Wythenshawe parkrun no.407 – 7th September 2019

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In a week when many of us will have struggled to get back into a work or school routine after a long and disappointingly wet summer, one thing that has remained constant is parkrun on a Saturday morning at 9am.

And so 357 of us came to Wythenshawe Park and ran/walked/jogged our way in some sunny weather for a change this summer.

The event was made possible though by our high viz heroes who this week were led by Tristan Pocock and included Norma Burgess, Gary Clucas, Sarah Collinge, Eleanor Cordingley, Mia Cordingley, Jackie Cordingley, Victoria Cordingley, Suzanne Cundick, Hayley Gavin, Jane Gavin, Joanna Greaves, Andy Holloway, Kate Holloway, Pauline Lorford, Ian Mcgeough, Sam Mcgrath, Zeyeem Mohammed, Margaret Morris, Sally Passey, Richard Pavey, Scarlett Pocock, Kylie Spark, Suzanne Sutherland, Graham Sutherland, Jenny Sykes, Harrison Sykes & David Wathey.

Chocolates were in abundance at the end and this was due to the fantastic achievement of Paul Battersby running his 250 parkrun. Paul has run 181 of his 250 parkruns at Wythenshawe and has also travelled from Fort William to Hafan Pwllheli over the course of his parkrunning experience. From a quick perusal of the results, I also want to say congratulations to Joshua Horsman and Dave Coggins who both ran their 50th parkrun on Saturday as well.

In terms of new starters we welcomed 45 who were first timers to our event with 21 of those making their parkrun debut. Welcome to you all and we hope to see you again soon.

We also welcomed a number of tourists this week, from Southampton, Sheffield and one from our original parkrun at Bushy. Tristan enquired but there seemed to be no Australian parkrun tourists who had ventured up here for the Ashes. I usually write this report on a Sunday afternoon, however I have a ticket for the Ashes on Sunday, so I am writing this report hoping for a couple of our batsman to either have a cricketing PB or more likely hoping for the parkrun weather fairy to intervene.

But speaking of PB’s, we had 52 of you celebrating their Personal Bests, so well done to you all. A quick check of the results and my highlights go to William Lord (149) Richard Traverna (32 – 2nd time in 4 weeks) and Phil Green (22 – Taking off over a minute and a half).

Anyway, before I go onto next week, I have noticed that we have now covered a total distance of 404,460km, which means that we have now covered the circumference of the earth at the equator 10 times.

So that is my random statistic of the week and now onto next Saturday when let’s hope for more fine weather, a full volunteering roster and some great funnel/token discipline.

#dfyb

See you on Saturday J

Jonathan

 

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Wythenshawe parkrun no.405 24th August 2019 – Another Amazing Event

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been having to ask for volunteers at the run briefing as due to Holidays, we can run short, however this week, we were fully marshalled up so I think it is right to  start this week’s run report by saying a big thanks to this week’s run director Dan Martell and his volunteer team who comprised of Owen Allwright, Norma Burgess, Jonathan Butcher, Ron Carter, Ben Crouch, Simon Cushworth, Diane Frost, Jane Gavin, John Gavin, Hayley Gavin, Joanna Greaves, Andy Holloway, Graham Horsman, Mark Jones, Jana Julinkova, Pauline Lorford, Zeyeem Mohammed, Amanda Navin, Cary O'Donnell, Sheila Parker, Kylie Spark & Annie Helen Woolley.

I have mentioned previously about the existence of the parkrun weather fairy, and it is fair to say that on Saturday she was well and truly smiling down on us as 324 of us ran/jogged/walked and smiled our way around Wythenshawe Park.

The weather was glorious and we had a treats table positively groaning under the weight of Cakes and Fruit, so let us all say a big thank you and congratulations to Jaya Limbachia 100 runs (Bananas), Sue Strickland 100 runs (Watermelon),Jenny Raffle 50 runs (Home made cake) & Chloe Bradbury 10 runs (cake)

Dan also put up an interesting poll on the facebook page asking which was the favourite snack, Cake or Watermelon? The result was a bit of a landslide as the watermelon won with 70% of the vote. I will be honest that surprised me as I always thought that after running 5k, we deserved the cakes, however maybe fruit will become the new cake?

