the date is written mm/dd format (11/23) the digits in the date form a Fibonacci sequence:1,1,2,3. - I thought I’d mention this as today was our 234th parkrun event making todays secret code 11234..... aaaaanyyyyway moving on...

Introduction - After a really cold start of the week, we finally hit Saturday morning to start our weekends of in the best possible way! Figgate Park, Portobello.

830am I walk the course to check the course, walking the course you can really feel the atmosphere building as you meet the early arrivals warming up, Dog walkers saying good morning, the wildlife in the Figgate pond getting on with life.  Conditions were damp, leaves had dropped, and clouds were very much in control of todays weather.

0900 volunteers arrive, we set up the course, and have a quick catch up before we start.  Thank you so much for your hard work this morning.  Your volunteers were. Eleanor MACKENZIE • Ann RAUTENBACH • Robbie YATES • Richard MUDIE • Joyce SALVONA • Oliver FERIA-YATES • John CURREN • Ross J NICOL • Fiona NICOL • Marianne JAMES • Nico FERIA-YATES • Christine CARLTON • Neil PARK • Jennie SIMPSON • Naomi SIMPSON • Kuba SKRZYNIARZ • Luca BASSO • Quinn UNGLESS • Jim MCDOWALL • David MILNE • Matthew WELDON

0915 - We meet the first time and visiting parkrunners! I really hope you enjoyed your first event with us, and really hope to see you back soon. 3969 miles were covered travelling to us today from visitors, coming from Middlesbrough, Northampton, Buckie, Workington, Worthing, Pontypool South Wales, London, Portsmouth, Wakefield, York, Wilmslow, Nairn, Norwich, Glasgow and Redcar! 

0930 - The pre run brief.  Thank you for all listening this morning, we had a few shoutouts today, Congratulations to Luca Basso for his 100th parkrun, and his 25th Volunteering! How good is that!! Luca is a well known face at Porty and I'd like to thank you for all your help volunteering over the years. 

If a double milestone wasn't impressive enough for you, how about this then! Six year old Sarah Esmeralda O'Neill completing her 50th parkrun, not only completing it, but collecting a personal best time at Portobello!! Those stats are just incredible! Well done Sarah!!!Our Time Keeper today was John Curren, another Porty regular and another amazing milestone, 25 volunteering stints to make our parkrun happen.  Thank you so much for all your time John, its very much appreciated by all of us.

09:33 - The Run!!! All 363 of you looked amazing out there, bringing much needed colour to the overcast day! No Incidents throughout the morning made me a happy RD! from start to finish, you were all perfect! Thank you! 

10:40 - The Café The best bit about parkrun milestones is the celebratory cake! Thanks very much to the O'Neills for this! it was delicious!!

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

Hope you have a great weekend folks,

Ross.

Well done everyone today and an extra well done to Harris Taylor who joined the 50 club today. A great achievement!

Massive thanks to our volunteers. This week's parkrun only happened because of:
Siobhan SELLAR • David SORENSEN • Ciara WEBB • Malcolm FRASER • Stuart FLETCHER • Oliver FERIA-YATES • Ross J NICOL • Kathy MCKEAN • Nico FERIA-YATES • Richard BUCKLAND • Dave STONE • Matthew MCKEAN • Helen ROBINSON • Kuba SKRZYNIARZ • David WEDDERBURN • Tom BALLANTINE • Niamh MURPHY • Edite GAILITE • David MILNE • Muriel MORRISON • Jackie HUTT • Patricia BROWN • Matthew WELDON

If you want to volunteer let us know via portobello@parkrun.com.

Results:
Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh Results Page.

The male record is held by Andrew DOUGLAS who recorded a time of 15:21 on 7th November 2015 (event number 29).
The female record is held by Jo WILLIAMS who recorded a time of 17:13 on 26th May 2018 (event number 157).
The Age Grade course record is held by Susan BURNS who recorded 92.66% (20:39) on 28th July 2018 (event number 166).

