A few days before Saturday I try and broadly estimate how many people we are likely to have turn up, so as to estimate how many volunteers we may need. Mid-week, I thought we would be fairly quiet, England were playing France in the Rugby world cup, all the other local parkruns were on and the weather was not looking too good for Saturday. Well that all changed, plus I learnt the British Geological Survey in Keyworth was having its open day and that attracted a number of tourists to Rushcliffe parkrun beforehand.

After a great response to a call out for extra volunteers, all was in place, and we were good to go.

There was the usual mix of people new to parkrun, tourists (including those with a geographical interest) and many regulars. There were loads of positive comments at the end, so I hope you all enjoyed it.

Rushcliffe parkrun has now been going for 7 years and on the anniversary of the start of Rushcliffe we award the volunteer of the year award. This year’s award went to three people Darren Williams and Marc Thomas received their awards last week, but I had the pleasure of handing out the third award. This went to a wonderful (and extremely surprised) regular at Rushcliffe, Elaine Seller. In recent years we have more deaf and hard of hearing parkrunners join us, so we put out a call to anyone who could help us. Elaine kindly volunteered and now turns up almost every week to sign. Elaine, on behalf of us all at Rushcliffe and the deaf and hard of hearing community, please accept our sincere thanks.

As always, a massive thank you goes out to this week’s volunteers who were excellent. Young Tilly (age 5) was volunteering for the 25th time with her wonderful family. Tilly provides the high fives before the lake and provided even more than ever this week I was told!

Ethan Sosin and Suzanne Oliver both ran their 100th parkruns and Rachel Grant ran her 200th. Brilliant achievements by you all.

As usual, it was another great morning.

Until next week, happy parkrunning.

Ian

7 years! Where does the time go? We like to celebrate our ‘birthday’ each year by recognizing our volunteers. It is never easy deciding whom to pull out of an amazing bunch of people for special mention, and you may notice that we cheat. In year one we had A volunteer of the year (i.e one), but as time has passed we have identified our short list, and then recognised all of them.

And so it was that we were delighted to call out Darren Williams and Marc Thomas for their superb support of Rushcliffe parkrun over the past 12 months. Both have volunteered on many occasions throughout the year, covering most of our volunteer roles, including taking on the mantel of Run Director. A richly deserved big thank you to both of them. Congratulations on your awards. We hope you will display your trophies with pride!

(You may have heard Lisa mention that we have a third volunteer of the year, but for reasons outside of our control couldn’t announce it last week. All will become clear in time and we hope to bring you the news this coming Saturday.)

Much has changed over our seven years, but most of the principles of Rushcliffe parkrun are still the same. It’s a free 5k, timed run/walk. We still use the same equipment, including our laptop for results processing. It is creaking a bit at the moment and you may have noticed that the results are being published a little later than they used to be. It is getting a little 'long in the tooth' in laptop terms and likes to have a few minutes to warm up these days, not unlike quite a few of the parkrunners!

There have been a few obvious changes, most notably the sheer numbers each Saturday. We were delighted when 100 turned up in the winter of 2012/13, and now we are disappointed with less than 400.

Also, as was much publicised through the parkrun national media last week, including on The One Show last Friday, we are getting slower. This is very much a success story of parkrun as our key objective is to encourage people to be more active than they otherwise would be. For the record we averaged 26.55 at event 1, and 29.34 this week. I wonder how long it will be before we get above 30 minutes?

Lisa mentioned in the pre-run brief that she recalled the first Rushcliffe parkrun in October 2012 and that got me wondering how many people from event 1 were also in attendance at event 367. Quite a few as it turned out, and some of them have been here for most Saturday’s in the last 7 years. Rachel Angell has joined us for 257 Rushcliffe parkruns, plus another 18 as a volunteer. Christine Oldfield has 174 Rushcliffe parkruns under her belt, plus 60 volunteer occasions. Her husband John was volunteering at event 1 and has since completed 161 Rushcliffe parkruns and volunteered 113 times. Others that were at both event 1 and 367 were Paul Griffith, John Angell, Marijke Van Eerd, Linda Evans and David Evans.

