We often talk about our volunteers at Stormont parkrun. The handful of people who show up early, help the event run smoothly, and leave late.
That's even before we think about processing results. On that note, had it not been for next week's run director Marianne helping out, results would have had to wait until Sunday night, at about 11pm. Imagine?
It was my first time back run directing at Stormont this year, and it was good to chat to some of the newer volunteers, finding out why they were keen to help.
There's never a week run directing that is completely straightforward. Today it was a "minor" detour that turned out to be pretty major.

Two routes blocked off due to maintenance, but we found a way around it. We do like to keep runners on their toes. There was some last minute measuring too, which involved clambering over barriers, to make sure we had the distance as close to correct as possible.

In total, 242 people took part and 22 volunteers today.
Dale Murray from Ward Park Runners in Bangor was first over the line. First female, for the 51st time, was Emer McKee from Willowfield.
Just one more for an entire year's worth of first finishes. That has to be worth a cake, right?
 

The blue sky was amazing this morning and so were you, 250 runners/walkers and 18 volunteers.

The history was made and the very first Leap Day parkrun completed. Next parkrun on 29th February will take place in 28 years!

We luckly escaped storm Jorge and the sun stayed with us to the very end. However it was on the cold side. The wind was not too kind for runners while volunteers noticed their fingers were a bit stiff from the cold. Tough task to hand out tokens or to keep pressing stopwatch buttons, brrr.

Congratulations on the milestones to :
- Erina Barber 100
- Joy Duffield 50.

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Stormont parkrun Results Page: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/stormont/results/weeklyresults/…

17 of you were first timers and 31 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 19 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 18 volunteers:
Marion BROWN • Max MCROBERTS • Joanne GORDON • Stephen HAMILTON • Louise COLLINS • Una MCNEILL • Magda BERNATEK • Paul CONWAY • Trevor MOUTRAY • Rohan RAMAVATH • Alasdair MACINNES • Leigh CARSWELL • Patricia ADAMS • Rohith RAMAVATH • Vicky JEFFERSON • Anna KETT • Gary CRAIG • Chris RUSSELL

Stormont parkrun started on 29th August 2015. Since then 7,920 participants have completed 48,114 parkruns covering a total distance of 240,570 km, including 8,153 new Personal Bests. A total of 411 individuals have volunteered 3,366 times.
#loveparkrun #stormontparkrun

Magda x

It was a post Valentine’s day parkrun and we have seen few red t-shirts to mark that date,  but the weather wasn’t very affectionate this morning. 210 runners and walkers proved yet again that skin is waterproof.

Dennis aka #stormDennis must have forgotten his barcode, and is one of the Unknown in the results. Remember: No printed barcode, no result.

Despite tough conditions 19 people recorded their Personal Bests.

Congratulations to Terry Deehan on his 200^th parkrun.

It wasn’t an easy one for our volunteers. You should have seen the state of the hi-viz jackets at the end – water dropping down from them! A washing machine is already on so they (hi-viz) will be fresh and ready for the next week.

Drop us a line if you’d like to help – we always look for volunteers. Here is parkrun e-mail: stormont@parkrun.com.

A warm cup of coffee/tea from Max’s stall was greatly appreciated today.

The event was made possible by 21 volunteers – thank you to each one of you:
Marion BROWN • Samuel MISKELLY • Liz UPSON • Marianne HOOD • Max MCROBERTS • Alison RENFREW • Clare LASINI • Una MCNEILL • Ruth LAW • Magda BERNATEK • Debi ALLEN • Trevor MOUTRAY • William HOPKINS • Sara THOMPSON • Jonathan CAMPBELL • Michael SADLIER • Patricia ADAMS • Jimmy MCNEILL • Gary CRAIG • Lorna THOMPSON • Amanda FIELDHOUSE

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Stormont parkrun Results Page. The male record is held by Conal MCCAMBRIDGE who recorded a time of 15:52 on 1st January 2017 (event number 72).
The female record is held by Sophie WOOD who recorded a time of 18:18 on 21st September 2019 (event number 213).
The Age Grade course record is held by Tommy HUGHES who recorded 94.69% (16:56) on 18th January 2020 (event number 231).