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh started on 18th April 2015. Since then 11,483 participants have completed 63,955 parkruns covering a total distance of 319,775 km, including 11,087 new Personal Bests. A total of 881 individuals have volunteered 4,717 times.

Great to see so many new faces this week. One in six of the finishers this week were new to Portobello parkrun or new to parkrun altogether, so which ever you are, welcome to the friendliest parkrun in the world!

We had a visit from Kate Wills, one of the RDs from Bressay, for her first run with us. We had a visit from a regular parkrunner from Ireland who had managed to recruit various friends and family to do their first parkrun, one of whom had never run a 5k before; well done to you! We had a teacher from Leith do her first parkrun. Great to see you all. I hope you all had fun and we see you again soon; it’s not always this cold.

A crisp morning meant people having to take it a bit easier, however the course was checked and deemed safe to run. There were still a couple of falls. If you have an accident on the course, please speak to a marshal or request help from those around you. We have a first aid kit and defibrillator at the finish. Marshals all carry the phone number of that day’s RD.

If you’ve not heard yet (where have you been?), we’ve announced that we’ll be holding a special extra parkrun on New Year’s day at 9.30am. This is the only day of the year when you can do two parkruns on the same day. Our friends at Vogrie parkrun have a late start that day so you can visit both to work off the excess of the season.

We’ve a full roster for the coming weekend but plenty of opportunities for runners to volunteer in future weeks. Please take a look at our volunteer roster for vacancies. IMHO, volunteering is even more fun that running.

This week 323 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 57 were first timers and 34 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 32 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 24 volunteers:

Andrew SIMPSON • Chris RUSSELL • Robert MAIN • Ciara WEBB • Lynne COWDEN • Richard MUDIE • Oliver FERIA-YATES • Ross J NICOL • Gary HALL • Nico FERIA-YATES • Ian THOMAS • Richard BUCKLAND • Dawn LAWSON • Dorothy GROOBY • Andrew MYLNE • Kuba SKRZYNIARZ • Rhona MYLNE • Luca BASSO • Quinn UNGLESS • Gemma WHITSON • Brian HOLLINSWORTH • Dan PERREGAUX • David MILNE • Matthew WELDON

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

The male record is held by Andrew DOUGLAS who recorded a time of 15:21 on 7th November 2015 (event number 29).

The female record is held by Jo WILLIAMS who recorded a time of 17:13 on 26th May 2018 (event number 157).

The Age Grade course record is held by Susan BURNS who recorded 92.66% (20:39) on 28th July 2018 (event number 166).

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh started on 18th April 2015. Since then 11,443 participants have completed 63,630 parkruns covering a total distance of 318,150 km, including 11,038 new Personal Bests. A total of 878 individuals have volunteered 4,694 times.

Have a lovely week.

Robert

And it’s November, the autumnal colours of the park made a stunning backdrop for stunning parkrunners. You all looked fabulous running into the distance.  The course this week was a bit "damp" but that didn't dampen 236 of you! Conditions weren't anywhere near their best, but somehow 26 of you managed to bag yourself a Porty PB, well done to you!

We had 48 first timers, only 4 brand new parkrunners (welcome aboard) the rest were visiting parkrunners, we have to say you were a great bunch to have as our guests and you are welcome back anytime! A special hello to the Dublin family who came over, it was nice to meet you and hear about your parkrun.

Of course, all of our memories from today would not have happened if it wasn't for our hiviz heroes, the volunteers:

Your parkrun was made possible thanks to Lorraine SYME-SMITH • Andrew SIMPSON • Alison Margaret WARD • Robbie YATES • Oliver FERIA-YATES • Lisa DRYBURGH • John CURREN • Ross J NICOL • Fiona NICOL • Gary HALL • Nico FERIA-YATES • Kit LAWSON • Elaine BERRI • Thomaas MALCOLM • Dorothy GROOBY • Anne MOAR • Gemma WHITSON • Fraser MAY • Niamh MURPHY • David MILNE • Patricia BROWN • Matthew WELDON

This week’s Milestones

Rachael Warren joined the 50 club, well done Rachael!