Finishing where I started, as always we would like to thank our team of volunteers that made event 367 run smoothly. We used to name them all in the weekly run reports, including their various roles, but there are too many now and I will just leave you with a list of the names.

Adrian FURLONGER • Alfie DIXON • Alison POVER • Bill HAWLEY • Brooke THOMAS • Christine OLDFIELD • Daniel JONES • Darren WILLIAMS • Emma JACKSON • Emma PIETRYKA • Estella EVANS • Geoff HARDY • Hilary HAWLEY • Jackie BRADSHAW • Jackie KEY • James WOOD • Jo THOMAS • John ANGELL • Jonathan SHEWELL-COOPER • Kate COPPINGER • Kayleigh LOFFHAGEN • Kirsty PARNABY • Lainey LLOYD • Lisa DICKINSON • Lynne KELLOW • Marc THOMAS • Mike MACDONALD • Nat SCROGGIE • Rachel ANGELL • Rachel LLOYD • Rhisiart JARMAN-HARRIS • Robert HASKINS • Sam BROADLEY • Sam JAMIESON • Sarah SMITHIES • Sophia PIETRYKA • Tom ALLEN • Tom BONNER

You can always tell when it’s Robin Hood Half Marathon weekend.

The numbers at Rushcliffe parkrun dip a bit – as no doubt they do at other parkruns around the county – while we’re suddenly inundated with volunteers, so that there’s pretty much a marshal on every corner, straight, split, you name it.

Not that we’re complaining. We always welcome those eager to help out with open arms, any time of the year – details of how to join in below. And this week’s army of hi-vis heroes did their run director proud as always.

And anyway, I was doing exactly the same: saving my legs for my first ever 13-miler the next day, in the hope I somehow made it round the route in one piece. And hopefully dry (yeah, right).

Yes, the hi-vis heroes were out in force, despite another force – Mother Nature – threatening to throw wind and rain their way. Fortunately, she behaved and sent us just about the ideal conditions instead.

The turnout was still pretty respectable, too, with 388 runners lining up at the start including five first timers plus tourists from Billericay, Brierley Forest, Bristol, Hanley, Wepre, Watford and a couple of others I didn’t quite catch.

There were also a couple of celebrations: an unofficial but no less impressive milestone of 200 for Katherine Richards, plus Phoebe Pickup running her first parkrun since celebrating her fourth birthday last week. Happy birthday, Phoebe!

Lauren Johnson kindly paced for us at 30 minutes, bringing those eager to keep up home in just under that time – so well done to all of you.

A couple of issues that arose before and after the run mean a couple of reminders are necessary.

First, we noticed some missing finish tokens at our initial count. So, if you’re a Rushcliffe regular, please check around at home or in the car, etc, to see if there are any stray tokens lying around. We’d be happy to get reacquainted with them.

In general, please remember not to take your finish tokens away with you. Drop them in one of the barcode scanners’ buckets after they’ve zapped it. Or just hand it to them if you haven’t brought your own barcode.

And, on that last point, the second reminder is to please ensure you bring your barcode with you. It really is the one thing we ask of everyone who takes part, and it’s why we post so many reminders about it on Facebook and here in our run reports.

Our little scanners do not read barcodes from your phone. We were asked if we could record a phone barcode manually instead but we can’t, sorry. It’s really not us just being unaccommodating. There are a number of reasons for it.

One is the need to limit how much manual entry of runners and their results is needed at the end of the run. After all, parkrun events are operated by volunteers who kindly give upon their time each weekend.

If we agree to do it for one, that opens it up to all. And suddenly the time taken to enter handwritten barcode details manually when we’re processing the results can go up dramatically.

If you do forget your barcode, you can still get an idea of your finish time. Just note the number on your finish token and find that position on the Rushcliffe results page. It won’t register as a result against your profile, but you’ll still know how speedy you were.

You can get barcode wristbands, tags and more here. It’s worth keeping some extras in different places.

And, a while back, I wrote a run report with ideas about how to ensure you “don’t forget your barcode” in future. I know those tips have helped me I (forgot mine four times).

