We've been waiting a while for the cherry blossom to "pop" along our start avenue at Tremorfa parkrun and finally, it started to make its appearance this weekend to welcome plenty of visitors as well as lots of our lovely regulars.  Two of the visitors from Ross-on-Wye parkrun, Cat & Nigel Lane have provided this week's report.  A few words from me at the end, but over to them for their insights!

It never fails to amaze me how in huge sprawling cosmopolitan cities there are acres of land being used for parkrun events. Tremorfa park is one such area. The home page says park in the Tesco store and walk behind the petrol station, so we did. Never knowing what we are going to find. Well, we found a delightful pathway leading us to avenues of trees bursting into a magnificent blaze of colour; a beautiful setting.

We introduced ourselves to the RD Tom and took some obligatory photos with the flag and just quietly acclimatised ourselves to the surroundings.

We were soon called to the first timers briefing held by the bubbly Anny, and she explained the route for us. Very simply it is a figure 8, 2 and three quarter times, on pathways.

Anny also mentioned that the park used to be an airfield. I did a bit of digging when I got home and found that (quite a few years ago). The area was very much an open moorland used for arable and cattle farming. Then steelworks moved into the area and the park became an airfield under a variety of names. Both steelworks and airfields becoming very useful during the war years. Later there was even a Rover car manufacturing plant in the area. All contributing to turning the area into a huge urban sprawl. Well, so glad they left the park for us to run in… how we long for pathways at our home event of Ross on Wye. We are on flood plains so should expect it but the last 6½ months have been exceptionally wet. Tremorfa's event started October 2019, 3 and a half months after we started Ross on Wye. However we are stuck on event number 132 whilst Tremorfa is galloping ahead on event number 148. [Literally galloping! We had a horse incursion during today's event, thankfully well managed by our wonderful marshals, and several cancellations due to horses.. we should probably be about 10 more events ahead].Shortly after the first timers briefing we were called to order by Tom (I don’t need a loudspeaker) the RD for today. Quite a sizeable crowd had amassed and so efficient was Tom in the customary run brief that we were in danger of starting a few seconds early (never happens at our parkrun!). However a lone dog walker coming towards us slowed our departure as we all parted to let him through. Then a few seconds after 9 we were off.

We started on wide pathways through the avenue of blossoming trees into the largest half of the figure 8 course. Beautiful and flat which narrowed slightly in a couple of places but easily accommodating the faster runners overtaking us mere mortals in the latter stages. Then into the smaller section. So much nature all around.I love being able to see the other runners as we are all putting our own efforts and paces into a parkrun event. Plenty of opportunities to do this on this glorious course, especially on the middle part of the figure 8. And the sunny dry weather was here today. Added bonus.

As always, no parkrun is possible without a small army of volunteers and today’s volunteers were placed in strategic points around the course to guide, direct and encourage the 124 participants present for today’s event. Thank you one and all. Oh, and always lovely to have such a speedy upload for the results. I think we had received them by 5 past 10.

We are very grateful to the volunteers who made this event happen: Anny ANDERSON, Tom BAKER, Lily BLANK, Rachel Ann BOWEN, Jenny CAULKETT, Kenneth CAULKETT, Mark DAVIES, Tim DAWE, Angela FOSTER-SWAILES, Jenny HALL, Carol JAMES, Cat LANE, Nigel LANE, Julie MORPHET, Kate OWEN, Jack REDDAWAY, Tina ROSSITER, Nick SPEED, Siobhan WILLIAMS

First runner in today on his 8th outing at Tremorfa (and his highest finish) was Emyr Wile, followed closely by Peter Vokesand, Chris Medcalf. Emma Seward brought the ladies home, Sara Williams and Lucy Kingston were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Ideal conditions today meant that almost 1 in every 5 secured their fastest time on the course, 6 of the top 10 doing just that. 

