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Monday, 19 November 2012

parkrun stats of the week...17th November 2012

The parkrun statistics of note for this week are:
188 parkrun events run
22,695 runners
The average number of runners per parkrun event run was: 120 (down 3 on last week).

12 events recorded a new record attendance, as follows:

Event		Record Attendance
Abingdon		140
Albert Melbourne		170
Alice Holt		157
Claisebrook Cove		84
Cornwall Park		59
Havant		106
Kawana		44
Kingscliff		24
Malahide		216
Nahoon Point		266
North Lakes		53
Wynnum		101

Alice Holt parkrun there showing an impressive 157 runners for its inaugural event!

The longest standing parkrun attandance record is:
Amager Faelled 146 28/08/2010

And in the UK its:
Old Deer Park 83 15/01/2011

The highest attandance this week was 809 at Bushy Park. No surprise there. Bushy parkrun still holds the global attendance record for a single event of 1000.

The lowest attandance this week was 6 at Hillerød.

9 new male course records set this week:

17:59

15:48

17:20

14:42

15:54

15:36

16:51

16:30

17:04

6 new female course records set this week:

20:47

19:26

21:06

Celia SULLOHERN

17:04

Stephanie BURNS

19:33

Southwick Country Park

17:27

A total of 66 runners (up 6 on last week) ran times under 17 minutes this week.
12 of these (up 2 on last week) run under 16 minutes!

The fastest parkrunner in the World this week was by Martin Dent running 14:42 at Ginninderra parkrun.

The top age grade performance this week was by Ian Reade who ran 15:53 in the VM45-49 category at Swindow parkrun, recording a 91.40% age grade in the process. Very impressive!

The fastest freedom run recorded the week was by:
Olivier Thuong running 20:32 at Black Park parkrun

Also noticed this week, is that one male runner currently holds 6 parkrun course records:

Kingston	Kevin QUINN	15:19:00
Nonsuch	Kevin QUINN	15:25:00
Riddlesdown	Kevin QUINN	15:31:00
Roundshaw Downs	Kevin QUINN	15:41:00
Brockwell	Kevin QUINN	15:16:00
Banstead Woods	Kevin QUINN	15:25:00

And on a similar note, we have a female runner who curently holds 5 course records:

Greenwich		Clare ELMS	17:57:00
Orpington		Clare ELMS	18:28:00
Riddlesdown		Clare ELMS	18:20:00
Roundshaw Downs		Clare ELMS	19:00:00
Lloyd		Clare ELMS	18:56:00

There are a few ohers hot on their tails, so I will try to keep an eye on this now and again.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Bushy Park parkrun

Conditions before today's run

We awoke on parkrun day to monsoon conditions. This was to be my 7-year old daughter, Martha's, third run round the Bushy Park parkrun course. She has yet to finish the course, but the time spent on my shoulders is reducing and hence she is on a PB-streak of two and we were hoping to make it three today.

Bushy parkrun director, Ray Coward, starts us off

At the start

The run starts in the natural bowl just to the north of the Princess Diana fountain, near to the Hampton Court gate. There are three car parks in Bushy Park. One near the Diana Fountain and the other two near the Pheasantry Cafe, where many parkrunners meet to for a post mortem of the day's run. Before Martha started coming, I usually run to the start from my home in Twickenham. But we didn't think it was a good idea to put a 7-year old through that. So we take the car and park in the Pheasantry Car Park.
At 9am we were all huddled together in a big seething mass, waiting for run director, Ray Coward, to start us off. As there are between 800-900 runners, he needs and uses a megaphone to make himself heard.

And we're off, up Chestnut Avenue

Martha running

When Ray had delivered his preliminaries, he asked if we were ready, 809 of us confirmed that we were and he let us go.

Basking in the light of a 3rd consecutive PB

We were situated at the start of the pack, so all of the Speedy Gonzales' hurtled off past us, while Martha ran as fast as her little legs would carry her up a very muddy stretch of Chestnut Avenue and I chased after her. This first kilometer is along grass, which in today's conditions was very muddy. This section runs parallel to the road travelling north up to the gate onto Park Road, Teddington. When we get to the gate, we take a sharp right onto a gravel path, taking care to avoid the bollard. We then travel easterly along the cinder track-- a cinder track it may have been, but they were still lots of puddles for 7-year old girls to splash in. It's at this point where Martha's initial head of steam runs out and she needs a carry. So onto the shoulders she pops for a few hundred meters where we practice her times tables. By the time we get to the Sandy Lane pedestrian entrance to the park, Martha has spotted a couple of girls a little older than her and is running with them. And in no time at all we arrive at Hampton Wick Cricket club and are 3km into the run (more than half way Martha).
A second stint on the shoulders and we meet a young mum and her daughter in a buggy. She is not enjoying it, but Martha makes her daughter, Ella, laugh and by the time we head west towards the children's playground, Martha has got that PB in her head. The more you run, I tell her, the quicker your time will be.
We pass the playground and the tarmac paths end. The last km is run on grass, south along the river, cross the bridge, and north around the Princess Diana roundabout and a sprint to the finish.
We made it in 42:40, a third successive PB for Martha. We're getting closer to her running the whole course herself, which for a 7-year old is not at all bad.

What is parkrun?

Put simply, parkrun is a free, weekly, timed, marshaled, 5km run, every Saturday, typically in a park location.

parkrun is also a bit more than this.....
parkrun is not just one run it is hundreds of runs (currently 184) which all take place at the same time, in the same location, every Saturday morning across the UK and now spreading around the world. Its a weekly global gathering of parkrunners.

parkrun is also the name of the not-for-profit organisation that oversees all of parkrun and which helps local communities through the process of setting up their own parkrun event.

parkrun is well on its way to being a global running phenomenon.

parkrun can be whatever you want it to be.
- parkrun can be fun
- parkrun can be a training run
- parkrun can be run fast, slow or even walked
- parkrun can even be a race

parkrun is certainly a weekly community event, a great place to socialise and meet like-minded friends.

You may have some more questions.....

So, is parkrun really free? Yes, it really is.
How can parkrun be free? It's free because it has limited overheads. The initial start-up costs for each event are covered partly by the parkrun organisation, through its various sponsorship deals, and also by local communities, local sponsorship and city and town councils. So the runners do not have to pay anything to run. The weekly running of each event is all covered by volunteers, with the runners taking turns to marshal and run the event, so again there is no weekly cost there.

So there you have it. parkrun is many things, but most of all it is a free, weekly, timed, marshaled, 5km run and a local community event.

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