See you next week / Magda

the numbers

Each week we notice our numbers creeping up and today was no exception - 335 people ran, jogged or walked the course. We welcomed 50 newbies and 58 peeps recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 28 different clubs took part.

special mentions

We were honoured to welcome a team from Deloitte who were running, jogging and walking in memory of Emma, a friend of theirs. Well done everyone, you smashed it. Emma's friends and colleagues took part today to raise funds for the Macmillan Cancer Unit at Antrim Hospital. Macmillan were a great support to Emma and her family during her illness. We at Stormont parkrun salute you all... ♥

Special mention to Jamie Smyth who not only finished first but knocked a cool 9 seconds of his previous personal best time - amazing Jamie, well done! Jamie was closely followed in position 2 by Jackc Logan who also managed to shave off an incredible 1 minute and 32 from his previous PB time - fantastic.

Great to see so many visitors again, we had Simon and Martha from Bushy Park, visitors from Dundee, Exeter, Antrim, Dublin and Edinburgh. Special Stormont welcome to you all, come back to see us soon.

magnificent milestones

Many congrats to Graeme Taggart and Reudil Manongsong who have completed 50 parkruns and will soon be rocking the red t-shirt.

Massive congrats to two of our favs, regular volunteer Samuel Miskelly and feet-of-flames Jacob McKittrick, both soon to be rocking the black t-shirt as they chose Stormont to run for the 100th time. Great achievement everyone.

new volunteer

As you will be aware, parkrun only takes place owing to the commitment of our volunteers, many of whom are passionate runners too. Today we welcomed a new member to our team... Captain Hook. Kindly constructed and donated by Stormont regular Andrew Johnston.

Captain Hook's role is to provide a place for all the runners to put their finish tokens back... this reduces the time spent by whoever is 'token-sorting' and is a massive, huge, unbelievable help! however...speaking of which... today we had to replace 8 finish tokens... Please, please, please return them to us and remember that they are not souvenirs!

(image:Captain Hook) we made him giant size as we forgot to take other photos! #musttryharder

amazing volunteers

I've mentioned it before but... parkrun really is totally free and parkrun really is solely run by a group of passionate volunteers who are also, in most cases, passionate runners too.

It is always fabulous to see some new faces, and today we welcomed Jennifer and Karen to the volunteer roster for the first time.  Mark and Aisling and Helena are also all relatively new - they were all AMAZING!

If you've maybe thought about helping out (but you are a bit scared and not sure what to do) or if you have not made a New Years resolution yet (or have broken all those you did set!) why not consider getting involved with us?

It really is good fun and everyone's help is invaluable. It also allows some of the regular volunteers to join in and do a bit of running on a Saturday morning too. Please check out the info for yourself at the following link; https://www.parkrun.org.uk/stormont/volunteer/ and drop us a line at stormont@parkrun.com and one of the team will happily answer any queries you may have and make it happen!

The event today was made possible by 21 talented and happy volunteers:

Mags MATHIESON • Gillian MCBRIDE • Marianne HOOD • Max MCROBERTS • Stephen HAMILTON • Aisling SPAIN • Jennifer CARSE • Clare LASINI • Maxine STEELE • Una MCNEILL • Karen WILSON • Magda BERNATEK • Alison CANNING • Mark HUNT • Rohan RAMAVATH • Leigh CARSWELL • Helena DRYSDALE • Michael SADLIER • Jimmy MCNEILL • Rohith RAMAVATH • Rebecca SADLIER • Max MCROBERTS

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

Stormont parkrun started on 29th August 2015. Since then 7,833 participants have completed 47,134 parkruns covering a total distance of 235,670 km, including 8,039 new Personal Bests. A total of 406 individuals have volunteered 3,283 times.

Marianne x ♥

It was a BIG day at Stormont Estate.

The rumor was that the new running club is kicking off at the top of the hill. But it’s part of the parkrun code to share the park with other users so no bother to us. Everyone is welcome! Come and join us every Saturday at 9:30am, free, timed 5k run, jog, walk. Or try volunteering - great way to give back, have fun and meet new people.

                     Parkrun is for everyone.

People were saying that there was some excitement in the air but when we arrived in the morning all we could feel was WIND. And what a wind it was! Obviously in the wrong direction so 260 people who run had to put significantly more effort to keep moving forward. 14 PBs were recorded – what an achievement in this weather!

Lyn Sheldon, surrounded by her running buddies from Scrabo Striders, completed 150^th parkrun.