Hopefully most people had a hiccup free run, though. The results processing went nice and smoothly, so that seems to be the case. And another 51 of you were celebrating personal best times – see them all at www.parkrun.org.uk/rushcliffe/results/latestresults

For those keeping the legs moving ahead of Robin Hood, I hope it sped you to a glorious result. And, to those resting up, I wish you the same.

Hope to see many of you all again next week.

Your volunteers this week were: Alex BROWN • Anna SOSIN • Dan PICKUP • Darren WILLIAMS • Deborah EDIS • Diane PECK • Ellie BROWN • Emma WOOD • Ethan SOSIN • Gemma BLACOW • Geoff HARDY • Jackie KEY • Jackson BLACOW • Jo THOMAS • Jonathan SMITH • Karen LAYTON • Kath SOSIN • Kirsty PARNABY • Lauren JOHNSON • Lynne KELLOW • Mark BURNS • Michael MCHARDY • Mike MACDONALD • Mike SOSIN • Paul THOMAS • Robert HACKFORD • Ruth TYSON • Sam JAMIESON • Sophia PIETRYKA • Tilly WOOD • Toni HARPER

Want to volunteer yourself?

See the spaces we have in the coming weeks at www.parkrun.org.uk/rushcliffe/futureroster

And drop a line saying you’re interested to rushcliffehelpers@parkrun.com

Wasn’t it a fantastic, sunny yet blustery day; always the best for weather-related anecdotes... just after the parkrun!

I don’t know about you but I start my parkrun late on the Friday night whilst everyone’s in bed and then get on with the ‘laying-out-of-the-items’.

It’s easier if you have a list as per photo! Then the choices of t-shirts and the matching shorts (and occasionally the socks). Do I wear my home shirt of parkrun peach or show off the latest technical shirt from an event or my ‘100 black’ (making my ‘50 red’ looking lonely in the draw)? Last thing to add is my barcode. About an hour later time for a light sleep. In the morning I find another barcode hiding at the bottom of the pile too (and there’s always one in my wallet… oh and in the car!)

I love being part of our weekly timed 5k event as it’s a run (not a race). Sure, a parkrunner will record the fastest time but he/she is not the true winner There are 300-500 winners at Rushcliffe in their own personal achievement. Because parkrunning is all about inclusion. Where some people have found barriers in joining clubs or events (for all sorts of reasons) they have found our 3-miler* walk, jog or run a perfect sanctuary. (*for Lindy… I don’t do ‘km’)

Centre of parkrun is our wonderful volunteers. It’s truly a fabulous part of the parkrun experience, feeling good about doing something positive and helping others to have a good time too.

When injured or when I’m running on a Sunday event, I’ve made myself part of the high-vis team, some of whom don’t do much running but just love the camaraderie of the day, rain or shine, summer and winter. Arriving at 8.15 everyone is tasked with a simple element of the preparation and always helped with what to do. Some runners notably parkrun tourists** get there before the volunteers and love to chat about their running episodes and what to expect today.

**our tourists that made themselves known were from McKay Queensland Australia, Barcelona, Druridge Bay Northumberland, Andover, Stratford and London

The start comes around really quickly and from the first of those runners to those coming up a little later, it’s a mass of colour, smiles and a big positive vibe. It is the most rewarding hour of like-minded participants giving thumbs-up, high-fives or the classic and well received ‘Thanks marshal!’

Without Geoff and Lisa, stalwarts from 2012 and other devotees Ian, Chris, Richard, Jo, Marc, Lynne and Andrew our event wouldn’t run like clockwork.

In saying that, today, Rachel Angell completed 300 parkruns and in her 9th year of volunteering to boot!

Those joining the Centurions (100 parkruns) Jackie Key, Naomi Wayte, Henny Scott, Chris Peaston and Alastair Colson. Before you ask – yes, they’ve all volunteered at some point too!

The 50-milestone was celebrated by Cat Pickup, Chris Davison, Jackie Ross, Colin Wootton and junior Billy Jowett too.