Another sign of the fabulous weather was that the number of PB’s increased to 43. Highlights for me include Orla Godfrey (63 runs), Gemma Hewitt taking 48 seconds  off her PB (30 runs) plus 4 PB’s for the Hall family as Isobel, Carol, Jonty & James Hall all recorded PB’s. Congratulations to you all.

We also welcomed 30 first timers to our event on Saturday with 12 making their parkrun debut. We hope you all enjoyed the parkrun experience and hope to see you again soon. I missed out this week on hearing where our tourists came from, however looking through the results, I can see regulars at Woodhouse Moor, Braunstone & Rother Valley all visited us this week.

I have previously mentioned that I do love a good statistic and this week I thought I would look at the average number of runners. This year we have seen our average number of parkrunners increase to 316 from 256 last year so a massive thank you for helping to spread our community event and message to a wider audience and increased number of participants.

So onto next Saturday and the final day of August, let us hope that we will have some glorious weather, plenty of fruit and cake and a full volunteering roster.

#dfyb

Jonathan

 

 

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Wythenshawe parkrun no.404 17th August 2019 – Back To Cake

 

Some days you just have a feeling that it is going to be a good parkrun at Wythenshawe, and for me that was the case at 08.30 on Saturday when I was walking through the car park I spotted a couple of parkrunners loaded with Cakes and Chocolates.

The celebrants were 6yr old Alice Horsfall on her 10th run this morning plus Anthony Houghton who may be slightly older than 6 and it was his 100th parkrun. Thank you to both of you for the cakes.

Our Tourists this week ranged from America to Northwich and from Witton (Blackburn) to Marple. Marple was one of the first tourist parkruns I ran on a New Year’s Day a couple of years ago and I hope that you were all made to feel as welcome as I was on that day.

These tourists contributed to the 39 first timers to our event, with 10 making this Saturday their first ever parkrun anywhere.

Although there was a bit of rain before 9am, during the majority of the parkrun the rain held off and we had some sunshine.

The rain during the week meant that there were a number of obstacles this week, notably the puddles in the Cromwell loop, muddy passage becoming well a passage with mud and the far bridge being a lot slippier than usual. There was also a new obstacle near middle bridge where a tree stump on the inside of the passage close to the road became a trip hazard as well as a couple of overhanging branches. Please be careful of all of these as your safety is important to us all.

The long grass on the football fields (big shout out to the gentleman with the double buggy still managing a fair pace across the fields) and muddy conditions meant that the number of PB’s were slightly down this week at 28, but my PB highlight of the week goes to Heather Keeley on her 24thWythenshawe parkrun.

Volunteers are paramount to a safe event and this week led by Jennifer Lutton they were Jonathan Butcher, Ron Carter, Linda Cross, Ben Crouch, Kevin Gaston, John Gavin, Jane Gavin, David Gilchrist, Andy Holloway, Kate Holloway, Rick Jones, Pauline Lorford, Sam Mcgrath, Zeyeem Mohammed, Jacqui Molloy, Cary O'Donnell, Sheila Parker, Katie Reece, Yoko Shelley & Simon Wilkinson.

Now we are in Holiday Season, some of our usual volunteers are not available so if you are unable to run but still wish to be part of our event then why not volunteer and have a great amount of fun at the same time.

One thing that will really help our volunteer timekeepers and scanners is that when you have finished your parkrun, please can you not stand in their way and can you give them some space to be able to do their volunteer jobs.

Unfortunately I have to finish this week’s run report on some sad news, as during the course of writing this report I have received a text from a relative who was at Northwich parkrun and informed  me about the sad news where one of their participants collapsed & sadly was unable to be revived.