Michael Osborne reached a 50^th parkrun milestone. Congratulations!

We had visitors from Donegal and Wallace parkrun.

The event was made possible by a team of wonderful volunteers:
David RAINEY, Max MCROBERTS, Stephen HAMILTON. Aisling SPAIN, Linda INGRAM, Magda BERNATEK, Debi ALLEN, Gillian SADLIER, Mark HUNT. Rohan RAMAVATH, Miranda JEMPHREY, Helena DRYSDALE, Ellen DEEHAN, Patricia ADAMS, Bridget INNES, Jimmy MCNEILL, Andy ORR, Gary CRAIG, Danny HOLDEN, Una McNEILLThanks, Magda.

Just days after welcoming a bumper Christmas crowd for our festive bonus run, we were back as normal today, joined by close to 300 people.
A lot of behind the scenes work brought you the results a lot sooner than initially thought/feared. There remain some bugs, but we have a good team of volunteers that were quick to offer some practical solutions.

We had visitors from far and wide on Saturday - from Brisbane, Sydney, Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight, Milton Keynes, York, Dublin, Glasgow, Brighton and Plymouth. Those are only the ones we were told about.
Not content with staging an extra event on Christmas, we are back for more on January 1, at the usual time of 9:30am. January 1 is the only day of the year where you are allowed to earn two parkrun credits. There are other events nearby being staged at different times. A full list is available at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/special-events/. You don't all HAVE to run twice, you can volunteer one and run one as well. Given the expected karge crowd, extra help would be appreciated.
Staging an extra event mid-week also means no putting off the agony of token sorting. Well, as long as it is done by Wednesday morning...but right now it can wait.

Well done to first finisher Jamie today, ducking under 17 minutes and breaking his course PB. A strong run and a great reaction on being informed of his time. That was Jamie's 31st time as first finisher at Stormont.
There was a PB for first female Emmy as well - two in a week after her Christmas PB. It was Emmy's twelfth first finish at Stormont.
Of our 296 runners today, 25 were first timers and 38 recorded new personal bests. Representatives of 26 different clubs took part. We welcomed 17 volunteers.
Stormont parkrun started on 29th August 2015. Since then 7,505 participants have completed 44,983 parkruns covering a total distance of 224,915 km.

That's it for 2019. Thank you for your support.

What a spectacular day it was on Christmas Day at Stormont.

The marvellous volunteers rocked up at Stormont to the news that both Bangor and Wallace had been cancelled at the last minute, owing to icy conditions, so we expected a few more peeps than normal... we were not however prepared for the throngs of runners and walkers (and santas, crackers, elves and snowmen) that entered through the gates!

Nearly 600 people (570 to be precise!) ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 100 were first timers (a huge welcome to you all) and 78 recorded new Personal Bests. Go you! Representatives of 47 different clubs took part.

We were so thrilled that so many of you chose Stormont on Christmas Day, it was fantastic to have you with us.

Special welcome to all the visitors who joined us on the day from near and far and it was a great privilege to welcome Simon Lane and Martha. Simon is one of the Run Directors at Bushy Park - so they are both well used to large numbers! To give this some context... Bushy Park had 2545 runners, joggers and walkers on Christmas Day... eek!

There were many milestones too...

(So sorry we were unable to recognise you all by name during the briefing...)

Emily Morris and Rishab Reddy (both juniors) chose to achieve their 10 t-shirt at Stormont - huge kudos to you both! Emily also landed a pb - clever girl!

Beverley Crockard will soon be rocking a 50 t-shirt, amazing Beverley, very well done.

David Gribben, John Stevenson,  Robert Beattie, Heather Stanex and Sheena Kelly all joined the 100 club - we are thrilled and delighted you chose to achieve this fantastic milestone with us at Stormont.

The swan effect...a few hurdles on the way...

(which we smashed btw! hee hee)

STOPWATCHES...

With over 500 peeps running, we knew we had to operate the stopwatches in a different way (each stopwatch only records the times of the first 497 runners!) so once Jonny had timed the first 497 on his stopwatch, he signalled to Karen to take over and record the remaining runners times... they did this marvellously well and didn't lose focus for even a second... (kudos to Mags for the sage and quick-thinking advice to Mrs Claus!)

FINISH TOKENS...

We have 440 finish tokens...(the average attendance at Stormont is around 200 and last Christmas day there were around 360) 400 odd would therefore be no sweat to us...