Add a 50th birthday celebration for Marijke Van Eerd and cakes supplied in aid of Macmillan cancer support and that makes a great post event coffee in the Education Centre

A big congratulations to all of you.

Mike Macdonald

p.s. Can’t wait for the update on the hairy earrings story.

On your marks……..get set………….go………..and that’s my first eyelid open on Saturday morning.

This Saturday (24th August) marked my 50th parkrun, not bad for a dedicated run-hater and early morning avoider. It’s taken just over 3 years due to hockey seasons and injury preventing me attending for large parts of those years. Oh, and not forgetting the acquisition of a little pupster, Freddie, who took priority on Saturday morning for a long time.

I’ve come a long way from being dragged there for the first time with a hangover and barely shuffling my way round to now actively seeking out parkruns when we go away at weekends, and encouraging all our family and friends to join us at Rushcliffe on the morning of our recent wedding to start the days celebrations. My running times have barely changed after the first few weeks of getting a PB – those days are well and truly gone.

My all-time favourite running companion is Freddie (black lab) – he is my reason if we run a fast time (he wants to get back for breakfast) or a slow time (quick stop off in the woods). But he is always smiling up at me and never tells me I can go faster if I tried. In fact parkrun and Freddie have led me to a new sport that I have been dabbling with a little, Canicross. It’s the only time I actually run with a smile too.

On the hot days without Freddie the only thing that entices me out of bed and round the course is the Rushcliffe parkrunners and those that have become friends – some of them even managed to gate crash our wedding! You can’t beat a bit of banter over a cuppa, a biscuit and some token sorting (it’s the only time I get anywhere near tokens under 200).

This particular Saturday morning was a scorcher – no weather to be running especially if you are one of those most blessed people in the world…..ginger. But none the less there were 388 of us there with 19 sitting in the naughty corner with no barcodes. 46 Rushcliffe first timers with 28 of those first, first timers (new to parkrun), 46 PB’s and 30 volunteer heroes.

My own personal stats – 50, 36, 10, 10, 1. (parkrun total, Rushcliffe parkruns, number of different parkruns, highest female placing and number of times forgotten barcode and was devastated).

I shall be signing off for while after next week’s parkrun (Jackie’s 100th, so more cake!) as we go on holiday and then its straight back in the hockey season for me………..see you at Christmas!

I shall leave you with a little ditty sung to the tune of “I’m into something good” by Herman’s Hermits; sing it next time you are struggling at parkrun.

Woke up this morning feeling fine
Got Rushcliffe parkrun on my mind
Last night I had only one beer, whoa yeah,
Something tells me I’m into something good

I’m the kinda girl who asks myself why
Then at the end I’m on a high
I ran as fast as I hoped I would
Something tells me I’m into something good.

We only walked for a minute or two
But then we ran the whole way through
I ran faster than I thought I could
Something tells me I’m into something good.

If nothing else it will stop my other running mantra voice in my head which goes along the lines of – I hate running, can I stop yet, why am I doing this, you can stop if you want…………REPEAT AD INFINITUM.

Emma

parkrunning is a sport that everyone can do. All you need is trainers, or a good pair of shoes for those walking, and determination. One thing people say is that the hardest part is walking out of the door, but all 436 of today’s parkrunners did and many of them left smashing it with a new PB.

As there was torrential rain on Friday, we were very fortunate to have, in my opinion, the perfect parkrun weather: not too cold that you are freezing, but not too hot that you are pouring with sweat by the end.

Well done to every single parkrunner as well as Sunil Sharma and Angela Brown with their 50th parkruns and congratulations to James Price with his 100th parkrun.

To our 25 first timers, welcome to parkrun.

In this week’s pre-run brief, everyone had a mini sign language lesson in how to say thank you. As John (one of the volunteers) is deaf, it was amazing to see everybody using their newly found skill to appreciate his efforts.

At the end of his run, I was able to interview Oliver Matharu (our first finisher for this week, pictured above) and ask him for his top parkrun tip. Oliver said, “Start off steady and then slowly get a bit quicker and then finish nice and strong.”

Thank you to today’s volunteers it wouldn’t be possible without you. Remember have fun and KEEP PARKRUNNING!

