Happy 6th Anniversary! – Bramhall parkrun Event 304 The sun shines on the righteous, and contrary to the dire weather forecasts for the region on Saturday morning, Bramhall parkrunners were justly rewarded when the sun poked its head through the clouds about 15 minutes before this week’s anniversary parkrun. In the same way that the Queen has both an official and actual birthday, Bramhall’s actual anniversary was the prior Saturday but the official celebrations were held this week. I tried without success to discover what the weather conditions were like on 19 April 2008 but the only historical weather site I could find went back no further than July 2008. I can tell you that 89 runners completed that parkrun, the very first in the NW of England. And as Event Director Rob Downs pointed out during the awards presentation on Saturday, some of those 89 runners along with others who experienced the wonders of Bramhall in the following months, went on to establish more than a dozen parkruns throughout the region, which drew over 3,000 runners a week ago. That’s almost 34 runners for every one that ran in our first event. The first male to finish in Bramhall parkrun #1 was Michael Hallam of Wilmslow RC in a very speedy time of 16.03, and the first female was another Wilmslow runner, Vicky McKinnon in 20.07. Wilmslow have done much more than provide several score of runners over the past 6 years. The core team of volunteers, without whom we would not have had such a successful parkrun, are largely drawn from its ranks. And while Rob Downs did not run in the first event – I suspect he was preoccupied with ensuring it went off without a hitch - he went on to achieve his first of 92 ‘first finishes’ at Bramhall in event # 2. Apart from the core volunteer team, a show of hands of Saturday revealed that there weren’t many present who were also at the first event. However, from what I can see there were at least 3 runners who took part in both Saturday’s 304th event and the 1st one in 2008: Paul Harper, who has run 199 parkruns – 196 at Bramhall; Sally Rustige, who has run 129 parkruns – 47 at Bramhall; and Philip Allen, who has run 145 of his 153 parkruns at Bramhall. Some other parkrunners who ran at Event #1, who are still regularly running at Bramhall include Gill Dickinson, Carys Bowen, Sally Johnson, Adam Brown, Jim Pendrill and Emma Aldred. And while he has since become a stalwart at Marple parkrun, no history of Bramhall parkrun would be complete without a mention of another participant in the 1st Event, the amazing Brian Platt. Already in his early 70s in April 2008, he was the first parkrunner to join the parkrun 250 Club in the NW and has run in 276 parkruns, 152 at Bramhall. In its 304 parkruns, Bramhall has seen 9,175 different runners cross the finish line, completing 90,940 runs and covering a total distance of 454,700 kilometres. On Saturday, we celebrated not only the anniversary, but also the achievements of some of our most consistent parkrunners. The Annual Points Competition is designed to reward those runners who run or volunteer most weeks and perform at a consistently high level. The men’s winner, for the 2nd time in 3 years, was Rob Currie. While he didn’t take part in the very first event, Rob has been running at Bramhall since July 2008 and all 189 of his parkruns have been here. His PB of 18.12 is the 3rd fastest by a VM55-59 and he has an average time of 19.38 for his Bramhall parkruns. 2nd place in the men’s competition went to last year’s winner, Frank Podd of Bramhall Runners. 3rd place went to another Bramhall Runner, Andy Williams. The women’s winner, for the first time, was Janine Orton. Janine has managed to squeeze her parkruns into a very busy schedule including Open University studies. She says that winning the Annual Points Competition has motivated her to get her PB, currently 24.13, below 24 in the next year – I predict it will be a lot closer to 23. She has run 125 parkruns, 122 at Bramhall, since her first parkrun in January 2011. A very close 2nd went to Fiona Cooke of Stockport Harriers and 3rd place went to Sheila Pace. Awards, in no particular order, were also made to 6 outstanding Junior parkrunners, all of whom have demonstrated persistence, regular participation and continued improvement in the past year: Clara Jarvis, William Hoskins, Flynn Walsh, Amy Sander, Matthew Cordes and Jonnie Buckingham. And of course we also had our regular weekly parkrun on Saturday. 485 runners took part, including 24 first timers. Although I sound like a broken record when I say it, the running conditions were just about perfect as is evidenced by 61 runners achieving new PBs. Rob Downs was first to finish for the Men, with a comfortable margin of 11 seconds and a time of 17.15. The real contest was just behind Rob as Sale Harriers’ Steven Townley edged just ahead of Gareth Griffiths to record times of 17.26 and 17.27 respectively, which were new PBs for both of them. For the women, Ellen Downs of Stockport Harriers was first to finish (48th overall) in a time of 21.22, her 21st first finish in 54 runs at Bramhall. 2nd to finish was Heather Warwick in a time of 21.34, and the 3rd woman finisher was Louisa Whittingham of Macclesfield Harriers in a time of 21.47. As Rob reminded the 100 or so runners and volunteers who attended the Awards ceremony, Bramhall parkrun needs volunteers to ensure its continued success, and he asked everyone to volunteer at least 2 or 3 times each year. He also suggested that another way to help Bramhall parkrun is to ‘repay’ the Park for allowing us to hold our event each week by taking part in one of their regular volunteer groups. And Bramhall parkrun also pitches in by holding volunteer trail repair sessions several times each year, led by Nathan Mayoh. Like and watch our Facebook page for news of these and other parkrun related activities. Thanks to everyone who either ran, volunteered and/or attended the Awards Ceremony this week. Steve S.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 18:57:37 +0000
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