
Oh Pretty Woman - that new Volunteer shirt looks good!
Whilst we have been asked not to mention “the O word”, they didn’t say anything about “the Big O” – so a tribute to Roy Orbison it is!

The Crowd
It was Pacer day at Yeovil Montacute, with a team of 10 volunteers running round (with greater and lesser success – though in my defence I was pressed into service at the last minute and my Garmin ran out of battery halfway round!) at set paces – though none of them were fast enough for Sharon Barlow of Darlington Harriers who broke the Ladies’ record time with a new record of 18m44 and an excellent 4th place overall!

Running Scared
Thanks to all Volunteers this week - special mention to Martin Monaghan who drove all night to join us from East Anglia and take up his position at the top of the Hill!

Working for the (Wo)man
No parkrun next week – Saturday 27th August
It was another cracking day at Montacute on Saturday – please remember that next week there is no parkrun here as there is a performance of The Three Musketeers taking part at Montacute House; we will instead be having a report of travellers’ tales from you all as you go off on parkrun tourism – send your photos and reports to martinchaffey@hotmail.co.uk (if you go dressed as a Musketeer to any other run – then much kudos!)
Here’s the sort of thing I want – this is Rachel Holmes’ report from Fountains Abbey parkrun;
“My 2nd Parkrun at the beautiful World Heritage site of Fountains Abbey, the most complete Cistercian abbey remains in the country. A shower came over as the run director did he's briefing, letting us know there was a pacer for 28 minutes, "you will spot him, he's dressed as a monk" The whistle went and off we went.


The course is all on wide tarmaced paths. Two loops, a shorter 2km loop, taking you around the Abbey, then the longer 3 km loop around the Georgian Water Gardens, before coming back around the Abbey. The course is relatively flat, but there is a long hill, which you run twice. The second time, the finish is at the top. The showers stayed away while we ran, but returned as we made our way back up to the visitors centre. I got under the 30 minutes at 29:45, position 211 after a determined sprint up the final hill.”
Thanks Rachel – there’s no Montacute run next week, you might as well stay up there; we’ll need about 300 Fat Rascal cakes for the Birthday if you think about it!

If you go further afield, we like to see photos of that too!
Saturday 3rd September – Party Time
To coincide with Donna Rayner’s 50th run – oh, and our third Birthday! – we will be having a Party!
Please come back to Montacute resplendent in your Red, White and Blue outfits. If you want to bring cakes or anything, do feel free…
There will be a presentation of the awards to the Male Points and Female Points winners for the year – watch out for a special guest presenter! The final standings in the Points competition sees Rob Gundry and Jo Pittard both hold on to top spots – well done both!
Final standing in the Men's annual points competition:
Rob GUNDRY (Wessex Wizards Triathlon Club) 3827 pts.
Michael PARROTT (Unattached) 3783 pts.
James LEGG (Yeovil Town RRC) 3365 pts.
Final standing in the Women's annual points competition:
Jo PITTARD (Unattached) 4174 pts.
Nicola HAYES (Running for Time) 3606 pts.
Kirsty NORMAN (Gillingham Trotters RC) 3241 pts.
Running with Juniors - IMPORTANT; PLEASE READ
There really are very few rules for running at parkrun; register & get your barcode, turn up, run – don’t forget your barcode; if you’re running with dogs, one per person and keep them on a short lead; respect the other park users and your fellow runners; and the rule on under 11s running within arm’s reach of a responsible adult.

This is the right way...
On the last point, the parkrun rules on their Wiki page (which is the instructions to the core team who organise the event) says:
We are really pleased to say that children are permitted to run at all our events. While the official guidance from UK Athletics does not permit children under 11 to race at the 5k distance, there are no obstacles to allowing them to take part in our events for fun.
The following statement clarifies the official parkrun position on children at our events. Parents of children under 13 should note the following: We should make clear that the governing body (UK Athletics) say children under the age of 11 should not take part in open competition of 5,000m distance. However, provided these children are not put under any undue pressure to perform by teachers, coaches, parents or guardians they may take part for fun. The phrase undue pressure to perform is obviously open to interpretation and is a rather sensitive issue. Enforcing the policy will always be tricky, but we should all be ready to explain it to parents, guardians and coaches if approached.
Our general rule of thumb, however, is that we prefer to see our younger runners smiling when they cross the finish line. There's plenty of time when they get older for pain and suffering. Children under 11 must be within arm’s reach throughout the run at our 5k series events by a parent or guardian. This is a requirement of our insurance and you do not need to be apologetic about it. Please include this in both your New parkrunners' & Tourists' Briefing and your Pre-run Briefing. The policy is also stated on the course page of every parkrun event website, mentioned every week in the national newsletter, and in the public-facing FAQ - ‘Can children take part?’ so no-one should be surprised by this. As Event Teams you have our full backing to remove persistent flouters of this non-negotiable rule and Head Office will be happy to write to them if deemed necessary. Under 11s who are volunteering or spectating should also be accompanied by their responsible adult throughout their time at a 5k parkrun.