Chloe

What a fabulous parkrun – well I thought so anyway. Certainly much better than we had hoped as we watched the weather forecast on the days leading up to the weekend.

55mph gale force winds at 9am? Actually it was more of a strong breeze and helped 31 of our 348 parkrunners to a new PB. Congratulations and well done.

The timekeepers, using the new technology of the parkrun app, kept perfectly in sync. (Thank you to Darren for capturing my best side on the picture above). The funnel managers maintained order until finish tokens were collected – in the right order – and the barcode and finish tokens were all scanned in the correct sequence. The marshals and tail walkers kept you safe and on the right track, and token sorting was completed in double quick time. It all made for rapid results processing and Richard had them published by 10.30am. A cracking job by all the volunteers – thank you.

I’d like to come back to something we mentioned a few weeks ago. Have you noticed our new ‘quiet please’ signs that are used to encourage our parkrunners to listen to the pre-run brief? It has become a challenge in recent months to get the gathered group of 400ish people, all keen to get on their way around the course, to listen attentively to the pre-run brief. We know much of it is, necessarily, repeated every week because, whilst you may have heard it 200 times before we always have first timers (40 this week, of which 20 completed their first ever parkrun – welcome to one and all).

It is only through listening to the pre-run brief that you get to know about milestones (congratulations to Allan Lord on his 50th and Jonathan Masters on his ‘unofficial 200th’). Then there are the tourists, often from far and wide and this week from Sheffield, Coventry and Haywards Heath. And it is the pre-run brief when, thankfully occasionally, we can deliver more difficult messages (like the parking offender from a few months back).

It lasts just a couple of minutes, and if only out of respect for the fellow parkrunners, we ask for quiet so that all can hear it. Now, we realise that those reading this run report will most likely be our fabulous regulars - the Rushcliffe parkrun ‘massive’ (yes, I have just had to use Google to check that was the right word) – and we would like to enlist your help at 9am on a Saturday. Firstly by listening attentively to the pre-run brief, but also to use your powers of persuasion with a short sharp ‘sssshhhhhh’ when required, encouraging those around you to listen too. I hope that is OK?

Not a lot more to say about this week. I’ll finish where I started. What a fabulous parkrun!!!! So good, we look forward to doing it again next week.

1 misty, gradually clearing morning.

435 bright-eyed runners.

36 high-vis heroes.

60 first timers.

53 personal bests.

4 fiftieths.

1 birthday.

Hundreds of high-fives.

8 swans and 50 ducks (not an official Rushcliffe avian headcount).

And about 20 degrees… and rising.

That, in a nutshell, is the story of this Saturday’s Rushcliffe parkrun – my second stint as Run Director. Thanks to runners and volunteers alike for making it a relatively straightforward one! How was yours?

We welcomed tourists from as far as Japan and Australia, who got a toasty introduction to our beloved course. And we celebrated with Rachel Castledine, Simon Evans, Ian Scott and Stan Stanton, each competing their 50th parkrun, and Jasper Duff, who ran his tenth aged just 9 years old.

Meanwhile, Naomi Walters marked her 27th birthday with two laps around the park (happy birthday, Naomi!), and speedy Mike Sosin paced at 22 minutes for anyone eager to leave flame trails in their wake.

Despite the fact it seemed to be getting hotter and hotter, the personal bests seemed to just keep coming. Perhaps everyone was eager just to bring it home and get hold of something cold and refreshing.

There’s a full list of PBs – plus all our first timers – below, and you’ll find the full results from this week’s run at www.parkrun.org.uk/rushcliffe/results/latestresults

As always, our volunteers did a cracking job setting up the course and taking care of you all on the day. And, as usual, there was terrific support from a young squad of high-five heroes eager to hand out welcome encouragement at the split. It never fails to be incredibly cute!

My personal takeaway this week: don’t assume it’s all gone quiet and start nattering to one of your timekeepers so you make them miss someone crossing the line! Don’t panic, though, we always have a backup so the results are sound!

Thanks for coming. We hope to see you next time.

