“The reason dogs have so many friends is that they wag their tails instead of their tongues” – Anon
Good morning lovely Dashers. Holiday season is well and truly under way now and I hope that you are either having, or looking forward to, a well earned break. For those of us still at home at long last the sun seems to be making an appearance – who knows for how long but let’s take advantage while we can!
Of course, the Olympics are underway as well. Britain should do well again in events like rowing, equestrian and sailing – basically all the events involving sitting down. Hopefully we will do well in some of the standy-up ones too…… In fairness, I absolutely love the Olympics. It’s the month every 4 years when I can’t go out in case I miss the Korean archers and become a stats geek on how many times in a row the Chinese have won the diving gold medal. Sad but true…at least this year the time difference is minimal so it’s easier to take it all in than Tokyo was.
Having said all that, I did manage to sneak in a couple of runs this weekend; a lovely parkrun at Rothwell near Leeds (home to rude strava art…iykyk) and then the Docklands Marina 10k in Preston yesterday (I wasn’t last which is good enough for me!) I hope that wherever you ran over the weekend you had a good one and enjoyed the fabulous conditions.
My goodness, you all excelled at parkrun this week. We had 22 Dashers competing at 13 different events, including in Ireland and the Netherlands. And compete you did, with no less than 7 Top 10 finishes, 2 sparkly new PB’s and 12 first-time visits. Before recognising all these amazing performances, there are 2 Dashers who deserve special mention this week. Jez Turner completed his 350th parkrun no less – a stunning milestone – and Beccy Jepson became the first Dasher I believe to complete a double-alphabet when whizzing round Queens in Belfast. Many congratulations to you both.
And of course, I must add the roll of honour the brilliant new PB’s by Jez Turner (still as quick as ever 350 parkruns in) and Paul Conlon, both at Tawd Valley and also special mention to Pauline Beckett who equalled her PB at Witton. Great stuff all. And it would be remiss of me not to recognise the super-speedy Top 10-ers so take a bow Brian Shaw (7th at Burnley), Diane Dudgeon and John Randall (a brilliant 1st and 10th at Watergrove, Rochdale), Gareth Taylor (9th at Blackpool), Jez Turner and Suzanne Smith (who were 2nd and 5th respectively at Tawd Valley) and Joe Cotton who was an excellent 3rd at Schoterbos in The Netherlands. Incredible performances by you all!
And so onto the Championship tables. In the Ladies event, Janet Greenhalgh made a welcome return and recorded her best score of the season which enabled her to move up 2 places from 21st to 19th in the table. At the top, the top 4 ladies all improved their overall percentages this week which shows the quality we have. Jacqueline Shaw still leads but Linda Coffey ominously moved up another 2 places and now sits in second place. Diane Dudgeon slips to 3rd with Beccy Jepson just behind in 4th place. This could go right to the wire this season.
In the Men’s Championship, Joe Cotton was the big mover this week. Joe achieved his 8th qualifying score which enabled him to leap a huge 13 places in the league table into 6th position. The top 3 remain as Brian Shaw, Simon Smith and Andy Smith but Jez Turner’s stellar week has enabled him to close to within only 0.63 percentage points behind the medal positions.
So, overall, some Olympian-esque performances this week. Brilliant stuff by you all and it’s a pleasure to report on. Amazingly, next week will be number 30 this season so wherever you venture out to, happy parkrunning! Now what time does the fencing start……..?