But  as always , the real winners are the rank and file who turn up week in and week out. Take the Tarrant family who came up from the tiny village we know as London.  Nicola – today was her 649th parkrun at a staggering 550 locations including 15 different countries. And over 250 volunteer credits to boot!  Her father Stephen a mere 550 parkruns and her uncle Dave a paltry 490 parkruns.

There were a couple of milestones for Vernon JAMES on his 50th [thanks for the lovely homemade biscuits!], and Ann BRUNSWICK for her 100th. Also there were 2 newbies on their inaugural event- Samuel Jones and Juan-Piere Tappan. Do you 2 know what you have started??? parkrun can be seriously habit forming. Another fabulous parkrun that again makes us question why it is not busier, maybe it’s the best kept secret in Cardiff? 

Thanks for having us, we enjoyed not having the hills that Pomphrey delivered or the mud that Quakers served us. 

Nigel Lane A1800305
Cat Lane A1800313 

Back to me for a short bit and thanks to Cat & Nigel for their report on our lovely parkrun.  A report wouldn't be complete without Tim's handy infographic which is below, and of course the full results are always on the website for those who are after a few more details.

We start the week looking fairly light on volunteers as a few of us are away this Saturday (Gasp!  I know, we actually have other things to do on a Saturday, how dare we?).  Anyway our VC this week, Kate would be extraordinarily grateful for some early offers of help.  Drop an email to tremorfa@parkrun.com if you feel like giving it a go!  Don't forget that the cherry blossoms ought to be at their finest in the next week or so, get yourselves down to Tremorfa where it's all happening!

Take it easy and see you all soon!

For those not in the know, a passionista (in parkrun terms) is someone who is so loyal to their home run that they have never run anywhere else.  Many congratulations to Tremorfa passionista Rhys STEPHEN on completing his 25th parkrun (all at Tremorfa) this morning!Rhys' milestone is the only one this week, but other details are available on Tim's handy infographic which is below.  For those of you interested, the full results are on the website as usual.A bijou number of finishers today - under 100 again (sob!) (most likely due to the Easter holidays), but also a rather bijou team of volunteers.  This week's VC Kirsty unfortunately had to do some desperate begging, which as she says is just embarrassing for everyone.  We're a really friendly bunch (probably the friendliest parkrun in East Cardiff, even if we do pull a few faces from time to time) and you can volunteer with a friend, bring your children, your dog (one per volunteer, on a lead) or ask to be placed with someone else if you’re nervous.  Full training is provided so if that's you please drop an email to tremorfa@parkrun.com with your name, parkrun barcode number and details of when you can help out.  Leave the rest to us!As well as handing out tokens today (pretty badly as it turned out!), I was foisting the latest issue of parkrun's free magazine on anyone who would have one (and even on some who clearly didn't want one, but who couldn't face the prospect of disappointing me...).  Our allocation has all gone now (phew, they're heavy and bulky to lug around the place) but if you missed out, you can still snag a copy from HQ by ordering one from the parkrun shop.  They're technically free but postage is £2.95.  See how much one of this morning's volunteers (Sue Morris) couldn't wait to read it?  RD Anny is looking on in disbelief there.The weather this morning was depressingly grey but there was sunshine in our hearts as we took part in our favourite Saturday morning activity (parkrun, of course!).  The avenue of cherry blossom trees above our start seem to be reluctant to bloom, and who can blame them given the howling wind and rain we've had recently?  I did manage to spot a few braver blossom trees at the first turn, where I was marshalling this morning and took some photos from.  Hopefully the slightly milder weather will encourage our gorgeous avenue to burst forth and we'll be showered in blossoms over the coming few short weeks.As I mentioned, I was combining taking some photos with handing out tokens (and magazines!) today.  You can find them in this Facebook album.See you all next week!