This week’s first timers:

Claire ABBOTT • Mia-Louise ADCOCK • Rachel BAXTER • Gary BAXTER • Thomas BENOKE • Nicola BICKNELL • Ian BOOTH • Alex BROCK • Brenda BROUGHTON • Geoffrey CANN • Veronica CHRISTENSEN • Amy CLARKE • Ellis COOPER • John COOPER • Thomas COPELAND • Lisa CRAGGS • Peter CRAGGS • Jasper DUFF • Jenny DUFF • Tegan DUFF • Fiona FERNANDEZ • Helen GRECO • Christopher HALLIDAY • Heather HALLS • Paul HARWOOD • Hector HARRIS-BURTON • Peter HEMMETT • Ruth HODGE • Helen KIRKBY • Matthew KIRKBY • Megan LANGTON • John LAY • Owen LIDDINGTON • Susan LIGHTFOOT • Charlotte MARECKI • Helen MAYNARD • Georgina MOAT • Helen MCCLOUGHRY • Fiona MOSLEY • Lucy MUNDAY • Judith NICHOLAS • Stephen NICHOLLS • Nicky PALMER • Jack PATRICK • Jessica PEARCE • David PETTIT • Nick PLUMMER • Gemma ROBERTS • Claudia RUSSELL • Sally SAVAGE • Jeff SHAW • Steve SHORTIS • Kevin SMITH • Max SMITH • James SMYTHE • Liz SMYTHE • Pamela Diane THOMPSON • Emma VARGAS BROCK • Katie WARREN • Sailor WEEKS

Personal bests for:

Shayda ACKROYD • Adam AKBAR • Hannah BAWDEN • Edward BEMAND • Peter BENOKE • Jane BLOIS • Tom BONNER • Michelle BROUGHTON • Mark BURNS • Laura CLARK • James COTTAM • Scott CURRIE • Mary DEMIR-WONG • Jennifer DUDFIELD • Peter DUFF • Ben EDGSON • Steve EVANS • Colin J K HALLAM • Chris HAM • Anne HARRISON • Dean HAWKRIDGE • Bryan HOADLEY • Bob JOHNSON • Billie LEWIS • Andy LUNN • Matt LUNN • Penny MARSHALL • Richard MARSHALL • Kirsty MARTIN • John MATRAVERS • Michael MCHARDY • Beth MCMURCHIE • David MURCH • Harriet MURCH • Chris PIETRYKA • Lorna PILBIN • Tim PRESTON • Tom PYCROFT • Gill ROGERSON • Jack ROGERSON • John RYCROFT • Christopher George SHARP • Nick SHAW • Jasmine SPEAR • Sam SPEAR • Mick STEINER • Kara STURDY • Lisa SWIFT • Lynn TOWNSEND • Sophie VAN DER MERWE • Dane VINCENT • Matt WARREN • Jessica WILLIAMS

This week’s volunteers were:

Adrian FURLONGER • Alan ARMSTRONG • Alfie DIXON • Andy WALKER • Ashleigh FOWLDS • Becky DOWSON • Bill HAWLEY • Chris NEALE • Darren WILLIAMS • David NOBLET • Dylan SAMRAI • Elaine SELLER • Ethan SOSIN • Gary HENNESSY • Gary MEAKIN • Hilary HAWLEY • James WOOD • Jennifer AITCHISON • Jo THOMAS • John OLDFIELD • Kath SOSIN • Linda Joyce EVANS • Lisa DICKINSON • Lynne KELLOW • Maci FOWLDS • Mike MACDONALD • Mike SOSIN • Philip MOORE • Robert HASKINS • Roshan SINGH • Sam RISING • Thomas MOORE • Tilly WOOD • Toni HARPER • Tracey MOORE • Tracy MEAKIN

1 Run Director - that would be me Marc Thomas
32 #highvisheroes or volunteers
1 event number 357
429 people who ran/walked/jogged - how was it for you?

Right this run report might be like no other, but here goes.