We had a serious incident in July where luckily the runner survived.

Reading Andy’s report from that week, a number of actions we can all do stood out and I think they are worthwhile highlighting again.

  • Firstly make sure that your In Case of Emergency (ICE) details are updated in your parkrun profile.  Just follow the link in your results email.  Imagine nobody being able to contact your family in the event it was needed.

  • If you are running on your own and don't have any other family or friends with you then please have your barcode somewhere easily accessible.

  • If you feel unwell then head to the nearest marshal and please don't take what you think might be a shortcut to the finish. We have a defib at the finish.  Prompt action will be needed to get it to the scene with minimal delay and being off the course potentially adds time.

  • All the marshals have the phone number of the Run Director for the day.If someone collapses near you then stop and try to help. Flag other runners down and make sure someone heads as quickly as possible to the nearest marshal.  Phone 999 if it is a clear heart attack-type situation.

Andy also finished his report by reminding us all that parkrun has probably done more to change people’s life for the better than any public health initiative ever has, and personally speaking I have to agree.

parkrun has been a major positive factor in my life, 5 years ago I was weighing over 20 stone and parkrun has  helped me to improve not only my physical fitness but has shown to me how mentally strong I can be and what I can achieve with a positive attitude and support.

Please do not let these recent events put you off, parkrun is amazing and all of us who run/walk/jog or volunteer are all amazing and I know that we all make next Saturday another amazing event.

See you on Saturday

Jonathan

 

 

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Wythenshawe parkrun no.403 10th August 2019 – Back To Normality

First of all, I have to start this run report by making an apology in overlooking Ron Carter’s 200th parkrun last week. As was mentioned in the run briefing, Ron week in week out arrives early and helps to check the course and set out the bollards and markers. Many Thanks for your work in doing this Ron, and congratulations on your 200th parkrun last week.

Worryingly for the 2nd time in the last month or so the Run Director had to announce that there were no milestones and therefore no cake. However by the time I had finished some brownies had appeared so many thanks to who brought these. There were also a couple of milestones that appeared to sneak under the radar so well done to Cecilia Fenerty on her 50th run and to Steve Dunn on his 150th.

After running 2 different courses over the last couple of weeks, it was back to our usual course in the normal direction this week.  The one thing that may have curtailed our activities was the weather however luckily for ourselves, we were able to compete the event before it started to rain heavily. Apparently when the rain came, the team were processing the results and the mobile signal wobbled but all was sorted, with Ben being a great help to the team.

The effects of the week’s rain could be seen in the park as there were a number of puddles in the Cromwell Loop that I for one did not spot, and just before the football fields, muddy passage is definitely trying to make a comeback.

However, that did not stop the 253 of us who ran/jogged/walked our around the park, and in this number we had 35 first timers to our event with 15 of you making their first ever parkrun. We welcome you all and hoped you enjoyed the Wythenshawe parkrun experience and look forwards to welcoming you back soon.

In terms of parkrun tourists this week, we had runners from Warrington to Worsley Woods, and from Whitley Bay to Burnage, however they all pale in distance to the lady from Peru who was with us on Saturday.

In terms of Personal Bests this week, congratulations to the 20 of you who managed to achieve this feat. My highlights go to Philip Keeley (51 runs) on his 3rd PB in his last 5 events and to Richard Travena (29 runs) on getting under 27 mins for the first time.

I do not normally mention the top event finishers as parkrun is a run and not a race, however a big well done to our first female finisher this week, Isobel Hall who is in the JW10 Age Category.

Now we are well and truly in Holiday Season, we can run short of volunteers so if you have always meant to volunteer but have yet to do so, then this is an ideal time to volunteer and save next week’s  Run Director from having to make an appeal.