Clever Head-Elf Alison had thought ahead and had printed off a few more finish token scanning-codes on A4 paper in the 'unlikely' event that we may have more than 440 people attend... recognising quite quickly that there were about a zillion people in Stormont Estate, she rang her hubby, Chief Turkey-Baster Barrie who printed off a whole pile more, got on his bike and zoomed them down to Mrs Claus...

MARSHALLING...

It was then noticed that there was a very icy bit of the course, but with our marshalls Helena, Helen and Lesleyanne already in position we had to come up with another plan B... Una, who was allocated as a scanner, was moved to the icy bit to ensure everyone was kept safe and multi-tasked for the event (well, she is a woman of great strength and character!) and scanned in a lot of you too.

FINISH FUNNEL...

With a zillion people coming into the finishing funnel in quick succession, Fabrice, Jimmy (the real santa) Claus, Sophie and Gillian worked swiftly and in tandem, issuing tokens like lightening and saying well-worn phrases such as... 'Well done' & 'Merry Christmas' & 'Keep in line' and 'Move quickly please' & 'Vomit at the end'... lol.

All runners were then directed to the marvellous scanners, David, Choi and Una - after her 'ice-duty' was completed. These guys worked effortlessly and with good humour too. Alison also dug in after her run too (another extremely efficient multi-tasking woman of strength and character!)

Participants were then directed to the convivial providers of mulled wine, hot coffee, doggy biscuits and fresh water - Maxs and Mags.

THE RESULTS...

Run Director, Marianne then scooted home at the end of parkrun to upload (download??) the 5 scanning devices that were used (3 scanners and 2 apps on phones) and both stopwatches... in order that everyone could receive their result quickly.

Mindful that she had 30 family members coming for mulled wine & mince pies at noon...followed by turkey with all the trimmings for 11, promised for 3pm...(eventually served at 4.20pm...) and was still in the Mrs Claus outfit worn to parkrun...with lovely sparkly clothes all laid out, ready to do a quick change into before guests arrived...results needed to be completed with military precision...

Uploading (downloading??) the results is a very simple process; the software is efficient and is very clever technology and everything was going according to plan until...one of the stopwatches refused to be recognised by the laptop... and therefore was not uploading (downloading??) ...aarrghh!

A few whatsapp messages later, to the other run directors, and a lot of scratching of heads and it was decided to do what all techies advise... reboot the laptop (lol)...this had no effect whatsoever...

Every serial port was checked, two cables were used but nada, zilch, zero uploading was happening...

Quick facebook message posted advising that results may not be up before the next day and back to heating mulled wine and basting the turkey...

Guests began to arrive and in between glugging mulled wine (copious amounts to help with brain-function) and opening pressies, Mrs Claus was back at the laptop, trying to prevent the what-was-almost-inevitable-at-this-point, 59:59 results for everyone...

Throughout the day, at various times, the laptop was rebooted again, cables were attempted again (sparkly outfit never did get put on but that might have been down to the mulled wine!) multiple whatsapp messages were made, no time to even make the phone-call to parkrun HQ (who always have a designated person available to talk to with any issues on processing results)... and then... Mrs Claus did what anyone would have done and gave up for the day...

Boxing day brought a brand new day and with dogged (some might say bloody-minded!) determination that this would not beat her...  and a fresh (but bumpy) head, the search for the 'eureka moment' continued... there were many google searches and lots more whatsapp messages to fellow run directors and the event director... she was about to ring parkrun HQ, and then it happened... EUREKA!!!

Mrs Claus uploaded (downloaded??) all devices (except the dumb stopwatch) to the software just to 'see what would happen' ...

She realised that she could manually enter the times of the approx 80 people who had no time recorded from the stopwatch and what do you know... it worked!! It didn't even take too long to do that as all the names were recorded when they had been scanned....

Several huge sighs of reliefs, self-patting on back and whoop whooping later... it was done!

Then something even more miraculous happened... Head-Angel Magda messaged insisting that she would take the tokens to sort out and put them all in order ready for the next parkrun Event Number 227 on Saturday.

Sorry that the run report is like war and peace but hopefully this helps to explain what happened! The sick stopwatch (RIP) has been laid to rest and we look forward to welcoming you all again to Stormont soon.