Fiona Nicol 25 Volunteering stints, well done to you too Fiona!

On some sad news, this was the last picture we have of Andrew Simpson. He was last seen attempting to fold the Porty pop up into the bag...there is a chance he was folded up with the springy sign, the search continues...

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh started on 18th April 2015.

Since then 11,386 participants have completed 63,307 parkruns covering a total distance of 316,535 km, including 11,004 new Personal Bests. A total of 878 individuals have volunteered 4,670 times.

Thanks so much for a great morning everyone, thanks for the memories, and I’ll see you next week.

Ross

OK, it’s not Halloween for a few days but today is Edinburgh Running Network’s birthday and we like to celebrate in style. Most of today’s volunteers and pacers are members of ERN, we’re a friendly local running club open to anyone over the age of 18 who can run at least 5km. New members are always welcome and you’re more than welcome to try a couple of sessions before you commit to joining. We meet on Monday and Thursday evenings from Portobello baths, Tuesday evening from the Commonwealth Pool and Sunday runs start at a different location each week. Monday and Thursday evenings tend to be a training session e.g. pacing, sprints, hill reps etc, Tuesday is known as “Chooseday” because members take it in turn to choose the route (usually about 10km) and Sunday we always have a 5-6 mile option as well as longer distances to build up to target races. Coming up in the next few weeks we will be kicking off training plans for the John Muir Way 50k race and London marathon, and Edinburgh half & marathon plans will start early in 2020. Full details are on our website, just drop us an email or message through our facebook page if you’d like to come out with us.

http://www.edinburghrunningnetwork.org.uk/training/

Sales pitch over

This week Porty parkrun looked glorious in the chilly autumn sunshine and 346 walked, jogged or ran the course. 68 of these were first timers and we welcomed visitors from Glasgow, Thurso, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and the Isle of Wight. 54 recorded new Personal Bests (thanks for the help pacing team!) and representatives of 38 different clubs took part.

Thanks to all the bakers too but who ate all that rocky road?? I was looking to a piece of that when I got home and all that was left was crumbs ☹

The event was made possible by 36 awesome volunteers:

Lorraine SYME-SMITH • Ian A SMITH • Murdo MACLEOD • Val BEATTIE • Krista BLACK • Sheila MASSON • Tracy-Ann AITON • Wendy MCFARLANE • Ann RAUTENBACH • Robert MAIN • Ciara WEBB • Mary RITCHIE • Emma LOUGHEED • Aristides KIPRAKIS • Oliver FERIA-YATES • Peter CHAMBERS • Wilma DOG • Ross J NICOL • Miguel MUDARRA • Rachael SINCLAIR • Annette DAVISON • Nico FERIA-YATES • Matthew GORRIE • Loic BEAUMATIN • Norman BROWN • Maisy DOG • Siobhan GORRIE • Helen WHITELEY-MCPHEE • Chris SMEATON • Stuart BARCLAY & baby Grace• Justine STANSFIELD • Quinn UNGLESS • Gemma WHITSON • Dariusz WEDGE • Brian HOLLINSWORTH • Emily ACKERMAN • Dan PERREGAUX • Matthew WELDON

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

The male record is held by Andrew DOUGLAS who recorded a time of 15:21 on 7th November 2015 (event number 29).
The female record is held by Jo WILLIAMS who recorded a time of 17:13 on 26th May 2018 (event number 157).
The Age Grade course record is held by Susan BURNS who recorded 92.66% (20:39) on 28th July 2018 (event number 166).

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh started on 18th April 2015. Since then 11,338 participants have completed 63,071 parkruns covering a total distance of 315,355 km, including 10,978 new Personal Bests. A total of 876 individuals have volunteered 4,648 times.