*look it up! Thanks to my co-ED (and today's RD) Kirsty for expanding our vocabularies. We have her Eurovision treat in a few weeks to look forward to - those of you who will be on the volunteer roster for 11th May can look forward to her very clever way with words - get your space quickly, I'm sure they'll be snapped up soon! (email tremorfa@parkrun.com with your parkrun barcode).

Now that you've been away to look it up, you'll now know that apricity means warmth of the sun in winter, and that's exactly what we had today.  Another shockingly horrible week weatherwise and here we were today peeling off layers and being quite happy to stand around in the sunshine, feeling warm for a change.

This week's results are as usual on the website, but Tim's handy infographic below provides a more digestible overview.This shows that amongst our 114 finishers (woohoo, over 100 again!), 37 of those were completing Tremorfa parkrun for the first time.  Many of them were visitors, a huge gang (11!) from the North Bristol Running Group.  Great to see so many of you, and all with really quite high numbers of parkruns completed, meaning that they've been doing it a long time (lots of 250 t-shirts in evidence).    In contrast, 3 people started their parkrun journey this morning - a very warm welcome to Verity EATON and to Charlotte & Aimee DUTTON - we hope to see you all again soon.  Visitors from further afield (south London!) were also very welcome. 

We keep saying this, but it's absolutely the best kind of event when it really feels like an event - lots of volunteers, lots of participants, visitors, newbies, lovely regulars, lots of smiles!

There were no official milestones today, but visitor (from North Bristol!) Sheila WILCOX completed her 400th parkrun - what an achievement, congratulations! Another achievement, a bit further away, but still of note was that last Saturday parkrun recorded its first person to achieve 1000 volunteering occasions!  What an inspirational story.  If you want to continue (or start) your volunteering journey, please email tremorfa@parkrun.com with your parkrun barcode number and details of what you'd like to do and when.  Whilst we can't guarantee a first choice of role, we'll do our best to make sure you have a great time volunteering with us.

Tim managed to take a few photos whilst carrying out his funnel managing role and they are in this Facebook album.

Have a happy Easter, don't forget that the clocks "spring" forward tomorrow and see you all next Saturday for another Tremorfa parkrun - the blossoms over the start avenue may be in bloom by then!

Our little run of 100+ participants was broken today (a consequence of the Easter school holidays, perhaps?) but we were pleased that 88 of you (and thankfully zero horses) joined us.

We were rather hoping that 100+ each week was our "new normal", so fingers crossed our numbers bounce up again after the Easter holidays. We do our best to put on a great event for you no matter the turnout, but having a slightly larger crowd gives a good atmosphere and buzz around the course. So we hope to pick up our 100 streak again soon. Don't forget, the blossoms will be out in the coming weeks/months and they do make our start/finish area rather special so make sure you don't miss out on that.

Sadly, despite Andrew's excellent litter picking efforts last week, the park was not looking as good as it should have today. It's such a shame when people don't treat our lovely park with the respect it deserves, but we soldier on. As Kate (generously?) put it in her volunteer appeals this week, we have "by any scientific measure, the most attractive parkrun core team in the East Cardiff area", so perhaps we offset the eyesore of the litter. Who can argue with science, eh? Or, perhaps not...

Anyway, the sun did make an initial appearance, and it was a glorious morning (if a bit cold and windy!). Unfortunately the rain rolled in for a short shower after the event started, leaving Mark and me to scramble to put a second tarp over everyone's coats and jackets. I hope we managed to keep everyone's stuff reasonably dry!

Despite not even being in the country, Tim has kindly whipped up another of his famous infographics with the key stats from today:

Full results are on the website as usual.

2 milestones were achieved today. Huge congratulations to Richard PROUSE (50 parkruns) and Emily ROGERSON (25 parkruns) - both great achievements. Well done and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

We had a few first timers today - including a good handful doing their first ever parkrun. I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to welcoming you back again - next week perhaps? Looking through the results I'm very pleased to see a number of people who have completed fewer than 10 parkruns so far. I hope you're enjoying being part of the parkrun community and will be a regular with us for many more events.