This week's Run Director Alan Lamb was ably assisted by Sheila Parker, Tristan Pocock, Katie Reece, Linda Edmondson, Andy Holloway, Kate Holloway, Barbara Wright, Beth Evens, Ron Carter, Scarlett Pocock,  John Gavin, Sam Mcgrath, Ashley Lindsey, David Wathey, Jane Gavin, Yoko Shelley,  Ben Crouch, Hayley Gavin, Maggi Gmerek, Annie Barrow, Pauline Lorford & Zeyeem Mohammed, so many thanks to you all from all who took part in the event you made possible.

After last week’s group of statistics went down so well, I have tried to find some more statistics of note, and have looked at the first names of parkunners this week.

The most popular first name this was Andrew (8 runners) with 3 Andy’s as well.

Personally speaking I am disappointed that the 3 Jonathan’s were beaten by the 5 Johns. 

In terms of the female participants I am not sure if the 3 Jennifer’s + 2 Jenny’s beat the 4 Sarah’s + 1 Sara.

However the one name that beats all of the above is the 17 unknowns, so please can you remember your barcode next week as no barcode = no result.

See you on Saturday.

Jonathan

 

 

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Wythenshawe parkrun no.402 3rd August 2019 – Happy 8th Birthday!!!

So what were you doing on the 6th August 2011 at 9am? Being Honest I can not remember at all, I guess it may have involved having a lie in,  however on that day 54 runners and 9 Volunteers set up and ran/walked/jogged their way around Wythenshawe Park for the inaugural Wythenshawe parkrun.

And out of those original runners, it was great to see that Peter Walters, Paul Barber, Jon Shaw, Caroline Baba and Margaret Carleton (plus unknown runner!) were all still running on Saturday and Jeanette Barber and Alan Lamb were volunteering.  Paul Muldoon who was RD for that first run was also there.

Everyone who participates in our successful event must say thank you to these original runners and whilst we are not at the 800 events that Bushy park celebrated this weekend, we are achieving so much together.

So how did we celebrate our birthday? Well first of all we said Happy Birthday to this week’s Run Director Charley, so Happy Birthday Charley, hope you had a fab birthday J

 Then we celebrated with fruit and cakes, with Ken Smith running his 100th parkrun however I apologise if I missed any other celebrations.

And then 347 walked/ran/jogged our way around the course in a reverse direction after the Cromwell loop. I have to be honest that out of all the different courses we do, this is my favourite.

It was strange to see the usual landmarks from a different angle but I enjoyed it. The one thing that I tried to remember not to do, was to start a finishing sprint too early, however that long final straight was so tempting!!!

For the 43 of you who were first timers at our event and especially the 25 who had their first ever experience of parkrun , then I hope that you enjoyed our birthday festivities and hope to see you again soon.

In terms of parkrun tourists this week, we had a runner all the way from Saudi Arabia, with other very welcome tourists from the Wirral & Congleton

So I am guessing that a number of you managed to time your final sprint really well as 28 of you managed to get a Personal Best this week. My highlight must go to Ken Smith who not only ran his 100th parkrun he also got a Personal best of 24:59, dipping under 25 minutes for the first time, excellent running Ken J

However none of this would have happened without our volunteers who donned their high viz jackets and ensured our event ran smoothly, so a massive thanks to Birthday Girl, Charlotte Dean and her team who this week were Emily Acomb, Jeanette Barber, Ron Carter, Hayley Gavin, John Gavin, Jane Gavin, Nick Hamlin, Jane Herdman, Kate Holloway, Andy Holloway, Rebecca Jackson, Rick Jones, Philip Keeley, Alan Lamb, Pauline Lorford, Sam Mcgrath, Sheila Parker, Yoko Shelley, Paul Taylor, Kieron Walsh & Jason Wood.

My final thought for this week was to look at the statistics for our event over the last 8 years, as being a guy who spends a lot of his working time in spreadsheets, I do love a good statistic and a couple stood out for me

There have been  10496 different runners, who have made their way 79654 times around the park in a  total time of 4Years 142Days 6Hrs 22Min 58Secs, a total distance of 398,270km

The best age graded time (in simple terms this means the best time based on a runners sex and age) was by a female in the 65-69 age group, and we have had 12995 PB'S,with an average event consisting of 198.1 participants.