I would like to welcome 39 first timers to Rushcliffe parkrun, and also to the parkrun family. We had tourists from Chelmsford, Breacon, Rygate, Belton, Conkers, Barrow and Lullington. I hope you enjoyed a parkrun around Rushcliffe Country Park.

Congratulations to 47 of you who got a PB as well.

I best mention the important bit, all the milestones, well done to you all in reaching a milestone.

John and Christine Oldfield, Jancy Stuttard getting to their 250th parkrun

Nat Scroggie "This vet runs" , Sophie Thorne, Suzanne Hopkin, Ken Pollard all getting to their 50th parkrun.

A special mention for Jo Thomas on doing her 200th combined volunteer for seniors and juniors.

On the 15th June I said I would like to try to help with volunteering more and do Run Director in the future, how about the 27th July? Everyone was happy, so that was it, set in stone. Wow, something to look forward to, but a massive role to fill. First thought 'I must be mad', next thought, 'how can I make this my own role but stay within the parkrun way?'. Because we all know parkrun is about fun.

So forward to Saturday 27th July. Was up as normal, did everything as normal - the only difference was had to leave 15 minutes earlier, got to education centre with all my notes ready to do Run Director duties. And, as we all know, we have a great bunch of volunteers who made me look good at doing Run Director. The worse bit for me was the pre run brief but it went well, I was very apprehensive, but got through it, then it was over to 429 of you to go enjoy yourselves, The weather was ok and the rain did hold off.

Thank you for allowing my to be Run Director and I cannot wait to do it again.

Thank you to my army of #highvisheroes

Alan HOWE • Andy WALKER • Ashleigh FOWLDS • Bill HAWLEY • Darren WILLIAMS • David NOBLET • Elaine SELLER • Emma FIELDING • Emma WOOD • Geoff HARDY • Grace CRYER • Hilary HAWLEY • Ian HOWE • Jackie KEY • Jennifer AITCHISON • Jo THOMAS • Jonathan CROSS • Karen Gilean CROSS • Katie MARSH • Kirsty PARNABY • Lisa DICKINSON • Luke RISING • Lynne KELLOW • Maci FOWLDS • Mike MACDONALD • Mike SOSIN • Peter MCCONNOCHIE • Roshan SINGH • Sam JAMIESON • Sam RISING • Tilly WOOD

The word “milestone” is a regular word used by many who attend parkrun on a Saturday morning (and on a Sunday for juniors) and this week was no exception; indeed if anything it was a little unique. We saw the creation of the 6 millionth parkrun registration; A6000000 - one to remember for sure! (Although they are still required to being their barcode to events!), across the other side of the planet a new female Australian record was created at 15.54 (wow) and in two weeks time, Bushy park will run its 800th parkrun. However you don’t need to travel to Australia or even Bushy park to find a milestone…

At our beautiful Rushcliffe park (and in dry weather for a change) Stephen Higgins and Sophia Tinsley ran their 50th parkrun,

54 people achieved a new course PB,

41 people ran their first Rushcliffe parkrun,

435 people ran/walked/jogged 5k,

404 people came one step closer to a milestone (31 are unknowns!) and;

36 obtained a volunteer “credit” aka a “high 5” (plus mega respect and appreciation from all the participants!)

Looking at the results, there are a number of well known Rushcliffe runners on the eve of a milestone T-Shirt too …. So watch this space next week!

The 36 hi-vis heroes were further supported this week with the help of four pacers. Dan paced at 20 minutes, Will at 25 minutes, John P at 28 minutes and John O at 32 minutes. Wearing their blue hi-vis they encouraged a number of runners, including Jacob Botting who attained a new PB of 19.52 (position 12) thanks to Dan. To their credit, all pacers crossed the finish line within a few seconds of their expected time (always best to go slightly faster) – good skills guys!

Just before we count down the days to another parkrun fun weekend, a small reminder that filling the volunteer roster over the summer holidays is always more challenging for the core teams. If you do have any availability over the next few weeks then please offer your support (either at Rushcliffe or other events e.g. Clifton or Forest Rec). All of the roles are very simple and remember there are volunteer milestone T-Shirts also! Volunteer 25 times and you can proudly wear purple with pride! ☺