Welcome to the 317th day of the year, in the Gregorian calendar, the unknown parkrun number of the year, as location varies.
48 days, and up to and hoping 6 parkruns remain until the end of the year!
Weather and ‘other’ depending!! Our thoughts are with our Australian park runners.
The 1st ‘parkrun’ (UK Time Trails) event began at Bushy park on 2nd October 2004 with 13 lucky participants and 6 volunteers
-- they held their 354th event on 30th April 2011, 662 participants and 15 volunteers
-- and today they held their 851st event with 1160 participants, 63 volunteers.
This wonderful parkrun was approximately 165th in the UK and approximately 205th parkrun in the world
It is hosted at Telford Town Park. This area has a LOT of history. We would highly recommend that if possible, visitors plan extra time to maybe go around the route again and have time to look and read the information boards. Try and make time to spend exploring other areas, in the park and close by. The course route is interesting, as it starts on a down, and has the most ‘down’ we have ever known. There are of course resulting ‘slight inclines,’ it is an interesting course.
This event began on 16th February 2013 with 178 participants and 18 volunteers.
Celebrated its 100th event on 28th March 2015 with 314 participants and 23 volunteers
Celebrated its 200th event on 6th May 2017 with 484 participants and 34 volunteers
Celebrated its 300th event on 15th June 2019 with 558 participants and 32 volunteers
Its busiest event has been its 329th on 1st January 2020 with 718 participants and 40 volunteers
And its cosiest event was its 6th on 30th March 2013 with 99 participants and 18 very committed volunteers on probably a very cold day!
For our 13th day of the month we had a lovely lucky dry autumnal day. Being from ‘up north’ we very much appreciate a dry parkrun as many have unluckily been very heavy rain lately!
Luckily we had early volunteers to set up the course. The clearing of dinosaur dung can be time consuming we understand.
Luckily at the first timers briefing we were warned that there were dinosaurs on the course, (a new one for us) however unluckily the number of participants or volunteers eaten on the course was not revealed!
Our run director of the event Andrew CROZIER gave the introduction, announcements and guidance. As it was the 13th of the month no Triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13) however was shown!
With Sara PASKIN and Claire ASLETT-ROUND our timekeepers we were on our way…
Luckily those starting out on their own milestones were
* Dawn COLYER, Simon COLYER, Adam BLUNDELL, Justin TENCH, Nerys JONES, Katie CHILDS, Ann JUKES set off for their 10th parkrun.
*Oliver RODWELL, Harry WARRELL PB NAME not only completed their 10th parkrun they gained a PB too!
(All over 19 years old so unluckily no change of logo, juniors receive the acknowledgement and the option of their wonderful coveted white t-shirt!!)
* Ben HOCKING, Mark BRAGG, Stuart HEELEY, Tracy BILLSBERRY, Jane TENCH set off for their 25th parkrun.
* David BALLINGER and Emma HALL, set off to complete their 50th parkrun.
* Kate DOLAN and Darren FAWKE set off to complete their 100th parkrun
and
* Richard BRADSHAW and Bridie JONES set off to complete their unofficial 150th parkrun milestone
A lucky step closer to theirs were
* Samantha ASTBURY, Ollie HUXLEY, Simon CHESTERS completed their 9th, so happy planning for your 10th!
* Simon TUDOR completed their 24th, so happy planning for your 25th!
* Marie WATTON, Charlotte HOPPER, completed their 49th, so happy planning for your 50th!
* Etsuko KOSHIKA, Amanda SANDS, completed their 99th, so happy planning for your 100th!
**Congratulations** as all completed successfully.
Luckily Kevin BRIERLEY, Darren OWEN-JONES, Nicola WRIGHT, Lindsey JONES, and Jane TENCH helped participants achieve goals by pacing to a set time.
Around the course we had many marshals to guide, encourage and help keep us safe, amongst them were Viv ORME, Kim FAWKE, Mike SPRASO, Elsa MACKAY, Niki GARCHA-DAVIES, Steve LILL, Craig FOSKETT, Sarah LINCOLN, Fay RAYWARD, Susie BROWN, Mark BODEN, Deborah HOPKINS, Sophie WYATT, Juliet SMITH, Caroline RIGBY, Maureen MORGAN, Simon DAVIES, Neen FELTON, Joanne NEWNES, Kavi JANI and Mark NEWNE. There were also some very well behaved 4 legged helpers too!
The course was lovely. Full of history, woods, and old railway track, ponds, ducks, even some blackberries flowering!!
The only disappointment was, as with many parkruns, parkrunners telling other parkrunners or members of the public to move out of the way of those speedier participants! Some members of the public were stood out of the way for us all to pass, so were reminded it is their walk too, and the speedier ones can easily run around us all.
At the end of all the participants is our Tail Walker, no one is officially ever last at a parkrun and this week our wonderful volunteers were Dawn CHURM, Tony BARNETT and Phoebe BARNETT. This week only friendly dinosaurs were on the course as no participants or volunteers were eaten or harmed during this event… That we know of, as barcodes are only collected at the end, who knows …
At the finish we were greeted by the timekeepers and music!
Nicky BRIERLEY, Leigh HOLT, Amy ALDRIDGE, Emma CROSS kept people in order as we collected our tokens from Alison CUTTER, Ann SOUTH and went to be scanned by Neil WOOD, Diane WOOD, Corran RODERICK, Paula JOHNSTON, Poppy EDWARDS-JONES, Neil WOODFINE and Jessica CROZIER.
Volunteers at the end realised we were visiting and had our names to volunteer at juniors the next day. They reminded us of a 10am start (now unusual) and as it was held in a slightly different location, gave us the directions. Really kind and helpful of them! Very much appreciated.
After the event Jennifer WILLOTT gave up their time to sort the tokens into order ready for the next event.