Our Total Average Time is 28 mins 57 seconds, however pleasingly our average time this week was 30 mins 17 seconds. The reason this pleases me is that this shows that we are becoming more and more a community event and not just an event for faster runners.

So I hope to see you on Saturday, when who knows, after the last two weeks, we may end up doing our usual course in the usual direction.

I am typing this run report on Monday evening and a quick perusal of the volunteer roster shows that we currently only have 2 volunteers, a run director and a tail walker.

If you can volunteer, that would be great, as otherwise we may have to sadly cancel the event, as without our volunteers, we can not guarantee the safety of the event.

Don't forget your barcode

Jonathan

 

What no cake!?

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Wythenshawe parkrun no.400 20th July 2019 – 400 events and stronger than ever (But No Cake!!!)

 

It was with some trepidation that I looked out of the window on Saturday morning and whilst I could see a bit of sun, sadly there was also wind and rain. And whilst we hoped for the parkrun weather fairy to make the rain stay away unfortunately this week we were disappointed.

 

However we could all have been disappointed as this week we were struggling for volunteers to marshal the event and needed a Thursday appeal by this week’s run director Dan Martell, for this to go ahead. His High Viz heroes who came to our rescue were Amanda Navin, Andy Mottershead,  Angela Bamford, Ben Crouch, Harrison Sykes, Hayley Gavin,  Jane Gavin,  Jarrod Sykes, Jenny Allwright, John Gavin ,Katie Reece, Kieron Walsh, Martin Banfield, Norma Burgess, Owen Allwright, Pauline Lorford, Sam Mcgrath, Steve Thurston, Stuart Whittle, Victoria Birrane & Yoko Shelley.

Now that we are in Holiday Season we can sometimes struggle to get the required number of volunteers that are required, so please can you volunteer if possible.

 

And out of the 311 who ran/walked/jogged our way around the park on Saturday we welcomed 46 first timers to our event, with 20 making their parkrun debut.

If this was your debut, and you were inspired by the excellent Dame Kelly Holmes documentary then welcome to our friendly community run, everything that was on the programme is true and parkrun is such a positive life enhancing movement, you will be so glad that you have joined. For those who have not watched the programme I recommend catching it on the BBC IPlayer, it is well worth it.

 

However one of our usual staples that make our Saturday morning go with a smile was missing as we had no cake!!!! Yes as a clearly upset Dan mentioned in the briefing, there were no milestones and no cake. However whilst I am not mentioning any names, I have been assured that next week, we will be seeing some cakes so let’s hope this is just a one off and cakes will be back on the table.

 

In terms of parkrun tourists this week, the award for furthest distance travelled must surely go to those from Lake Joondalup in Western Australia.  We also welcomed tourists from Sligo, Fulham Palace, Preston, Coldhams Common and Perth (Scotland)

 

With the wet and windy weather conditions, 22 of you still managed to record PB’s so well done to you all, my highlight must go to Philip Keeley for his 2nd PB in 3 weeks on his 49th run at Wythenshawe, but well done all.

 

And just a couple of final points, and please remember to bring your barcode so that you can get scanned, sadly 30 parkrunners forgot their code and were marked unknown. parkrun have very few rules however they do operate a no barcode no time policy, so please do not ask our volunteers to make exceptions to this rule.


The Wythenshawe Games will also be on next weekend, so this may mean that we have to use an alternative course, so please can you keep an eye out on social media for any updates.


But onto a bit more of a fun request and Wythenshawe’s first parkrun was on the 6thAugust 2011, so  in two weeks time it will be our 8th Birthday,  I know the team would welcome any special ideas to celebrate our birthday so if you can get your thinking caps on and come up with a fun request that would be great. Over the last couple of years we have had back to school and holiday themes so let's come up with some great ideas.

