“A reminder that every dead body on Mount Everest used to be a highly motivated person. So maybe we should all just calm down a little and have some dessert” – Anon
Good morning lovely Dashers. It’s been a busy old weekend, but an enjoyable one, so apologies for the slightly tardy report this week (note to self: must do better). I hope that you had an excellent one and managed to avoid the showers and at least enjoy some sunshine. Congratulations to those brilliant Dashers who all smashed the 10-miler yesterday; the times were all super-impressive and once again, represented our Club superbly.
I spent a lot of time in the car but all in fun. I did the Lytham Hall parkrun for the first time in 2 years on Saturday (I’d forgotten how nice the course really is) and then at the crack of dawn on Sunday high-tailed it over to God’s Country to run the Middlesbrough 10k. It’s my home town and still makes me come over all emotional when I see the Transporter Bridge (an absolutely incredible feat of engineering – look it up – and a rite of passage growing up to walk over it). Anyway, I digress, a fun weekend overall and I wasn’t last which is a bonus!
It was a big week for parkrun as well. Bushy Park, the Mecca of all things weekly, free and timed, held it’s 1000th parkrun on Saturday. This is truly a monumental milestone and was marked by over 6000 parkrunners which is extraordinary. I pity the poor results compilers and the person who has to sort the finish tokens! That must take all week… Apparently the USA (including our very own Chris Worsley) and Canada also had their highest ever total parkrunners this week and Lithuania announced that this month they will host their first ever parkrun, becoming the 23rd country to do so. No doubt Beccy Jepson will be there before long!
The Dashers parkrun numbers were down slightly this week with 19 of us smashing 14 different venues – perhaps you were all trying to get Oasis tickets? We had 6 first time visits this week, including Simon and Suzanne Smith in Caffarella, Rome (so technically prima volta not first time) with sparkly new PB’s being recorded by Rebecca Simms (at Clarence) and, yet again, a brilliant run by Pauline Beckett at Witton. Congratulations ladies!
Simon and Suzanne Smith must enjoy the Italian air because they both had brilliant top-10 finishes (8th and 10th respectively), with super top-10’s also being logged by Diane Dudgeon (3rd at Witton), Helen Woodcock (7th at Narin Beach) and Philip Seddon (10th at Skinadin) Great running by you all.
Despite all this exceptional running, the standards are so high now that the top 13 in the Men’s Championship could not improve their overall percentage and so the majority of the table remained unchanged. The only forward move was made by Chris Worsley who jumped another 4 positions and now sits in 22nd place. The top 3 positions are still held by Brian Shaw, Simon Smith and Jez Turner.
In contrast, 6 of the top 12 in the Ladies Championship improved their overall averages this week. However, the places at the top remain unaltered with Linda Coffey extending her lead at the head of affairs over Jacqueline Shaw and Diane Dudgeon.
Next weekend sees the Great North Run so best wishes and good luck to anyone heading over there. It’s a brilliant event so run strong and enjoy. More locally, South Manchester is the only parkrun I am aware of that is cancelled so we should have plenty to go at.
Right, as it’s my 36th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow, I’m off to buy a card so I will call it a day on this weeks report. Last year on our anniversary, Mrs T tried to surprise me with a car. Fortunately, she missed and so if I survive this year, I will do this all over again next week! Until then, have a good one and happy parkrunning!