This week 360 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 44 were first timers and 57 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 34 different clubs took part.

Congratulations to those of you who reached milestones this week, with Shery Johnson and Lia Di Biase completing their 50th parkrun and Lucia Quilietti-Bird who ran her 10th parkrun at the grand old age of 8!

The event was made possible by 26 volunteers:

Lorraine SYME-SMITH • Ian A SMITH • Paul EUNSON • Robert MAIN • Ciara WEBB • Katy DUNCAN • Stuart FLETCHER • Emma LOUGHEED • Laura BLAZEY • Anandan TANABALAN • Martin MCKENZIE • Gemma WHITSON • Keith ADAMSON • Alanna BAILEY • Megan HALL • Mathew SMITH • Eleanor WALKER • Jim MCDOWALL • Amy CURRIE • Edite GAILITE • Rachael POLLEY • Elaine WILSON • Douglas HUTT • Jackie HUTT • Michael CRAIG • Debbie MORGAN

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

The male record is held by Andrew DOUGLAS who recorded a time of 15:21 on 7th November 2015 (event number 29).
The female record is held by Jo WILLIAMS who recorded a time of 17:13 on 26th May 2018 (event number 157).
The Age Grade course record is held by Susan BURNS who recorded 92.66% (20:39) on 28th July 2018 (event number 166).

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh started on 18th April 2015. Since then 11,270 participants have completed 62,725 parkruns covering a total distance of 313,625 km, including 10,924 new Personal Bests. A total of 874 individuals have volunteered 4,612 times.

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh
Event number 227
28th September 2019

I love it when a plan comes together! This week we were unsure whether we’d be able to run our normal route as the near bridge was out of action for repairs. Luckily the chaps fixing it were able to get finished early, on Thursday, meaning we could avoid the dreaded contraflow on the B-course. We also had beautiful weather and no incidents!

Beautiful day at Porty Parkrun

We got back all our tokens today so many thanks everybody. Remember, if you enter the funnel, please continue to the end and collect a token. If you don’t have your barcode, just place the token you are given into the blue bucket at the end of the funnel or give it to a volunteer. If you have a token you accidentally took home another week, please bring it back and place into one of the blue buckets.

Our tokens went out of sync a couple of times today but we know exactly at which position both times so your results should be accurate.

We need volunteers for next week as the roster is looking quite barren. We also need first time volunteers for 12th October; there are plenty of spots still available; so if you’ve not volunteered before, please email portobello@parkrun.com and give it a try. When emailing in, please include your barcode number so we can find you on the system.

This week 318 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 59 were first timers and 32 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 32 different clubs took part.

Getting ready for the start

The event was made possible by 23 volunteers:

Jim SKELT • Robert MAIN • Ciaron FORREST • Stuart FLETCHER • Emma LOUGHEED • Eleanor SINGER • Ian DAVIDSON • Joyce SALVONA • Oliver FERIA-YATES • Aj GOODSIR • Nico FERIA-YATES • Douglas FORRESTER • Jody LEWIS • Dorothy GROOBY • Siobhan GORRIE • Kuba SKRZYNIARZ • Quinn UNGLESS • Gemma WHITSON • Fraser MAY • Dan PERREGAUX • David MILNE • Katie NEVANS • Matthew WELDON

Some of your volunteers

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

The male record is held by Andrew DOUGLAS who recorded a time of 15:21 on 7th November 2015 (event number 29).
The female record is held by Jo WILLIAMS who recorded a time of 17:13 on 26th May 2018 (event number 157).
The Age Grade course record is held by Susan BURNS who recorded 92.66% (20:39) on 28th July 2018 (event number 166).

Portobello parkrun, Edinburgh started on 18th April 2015. Since then 11,191 participants have completed 62,101 parkruns covering a total distance of 310,505 km, including 10,810 new Personal Bests. A total of 855 individuals have volunteered 4,561 times.