 

See you on Saturday :)

 

Jonathan

 

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Wythenshawe parkrun
Event number 398
6th July 2019

Sometimes we get reminders that the things which are important in life are not our 5k PBs or even the number of times we've turned up somewhere on a Saturday morning to run those 5ks.  For me, as Event Director of Wythenshawe parkrun, last Saturday was one of those days when I realised that it is our health and that of and our families, friends, colleagues and acquaintances plus our community and the support which comes from that community which matter so much more than arbitrary numbers.

Many of you will be unaware that during Saturday's run one of our runners suffered a serious heart problem.  Without going into full details here I am pleased to report that he was taken by ambulance to MRI and is recovering now after emergency treatment and will hopefully be allowed home in the coming days.

The actions of several people directly contributed to this successful outcome and many others helped indirectly and I thank all who played even a small part by mucking in and making sure that things which needed doing were done.

Our emergency planning does include the possibility of a runner having a serious health problem and as a core team we have discussed how such a situation might play out and how we could ensure that everything possible is done in the shortest time.

However no amount of planning truly prepares you for a real situation when people are reacting instinctively, and so I ask that you all be aware of how you can help should we have another similar situation.  You never know, you might be the first person to arrive at the scene or you might be the emergency itself.

  • Firstly make sure that your In Case of Emergency (ICE) details are updated in your parkrun profile.  Just follow the link in your results email.  Imagine nobody being able to contact your family in the event it was needed.
  • If you are running on your own and don't have any other family or friends with you then please have your barcode somewhere easily accessible.
  • If you feel unwell then head to the nearest marshal and please don't take what you think might be a shortcut to the finish. We have a defib at the finish.  Prompt action will be needed to get it to the scene with minimal delay and being off the course potentially adds time.
  • All the marshals have the phone number of the Run Director for the day.
  • If someone collapses near you then stop and try to help. Flag other runners down and make sure someone heads as quickly as possible to the nearest marshal.  Phone 999 if it is a clear heart attack-type situation.

Hopefully we will never have another incident but I know that if we do our community will play its part in getting assistance there as quickly as possible and supporting each other afterwards.

In other less important news 344 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 44 were first timers and 55 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 31 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 26 volunteers:

Tristan POCOCK • Paul Thomas MULDOON • Ken BURGESS • Katharine LAY • Richard EVANS • Nayana MOORE • Andy HOLLOWAY • Kate HOLLOWAY • Barbara WRIGHT • Andy WRIGHT • Margaret MORRIS • Luke KELLY • Jane DAMERUM • John GAVIN • Sam MCGRATH • Graham HORSMAN • Jane GAVIN • Norma BURGESS • Paul SHELLEY • Vincent SHELLEY • Yoko SHELLEY • Ben CROUCH • Mark DAY • Phil RICHARDSON • Ann JOHN • Zeyeem MOHAMMED

Two of these (Nayana and Ann) were completing the volunteering section of the Duke of Edinburgh award after 13 weeks.

Wythenshawe parkrun started on 6th August 2011, which means that it will be our 8th birthday in a few weeks. Aren't we getting old!

Don't forget that parkrun is a wonderful thing and has probably done more to change people's life for the better than any public health initiative ever has. Please don't let any of the above ever put you off.

Thanks everyone.

Andy

 

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Wythenshawe parkrun no.396 22nd June 2019 – A first for Yoko

After the excitement of making it to the moon 2 weeks ago, it was back to earth for the 344 of us who walked jogged or ran around Wythenshawe park on Saturday morning.

Out of the 344, 46 were first timers to our course  and they were welcomed by the loudest call for first timers that I have heard in a long time, and so a big thank you to one of our youngest volunteers for alerting everybody to the pre-event briefing.

Not only were 26 making their parkrun debuts, we also had a number of tourists to our event as well, with parkrunners coming from Anglesey, Birkenhead, Whitstable, Seaton on the south coast and also from LLyn Leich Owain parkrun. Our Welsh runner was Sian Evans who is up here visiting a relative currently convalescing at Wythenshawe Hospital, and we all hope that he continues his recovery, and whilst you are always welcome here at Wythenshawe we also hope you will all return soon to South Wales in good health.

