Report by Phil Pittock

Heavy rain all day on Thursday forced a change to the ‘emergency’ promenade route, amid rumours of possible cancellation, but thankfully we had a run this morning and the high pressure created by 356 parkrunners held Storm Dennis off for a few hours. He huffed and puffed, it was tough in the second half, but the worst of the weather will come later.

The only Dennis in evidence this morning was our own Dennis Gill who thundered round the course and presented his (iso)barcode at the finish for the 286th time and his best time for many weeks.

We welcomed tourists from Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire, including one who volunteered for us today. Well done you! 77 people found today’s Whitstable parkrun a breeze and recorded personal bests and there were 31 gusty first timers (or should that be gutsy?) of which 14 chose today to do their very first parkrun.

Robin Packman completed his 300th parkrun, Matthew Rigden his 150th and Michelle Wasson her 50th. As mentioned last week, Whitstable stalwart Philip Hadler clocked up 250 today. Watch this space for more on this.

There was certainly no depression over Whitstable this morning. We were blown away by run director Justin Fantetti’s excellent briefing and the grey skies cleared until Tony C came in 57 minutes later as tail walker.

A big thank you to the 50 volunteers who made the whole thing possible, especially the marshals who showered us with encouragement. Finally, as I wrote this report I was delighted to receive an email from Brian Palmer who said that joining him as a volunteer this morning were his daughter, grandson and great granddaughter as well as 2 grandchildren who ran. Four generations of the Palmer family joining the Whitstable parkrun family. Can any parkrun anywhere beat that?

How many weather metaphors can I get into a parkrun report? Challenge completed?

Brian marshaling in his usual spot

Week 7 pb2pr20 report by Kim Carter

Thank You Storm Dennis

We braced ourselves for the predicted 40mph winds this morning; I fully expected a low turnout – but not at all; the Benchers were ready to go for Week 7 of Park Bench to parkrun. The volunteer team this week comprised James, Eddie, Lianne, Sue and Ann and we were going for a target of 2.5 kilometres of non-stop running. This year’s cohort has proved to be a particularly enthusiastic bunch; and even though we had reached the ‘walk’ point, several of you just wanted to keep on running. The sun came out and the fierce weather held off. The flat Prom course and advantageous south-westerly blow resulted in PBs aplenty. It was an absolute joy to see the expressions of triumph as you flew up the final hill. Quote of the week from Myra, one of Whitstable’s most senior runners, finishing her 30th parkrun in fine form: “I don’t seem to dread it quite as much as I used to...” Thanks a bunch Mum and see you next week!

Kim x

Myra finishing her 30th parkrun with a smile

Thank you to Lin White for this weeks photos, which can be found through the link on our website - http://www.parkrun.org.uk/whitstable/photos.

Report by Phil Pittock.

Numbers were down this week, with 367 parkrunners compared to the average of 480 for the previous five weeks. No doubt some were put off by the heavy overnight rain which, in true Whitstable style, stopped at about 8.40 and gave us a dry run (well dry overhead anyway!) and a temperature of eight degrees and a gentle south-westerly breeze. We welcomed 22 first timers, of which nine were doing their very first parkrun.

We used the ‘alternative’ lollipop, running right out to the beach to avoid the worst of the mud through the middle, and the slippery conditions didn’t deter the 58 people, yes, that’s one in six of you, who achieved personal bests.

I haven’t looked through all of those 58 PBs, but I did pick out Emily Mudhar-Fung who ran alongside me for about 4.95 of the 5km and beat her previous best by three seconds. I don’t know you Emily, but well done! I also noticed Fred Dunn and Lynn Cottrell, who have both completed five parkruns after starting on 11 January this year and have both improved their times by more than two minutes.

Cole Gibbens was first home for the 24th time and Cath Stibbs was first female for the second time with a new PB of 21:09. James Flanagan ran his 100th parkrun, Susan Roots and Pauline Hunt their 50th and Sophie Stoakes her 10th. Good luck to Philip Hadler, a Whitstable stalwart, who will be running his 250th next Saturday.

A big thank you to run director Steve Woolf and to the other 47 volunteers who made the whole thing possible.