Several barkrunners joined us today (always a favourite of mine), most of whom looked like they could happily have done a 10k as they came bounding across the finish line! I expect their owners however were happy to finish and not do another few laps.

We didn’t have the fancy camera this week, but Andrew kindly took some photos in between his RD duties which are in this facebook album.

If anyone fancies volunteering next week do let us know (tremorfa@parkrun.com). I'm VC for the next event and would like to have the roster done and dusted by Wednesday/Thursday as I have a busy week at work waiting for me...early offers of help are greatly appreciated.

We hope to see lots of you next weekend - bring your friends and hopefully we can break the 100 barrier again!

Have a good week,

Siobhan

And thankfully no horses upsetting today's event!  It is great to see the uplift in our numbers; as we've said many times before, we still need the same number of volunteers to put on an event for 40 people or 140 people (440 might need a couple of extra folks to scan and manage the funnel!).  Whatever the reason for the increase, we're not complaining at all.  Our lovely course can easily handle this, with nice wide tarmac paths and lots of friendly encouragement.

It must be said (and we overheard a couple of people, presumably visiting) that the park isn't exactly the most picturesque in the world.  Especially so in the depths of winter and with the amount of litter around the place.  We have no control over the weather (sadly!), but one of our fabulous core team (Andrew) did his very best Womble impression (youngsters, ask your parents/grandparents) and made a huge difference to the litter problem on the way in and out of the park.  Thanks Andrew!

The horse situation is still rumbling around in the background, but thankfully repairs (albeit temporary) have been made to the fencing adjacent to our finish area meaning that they won't be able to get in there at least!

Onto this week's results then - full details on the website as usual, but Tim's handy infographic (below) shows that we had a lovely mix of folks visiting us for the first time, some people new to parkrun and of course our trusty regulars.  Great to see lots of familiar faces (I would say "old faces" but then who am I to talk!), as well as a few people who've adopted Tremorfa as their own secret find.  Don't be shy, tell everyone you know how lovely we are (you know you want to!).Four official milestones to celebrate today.  Congratulations to Geraint DAVIES (25 parkruns), Samantha MARSHALL, Nerys WELLS and Oliver ROGERSON (all 50 parkruns).  These are wonderful achievements and you should be proud.

A t-shirt (or other milestone merch!) awaits if you want to fork out for the P&P - you should get an email from HQ with a direct link, but you can browse the selection available on the website.  By supporting parkrun in this way, it keeps events free at the point of delivery.  I say it this way, because obviously there's a cost in organising such a massive thing as parkrun, but you may be surprised to know that all of the events are organised and managed by unpaid volunteers, local ambassadors and even regional (Wales) ambassadors don't get paid either.  You have to go as far away as HQ to find paid employees, but all of the kit we're supplied with (banners, tokens, stakes, hi-vis vests etc) come at a cost too.

We welcomed a good few visitors (from Swansea, from Porthcawl and from Kent (originally Italy though) as well as plenty of four-legged friends (of the canine, not equine variety this week).  Great to see so many of you enjoying our lovely event.      

Photos from today's event (by Tim) are in this Facebook album.  He was managing the funnel today as well as taking photos.  Darren DAVIS who was marshalling out on the field managed to capture a 10 minute video with some excellent footspa action which we'll try to get onto Facebook (look out for it soon).  Another of our marshals (Luke HESLOP) who was out on the playing field was taking photos too, and his great photos are in this Flickr album.  I'm sure you'll all join me in thanking them for their efforts, not just in taking the photos/videos, but in the time taken afterwards in processing them.I'm away next week, but leave you in the capable hands of our lovely core team who I have no doubt will put on another fab event.  Siobhan is on report writing duties, so hopefully she'll come up with a fresh angle and you can have a rest from me for a short while at least.  Back again in two weeks, ready to tackle all the excitements of Easter weekend.