The event was made possible by 20 fantastic and festively dressed volunteering elves:

Mags MATHIESON • Gary WATTON • Marianne HOOD • Max MCROBERTS • Fabrice SCOUPE • Una MCNEILL • Sophie LAW • Magda BERNATEK • Alison CANNING • Gillian SADLIER • Choi Yuk TSE • Helena DRYSDALE • Jonathan CAMPBELL • Helen MCMAHON • Patricia ADAMS • David MALEY • Jimmy MCNEILL • Karen DOUGAN • Gary CRAIG • Lesleyanne R

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

Looking forward to next years Christmas Day run and wishing you all a very Happy New Year - don't forget we will be running on NYD too, starting at 9.30am and please bring along any old trainers which will be donated to refugee families who have settled in Northern Ireland. Check out the event page here  https://www.facebook.com/events/451449985562400/

We are away to lie down in a darkened room now...

Mrs Marianne Claus xx

'Twas several nights before Christmas, and a foggy morning at the Stormont Estate. The volunteers certainly needed their high-vis vests today.

In total 259 parkrunners completed the course with 26 achieving PBs. We had 21 first-timers. Well done!

We had visitors from Bangor, Glasgow, Macclesfield and even Perth in Western Australia. Oh, and we netted some from Wimbledon too (is that where the loveparkrun hashtag came from?).

Among the milestone achievers who made themselves known were Gillian Sadlier and Daniel Ryden, both of whom joined the 100 club. Well done. It was Daniel's birthday too so we wish him many happy returns (especially to Stormont, because he brought cake).

There were plenty of festive outfits and Santa hats on show. Thank you to the following little helpers who volunteered today to make this event possible: Jonathan CAMPBELL, Alison CANNING, Gary CRAIG, Karen DOUGAN, Helena DRYSDALE, Amanda FIELDHOUSE, Stephen HAMILTON, Chris HUGHES, Miranda JEMPHREY, Eva LASINI, Clare LASINI, Mags MATHIESON, Angela MAWHINNEY, Jimmy MCNEILL, Una MCNEILL, Max MCROBERTS, Trevor MOUTRAY, Kimberley REYNOLDS, Paul SHELDON, Caroline STEELE, Sara THOMPSON, Heather WATSON, Elin WATSON.

If you'd like to volunteer, you'll always be welcome and all roles are straightforward. Drop us a line at stormonthelpers@parkrun.com.

See you next time - and don't forget Stormont parkrun will take place on Christmas Day at the usual time too.

Jonny

On a beautiful cold but crisp winter morning, 213 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 20 were first timers and 25 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 20 different clubs took part.

Welcome to our first timers and visitors from London, Dublin and the sunnier climes of El Salvador!

None of this would have been possible without the 19 hardy volunteers, who are still thawing out:

Mags MATHIESON • Marion BROWN • Anne MCNALLY • Max MCROBERTS • Ronan MCCORMICK • Sophie LAW • Alison CANNING • Lara CANNING • Trevor MOUTRAY • William HOPKINS • Rohan RAMAVATH • Brian DODDS • Alasdair MACINNES • Miranda JEMPHREY • Rohith RAMAVATH • Chris HUGHES • Gary CRAIG • David MCFARLAND • Helen MCFARLAND

We have some great opportunities for you to take part in parkrun over the festive period. In fact, between the 21st December and 1st January, you can take part in 5 parkruns!

We'll be hosting an extra event on Christmas Day, starting at 9.30. Please come and join us for some festive cheer - fancy dress optional!

In addition, we will be running on NYD, again starting at 9.30. Our friends at Orangefield and Ormeau parkruns will be hosting events starting at 11am, giving you the opportunity to complete the New Year Double - it's the only day of the year you can take part in 2 different parkruns, with both counting towards your milestones.

However, you don't have to run at 2 events - why not volunteer at one and run another? NYD at Stormont has traditionally had a very big attendance, so we would be keen to have extra volunteers that day to ensure everything runs smoothly and to allow everyone who wishes to head to a 2nd event to get processed quickly. Please get in touch with stormont@parkrun.com if you are able to help.

Events on the 21st and 28th December will take place as normal.

Stormont parkrun started on 29th August 2015. Since then 7,359 participants have completed 43,858 parkruns covering a total distance of 219,290 km, including 7,605 new Personal Bests. A total of 383 individuals have volunteered 3,110 times.