“True leaders are made from hard work and integrity” – Hope Solo
Good morning lovely Dashers. I hope that you are are all well and enjoying the fantastic ‘cracking the flags’ Bank Holiday weather………oh yes, I forgot, we are in Lancashire so I hope that you are managing to avoid the showers! Surely we must get some sustained decent weather soon right?
Of course, the inclement conditions never stop you from getting out there and putting in some great running statistics every week and this one was no exception. I was asked recently why I enjoy doing this little feature so much and, apart from the community aspect of being part of your weekly achievements, I must admit to also being a bit of a stats geek. Of course, you have to be very careful with statistics (the old lies, damn lies and statistics quote) and even with the accurate ones, they can be interpreted differently. For example, statistics show that 44% of marriages end in divorce. But spin that round and it means that 56% of marriages end in death…….so you pays your money and takes your choice I suppose!
One set of stats that never ceases to amaze me is how consistently brilliant you Dashers are at parkrun every week. We have now reached week 33 in this weeks Championship and performances still continue to be strong. This week we had 23 Dashers visiting 11 different parkrun venues with international ventures to Scotland (sort of international?), Ireland and Florida among them. There were 7 first-time visits this week and 4 superb Top-10 finishes by Diane Dudgeon (5th at Worsley Woods), Brian Shaw (5th at Burnley), Jez Turner (7th at Largs Prom) and Helen Woodcock (6th at Dungloe) Helen had the triple-whammy of excellence this week with her 6thplace also being a sparkly new PB and her best overall score of the season! Superb stuff, Helen. Not to be overlooked, there was also a brilliant new PB by Steve Whitehead at Peel – excellent running by you all.
There were actually no changes in the Ladies Championship league table this week. The top 3 ladies of Linda Coffey, Jacqueline Shaw and Diane Dudgeon continued their run of excellence by all improving their overall average scores but the positions remained unaltered.
In the Men’s Championship, Brian Shaw equalled his best performance score of the season to stretch his lead on Simon Smith (who appeared to be on pacemaking duties) at the top of the table. Just behind there is a battle royal going on for third place with only 2.5 points separating Jez Turner, Andy Smith and John Randall this week.
It was a good week for the returning Chris Worsley who climbed a huge 6 places from 32nd into 26th and also for Steve Whitehead who moved up 1-position and now sits in 8th place overall.
Another great week everyone, well done. I’m not aware of any cancellations locally this week so we should be good to go everywhere (weather permitting of course) There is one massive milestone coming up as well. Bushy Park which is the home of parkrun and where it all began held it’s 999th event on Saturday and a huge 1787 parkrunners turned up. I can only imagine the numbers this Saturday, surely they must be looking at over 2000? I would imagine the local café’s must be rubbing their hands!
If you are heading to Bushy – good luck, but if you are staying fun and local, have a great one and, of course, happy parkrunning!