I do not know if many of you  listen to the parkrun podcast called Free Weekly Timed, but if you have not it is well worth a listen as they talk about various aspects of parkrun and the niche statistics that parkrun can offer as well as the positive effect that parkrun has on many of the runners/walkers/joggers. One niche is for runners to attend as many different parkrun events as possible and this week we welcomed Egg Cameron on his 216th different event, so well done Egg, I am reliably informed that this is not a record for Wythenshawe, but still a great achievement.

With the Sunny Weather back, conditions were set up for Personal Bests and 43 of you managed this achievement this week.  From looking at parkrunners who have run more than 30 times at Wythenshawe I want to congratulate Lindsay Haston (33) on her PB well done.

I do not normally highlight the quicker runners but two things caught my attention this week so first of well done Adam Hindmarch on being our first finisher. Adam does not often run here, but the only previous time he was the first finisher was on the corresponding weekend last year, will he next be 1st on 20th June 2020?

The other first finisher really made me smile for it was Yoko Shelley, who has one of the biggest and most contagious smiles at Wythenshawe, and this was her first time being the first female finisher. So well done Yoko (also well done on 2 PB’s in the previous 4 weeks) and keep on smiling. J

In terms of cakes and biscuits this week, they were a bit scarce on the table, however Edyta Burgess brought in some treats in order to celebrate her 100th run at our parkrun, so thank you very much Edyta.

This week our high viz heroes were led by Alan Lamb, and comprised of Alfie Mcgrath, Andy Mottershead, Ann John, Helen Morris, Ian Mcgeough, Jan Williams, Jane Gavin, Jenny Allwright, John Gavin, Jojo Rickart, Ken Burgess, Lisa Cushworth, Nayana Moore, Norma Burgess, Paul Barber (fresh from his moon landing),Paul Thomas Muldoon, Ron Carter, Sam Mcgrath, Scarlett Pocock, Tristan Pocock, Victoria Fletcher & Zeyeem Mohammed.

And so onto next week, as I am typing this report on a Tuesday lunchtime, there is heavy rain, however I am also seeing a weather forecast of 26C and sun for Saturday so who knows what the day will bring.

Will the mud on muddy passage make a summer comeback? What I do know is that there is a Charity Run planned for St Anne’s Hospice. The Run is actually a Bubble Rush & is a 2 lap course (sound familiar) and starts in a sea of bubbles and features four bubble stations along the route where cannons pump out coloured foam to create a 4ft deep bubble bath. It is also pushchair and wheelchair friendly, so it sounds fun and is raising money for an excellent cause if you wish to stay behind and support this event.

It may also mean that we may have to change our normal route, so please can you keep an eye out on social media.

#dfyb

Jonathan

 

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Wythenshawe parkrun
Event number 394
8th June 2019

"Houston, the Eagle has landed" might have been the cry as, almost 50 years after Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the cheesy surface of the moon [ed - you might want to check this] , Paul Barber breezed across the line in 210th position. He would have taken giant steps except his muscles aren't as stretchy as they used to be.

"Why the lunar references and hints to Police songs from the late 70's?" I hear you cry.  Well, if you're sitting comfortably then I'll begin.

Wythenshawe parkrun lifted off on 6th August 2011 and since then the total distance run by all runners has been steadily going up. The excitement (?) has been mounting as the distance equivalent to reaching the moon drew nearer and when we realised that Saturday was going to be moon landing day we felt we had to mark the occasion will all the razzamatazz we could muster (not much). And so it came to pass that Paul picked up the special token adorned with a lovely picture of a rocket and became the proud recipient of a piece of the moon cheese. It was particularly fitting that it was Paul as he was one of the Wythenshawe pioneers who were there at launch all those years ago and has run 1100 of the nearly half a million kilometres which we have covered.