Junior marshals need to be kept under control too!
At 2k junior parkrun events children can run unaccompanied. Please note that whilst we don’t have a junior parkrun at Yeovil Montacute, our friends at Longrun Meadow in Taunton do - http://www.parkrun.org.uk/longrunmeadow-juniors/ - and David German organises his free monthly junior runs over at Langport.
Please be aware that we do take the rule seriously – ours is a tricky course for little legs and some of the sheep are nearly the size of an 11 year old; we don’t want anyone to get hurt. If a “loose” child were to get hurt the insurance that covers our event may be invalid.
Please also note that the Core team cannot, I’m afraid, find appropriate adults for your children to run with.
Milestones

Congratulations to Yasmin Rayner who completed her 50th parkrun this week; there was only one joiner of the 10 Club – me! (what do you mean I’m too old for a T-shirt!). We will have Mike Parrott, Donna Rayner and Paul Thomas all reaching 50 on the birthday run – can I suggest you don’t have breakfast that morning; I can sense a cakefest coming on!
Run Report 
This week there were 269 runners, of whom 51 were first timers and 37 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 37 different athletics clubs took part. 
Only the Lonely - Tom loses his barcode but finds a friend
#DFYB – Rule number 1; don’t forget your barcode! At this week’s run the first two runners to cross the line both forgot their barcodes this week so are “Unknown Runners” with no times recorded – first legitimate runner to finish was therefore visitor Liam Marsh of Blyth RC who finished in a time of 18m38.

In Dreams - Sharon zooms to new course record
In the Female placings, Sharon Barlow ran the new course record of 18m44, but Lilly Hawkins wasn’t far behind, recording a new personal best of 20m02 to finishing 11th place overall. Abbie White of Yeovil Olympiads AC was third lady (28th overall) in a time of 21m46.
Judge your Pacer!
Well done to all of you who recorded new PBs as a result of the Pacer event. The lovely Fitbit vests are good and stand out well amongst the crowd.
Pace time: Name: Actual Time: (PBs inspired!) 
20 Minute Neil Biss 19m59 - pretty much bang on!
(Luke Baker (19m41) Lilly Hawkins (20m02) Max Davies (19m46))

22 Minutes Rob Gundry 21m49

24 Minutes Jack Clotworthy 23m45 – gave up his own shot at a PB to pace you lot; we'll make him the 23 minute pacer next time!
(Kevin Doherty 23m48, Michael Waters 24m17)

26 Minutes Nicky Hayes 25m42
(Zoe Kirby 25m54 Jake Denney 25m50)

28 Minutes Lyndon Coles 27m50
(Heather Membury 27m39, Nick Cawlishaw 27m44, Jeff Dawe 27m50, John Forrest 27m53)

30 Minutes Tom Handley 29m25

32 Minutes Janet Pollard 31m48
(Sarah Stone 32m13 Katharine Sheehan 32m31)

34 Minutes Kaz Handley 33m50
(Graham Ambridge 33m24 Simon Ferneyhough 33m24 Jackie Calderwood 34m04)

36 Minutes Roxanne Pratt 35m51
(Mark Burton 35m33 – 3.5 minute PB! – Tracy Collins 36m12)

Wooly Bully - there are ways and means of encouraging!
38 Minutes Martin Chaffey 37m09

Love Hurts... -
...but also helps up the Hill! 
Crying - "I was alright for a while" said David
Amongst the others of you who got PBs were Darren Frost (22m50), Andrew Dunn (23m24), Jo Pittard (24m28) and Daniel Burnell (32m53) – well done all! 
I'm Hurtin' - the Hill has that effect...
With the summer holidays drawing to a close, we had a whole host of parkrun tourists join us as they head to or from further south west. Joining us this week were Colin, Miranda and Joely from Kings Lynn, Sarah and Emily Halll from Shrewsbury, Eleanor from St Albans and Helen Manners who usually runs at Cirencester. Emma Mason was up from Southampton, Tom Hartgill (who was scared of the sheep!) here from Basingstoke and Dan Beeston here for a third time from Nottingham (hope your Mum’s OK – you know you’re welcome to join us any time you need a beer and an ear (or a run and a bacon sandwich)).
We had some visitors from much further afield – Max and Jade Davies joined us from Toronto and the Buckland family enjoyed a typically English run as they visit from central New Jersey!

Arthur has been inspired by the other "O" - watch this space; "(I'd Be) A Legend in My Time"
Kevin and Lisa from Bournemouth have now got parkrun envy and we also had Jason from Bath, Mark Athier from Norwich and Kim Hunt & Maggie Stokes join us from Poole. Oscar and Giles Pavey were here – any relation? (If you want to bring Auntie Jo here one day I think she deserves a bacon sandwich!). Good to see you all – you all behaved yourselves so you can come back any time you want!
This week’s full results and a complete event history can be found on the Yeovil Montacute parkrun Results Page.

It's Over!
PS

Nice legs - if you've got it, flaunt it! 
Think we all need a T shirt like this!
PPS Reflections in the mirror...

.. it's OK, it's just one of those top of the Hill mirages - you don't really look like Steve!