“Running won’t solve all your problems. But then again, neither will housework” – Anon
Good afternoon lovely Dashers. And so, after a momentous season with some truly outstanding performances, we reach the final week of the parkrun Championships. I would like to congratulate everyone who participated and made it such a pleasure to read the results coming through each weekend. And whether you won the league, or finished a little further down, I am in awe of your achievements every Saturday morning. I hope that you enjoyed the season and reached whatever personal targets and milestones you had set yourself because, although the league table is by nature competitive, the basis of parkrun is to race yourself, not each other. So, with that in mind, well done to you all on a magnificent season.
My apologies for the lack of report last week. While you were battling Storm Bert and turning the heating on, I was lucky enough to be in Los Angeles where the weather was a little more temperate. We had a great time, even though LA itself is one of the most soulless cities I have ever visited, and have just about recovered from the jet-lag. Although there were many highlights of the trip, visiting a restaurant called Karma – which served ‘just desserts’ was a particular favourite (I love a pun as you know!) The best evening though was spent at an NFL game in SoFi stadium. The place cost $5 BILLION to build and is utterly spectacular. Absolutely incredible venue – and a good game as well.
Storm Bert definitely took its toll last week with only 2 Dashers completing parkruns. A special mention to Paul Conlon who hit the 150 mark which is a great achievement. Great work Paul!
This week, 14 Dashers crowned the season brilliantly across 9 different parkruns (3 for the first time). As ever, Brian Shaw ran an excellent Top-10 with 4th place at Burnley and there were sparkly new PB’s for Steve Whitehead (at Stretford) and Jez Turner, who continued his Kenyan-esque form with a great run at Peel. Congratulations, gents!
And so to the end of season results…….drum roll please
In the Ladies Championship, Linda Coffey finished on a high with her best performance score of a fantastic season to clinch top spot and the accolade of becoming the 2024 parkrun Champion. Jacqueline Shaw and Diane Dudgeon performed admirably to fill the other podium spots after superbly consistent seasons. Well done ladies and also well done to all 27 Dashers who competed this year.
The ladies this year completed 319 parkruns this season with an average % performance score of 55.61% which is fantastic. Helen Woodcock completed the most with 30 out of a possible 47 runs, closely followed by Suzanne Sale (26) and Julie Smith (24) with the average number completed being 11.8 over the season. A monumental effort by everyone – superb!
The Men’s Championship was no less impressive. Brian Shaw showed amazing consistency (and speed!) throughout the season and led the league for most of the event to finish as your 2024 Champion once again. Jez Turner’s remarkable finish to the season saw him jump into the silver medal spot on the last day, just ahead of Simon Smith in 3rd in what was a high class competition. Huge congratulations gents.
There were 39 men who competed this year, which is most impressive, and with an average performance score of 58.31%, the quality was certainly there across the 530 parkruns completed. Out of 47 possible parkruns, John Randall and Barry Shackleton completed an amazing 41 with Brian Tull just behind with 40 and an average across all Dashers of 13.6. Great stuff!
So that’s all folks (as someone once said) Of course, it’s only our season which has finished and parkruns will continue unabated so hopefully I will see some of you there over the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for Christmas Day parkruns; many of our local courses are putting special events.
It’s been a joy and a privilege to produce these tables and reports each week. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has stuck with it and put up with my (probably dull) ramblings each week and tolerated my general rubbish and dad jokes. The new season will start in January – I’m not presumptuous to assume that the Committee will want me to continue (they are people with taste after all ) but, if so, I will of course be happy to do so.
Until next time, huge congratulations to Linda, Brian and all the competitors, thank you for indulging me and my very best wishes to you and your loved ones for the happiest of Christmases
Oh, and of course, happy parkrunning!
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