“When you are dead, you don’t know you are dead. It’s only painful and difficult for others. The same applies when you are stupid” – Rick Gervais
Good morning lovely Dashers. I hope that everyone is keeping well and staying fit and strong. It’s been a rather good week for me as a news story the other day reported that studies show that dad-jokes are the key to a positive atmosphere in the home. Much to my families annoyance (surely not..?), I have therefore been treating them to some classics; all in the interests of harmony obviously. They particularly enjoyed
“Where does a crab get a train?”
“Kings Crust-acean”
And
“What bear is the most condescending?”
“A pand-duh”
Absolute classics which I’m sure your family will enjoy just as much!
As much as I’m sure that you would love more of these gems, I had better get back to the purpose of this report and stop the nonsense. There were some notable milestones this week and, as ever, some exceptional parkrun performances. To begin with a non-Dashers achievement, but close to home, there was an incredible course record set at Hyndburn this week. Chris Holdsworth managed to fly round in an astonishing 16:05 which is around my time for 1 lap so it’s mind-blowing to me. Great running though. No less of a star, however, was our very own John Randall who not only ran his 150th parkrun but did so at the Daddy of them all, Bushy Park. Where better to hit a great milestone than the Mecca of parkrun? Well done John!
Overall, there were 19 Dashers who ran parkrun this week, wonderfully spread out among 15 different courses. There were 7 first-timers including myself who discovered Pennington Flash for the first time – loved it). We had 3 fantastic Top-10 finishers so congratulations to Brian and Jacqueline Shaw who ventured south and finished 3rd and 4th respectively at Stratford Park, Stroud and to Philip Seddon who ran an excellent 10th at Shinadin parkrun which is on the gorgeous Isle of Skye.
We also must give kudos this week to 5 Dashers who smashed out personal bests this week, namely the aforementioned Philip Seddon (at Shinadin), Barry Shackleton and Brian Tull (both at Worden), Jez Turner (at Alexandra, Moss Side) and of course the PB-queen Pauline Beckett (at Witton) Brilliant running by you all!
There were notable moves in the Ladies Championship. Linda Coffey recorded her best score of the season and, as a result, became the new leader, moving just ahead of Jacqueline Shaw for the first time this year. Diane Dudgeon remains a close 3rd and is very much still in contention. Rebecca Simms and Carol Tweedale became the latest ladies to achieve the 8th qualifying score this season and, as a result, Rebecca leapt a brilliant 5-places into 10th place in the table. Carol also had a good week with a 2-position move from 16thto 14th.
In contrast, there was no movement at all this week in the Men’s Championship. This despite best scores of the season being recorded by Jez Turner and John Randall. Jez’s great run did consolidate his 3rd place in the league table and enabled him to close the gap on Simon Smith in 2nd place and leader Brian Shaw.
Congratulations to everyone who ran this week and explored some new parkrun venues. I look forward to seeing where you all end of next week, but in the meantime, have a great week and happy parkrunning!
Oh, and remember a dad-joke home is a happy home…..