The countdown for reaching Mars has begun.  What could we possibly give as a spot prize on that occasion?

This week's ground crew (volunteers) at Mission Control under the watchful eye of Flight Director Holloway were:

Barbara Elizabeth DUNN • Nick HAMLIN • Jennifer LUTTON • Steve BURGESS • Kate HOLLOWAY • Richard PAVEY • Kieron WALSH • Rachel ROSS • Sarah COLLINGE • Stuart COLQUHOUN-LYNN • Beverley GOODWIN • Ron CARTER • Thomas PAVEY • Sam MCGRATH • Jane GAVIN • Norma BURGESS • Joe BLACKBURN • Zeyeem MOHAMMED

Thanks to all.  It wouldn't have happened without them.

Other details - 263 runners (it would appear a few drops of rain caused a drop in numbers compared with recent weeks), 16 doing their first parkrun anywhere, a further 17 visiting Wythenshawe for the first time and 25 personal bests.

There was cake, fruit and moon stone cheese aplenty and milestone runs for young Aidan Smith (50th), phil Richardson (50th) and Jonathan Butcher (200th and also his birthday).

We hope you all enjoyed splishing, splashing, chatting, cheering, encouraging, helping and eating and anything else which makes up your weekly parkrun experience.  Same time, same place this week?

Andy

 

A Very Green parkrun

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Wythenshawe parkrun no.392 25th May 2019
 
When I was walking up to the Hall on Saturday morning, the first thing that I noticed was the abundance of green shirts.

These came from a number of sources, the most numerous being the 37 runners from Lymm Runners who ran in memory of Dave Lee, a run leader who passed away earlier in the month.

Then there were the number of runners in Pea Green Shirts indicating that they had run the Manchester 10K or Half Marathon the previous week, congratulations to those who ran either event, a fantastic achievement. Lastly we had the parkrunners who have ran more than 250 events, this week there were 12 and the numbers seem to increase every week.
 
We also managed for the third time in four weeks to break our attendance record, as a fantastic 439 of us walked, jogged or walked around the park. In that number we welcomed an amazing 68 first timers to the event with 18 making their first ever parkrun.

In terms of tourists, we had a couple with the furthest coming from Canada, however as my family come from Barrow and I was wearing a Barrow Rugby Top I must give a big shout out to the tourist from Barrow in Furness & the very appropriately named Walney Wind Cheetahs Running Club.

66 of you achieved Personal Bests on Saturday so well done to you all, sadly I can not list you all, however congratulations to Paul Maybury (127), Claire Gwyer (72), Sally Passey (114) & Ken Smith (86) who have all run more than 50 times at Wythenshawe on their PB this week.

We also had a multitude of sweets and cakes from those who were celebrating milestones this week. So thank you Ben Crouch on his 50th run at Wythenshawe, Kieran Bradbury celebrating his 10th parkrun and also to Margaret Carleton on her first parkrun in what I am sure will be a long and happy retirement.

parkrun is an event that is volunteer driven and without the volunteers giving up their free time none of this would happen, so a big thank you to the team this week led by Jennifer Lutton and included  Emily Acomb, Martin Austin, Norma Burgess, Ron Carter, Jackie Cordingley, Ben Crouch, Clare Day, Holly Hill, Katherine Hilton, Kate Holloway, Andy Holloway, Ann John, Andrew Johnson, Mark Jones, Sam Mcgrath, Nayana Moore, Sheila Parker, Scarlett Pocock, Paul Shelley & Martha Whitehead.

So onto next Saturday, will we see another record attendance? Let us hope so, I think we will struggle to get the 605 I am looking for this week, but why is 605 an important number I hear you ask? Well so far in the 392 parkruns at Wythenshawe we have completed 381,375 km, which means we are 3,025 km or 605 parkrunners short of the average distance from the earth to the moon. So hopefully within the next two weeks, we will be able to say that we have travelled all the way to the moon.
 
#dfyb

Jonathan

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