Other volunteers included Lindsay CROZIER, Viv BARNETT, Jack INGLIS, Matthew WRIGHT, Hope WYATT and Phoebe WYATT.
Volunteers took the information from the timekeepers, scanners and processed them for the results to be available to all.
Luckily Phil THOMPSON, Megan TIBBETTS, Mitchell STANLEY, James TOHAMS, Jimmy PREECE, Liam THOMPSON, Charlie PREECE, Aisia MARLOW, Julie SMITH, Clare GRENNAN, Luke SWINBOURNE, Rajesh WADONI, Georgia TAYLOR, Nathan SMITH, Rachael SHUKER, Andrea BRAZIER, Lee BOWDEN, Stephanie DARLINGTON, Zoe HUMPHRIES, Stacey BROSTER, Sally BLAKEMAN, Jonathon FINNIGAN, Lisa BOWEN, Oliver FERRIER, Victoria OXTOBY, Rachel NEALE, Peter NEALE, Debbie BARRY, Kerry ROGERS, Tim WOLVERSON, Jo BROWN, Lucy JONES WILDE and Shannon RICHARDS, joined us for the first time
Many of whom where the lucky graduates from couch to 5k, **WELL DONE**
Luckily Steven LANGFORD, Dominic FARLEY, Ollie HUXLEY, Harry JEFFERSON, Ben TOPPING, Daniel WORPOLE, Natalie MORRIS, Ben TONG, Corran RODERICK, Samuel YARNALL, Paul MUSGROVE, Simon CHESTERS, Lawrence NEWTON, Finley EWINGS, Jon MANNERING, David THORNTON, Harry BOWNASS, Peter STOKER, Ian JAMES, Sam LAWRENCE, Tonisha O'GORMAN, Martin BETTS, Ross SMART, Steven COBURN, David HUGHES, Deborah MOORE, Siddhartha O'GORMAN, Harry WARRELL, Dawn COLYER, Christopher O'GORMAN, Matthew EWINGS, Tom WEAVER, John MANNING, Peter FOULKES, Lee WILLIAMS, Will ALLAWAY, Nicholas BURN, Anthony REEVES, Sid IMENTRY, Seren EVANS, Samantha ASTBURY, Justin CLARKE, Sue HOLL, Fiona MCMULLAN, Lauren WEALE, Jackie POOLE, April MUNDAY, Oliver PARKHILL, Ada-Maria JIPA, Laura WILLIAMS, Wendy WILLIAMS, Matthew BRYANT, Helen BRYANT, Anthony WILSON, Dan FAULKNER, David ATACK, Emily HILL, Lisa BUTLER, Martin KNOWLES, Jayne MEAKIN, Amy BARR, Samuel DOLAN, Sophie PHILLIPS, Charlotte WYLE, Donna BREADEN, Susan SMITH, Hayley ABEL, Sharon LEACH, Graeme CORTEN, Rebecca HUGHES, Julia YEATES and Chloe EVANS marked the occasion with New PB’s!!
The 13th lucky finisher was Reynold WILLIAMS
The 113th lucky finisher was Wendy Elizabeth EVANS
The 213th lucky finisher was Nerys JONES their lucky 10th parkrun, unluckily not under 19 so no snazzy white tshirt.
The 313th lucky finisher, Gaynor WILLIAMS
The 413th unlucky finisher, forgot their barcode so us unknown
Unluckily no 513th to 713th slightly down from their 300th celebration and an amazing New Years double in 2020 of over 700! participants.
Keeping with our theme, taking part in their 13th event at this 13th event was lucky for Karl MOORE, Gary WHITE, Lina FUSCO, Rebecca ANDREWS, Claire LEAVY, Gerard SHIRLEY, Adrian HOBSON, Harrison MCEWAN, Sharon LEACH, and Jayne POWELL, they all ‘fare tredici’ as it is known in Italy.
Luckily there were 451 successful participants included regulars,
4% tourists (luckily the unofficial winner of the furthest distance was from the Wirral, thanks to the modal fair!)
*Congratulations if you now have an ‘T’ for your ‘A to Z’
or a 354 for your Winston index
16% achieved a personal best,
4% who kept their identity a secret or forgot their barcode (keep a back-up in the car, sock or other, is often a good idea. We have collected many friends over the years backups!) and
7% joined us for the first time, we hope you enjoyed it and to see you again.
To date …
-- there have been 15,932 different runners on the course
-- they have completed 133,596 (number of runs) runs.
-- the average attendance is 8.4
If you would like to see a full list of results please click here https://www.parkrun.org.uk/telford/results/354/ (Volunteer names at the bottom of the list)
We were lucky as a lovely group of volunteers looked after the lucky successful participants. **Thank you** to the 56 amazing volunteers, co-ordinated by Kim FAWKE.
This week, of those running, walking or other…
5 people have gained their 10 volunteers award
19 people have gained their 25 volunteers award, approximately 2.5% of those registered
10 people have gained their 50 volunteers award … 1%
6 people have gained their 100 volunteers award … 0.31%
2 people have gained their 250 volunteers award … 0.023%
0 people have gained their 500 volunteers award … 0.0012%
Only 9% of participants have gained a volunteer award, **Congratulations to Wendy DOBSON who have earned this prior to a milestone! Well done and thank you to those who either gave up their own run or lie in to make so many ‘run, walks, milestones and skips’ possible.
If you would like to be part of the volunteering group, please e-mail telford@parkrun.com.
It can be very fun and rewarding, it can be a great way to grow your social circle and full training is given, including the FREE use of a hi-vis jacket!!
Thank you to our lovely, friendly helpful hosts. We hope you all had a lovely start to your Saturday the 13th and a safe journey home.
( - : R J M n C : - )