GWR took over the organisation of Eastville parkrun this weekend – we had marshals, barcode scanners, funnel managers, and some extremely good looking pacers. Name the role, and we had it covered! But wait, there’s more!! Here’s the run report, written by our own Marco Watts:
A bumper attendance of 569 runners braced the cold weather this morning to start their weekend. This is way above the average attendance of 436; so a big well done to everyone who took part and made this a great community event.
A big shout out to the marshals who make this event possible. If you’ve ever felt like giving it a try or felt a bit guilty for not doing it as much as you feel you should, then please email your parkrun team and they’ll give you all the info. A lot of roles enable you to run as well, so you get twice the fun!
Of the 569 participants, there were 72 first-time visitors to Eastville, which is excellent. I’m sure some were there for the compass challenge, but everyone gets welcomed the same. There were travellers from as far as Cornwall and a slightly hungover trio from Guernsey who I spoke to. I hope they made it round the course ok!? Of those 72 first-time visitors, 22 were parkrun first-timers; so welcome to the parkrun family!
There were an incredible 110 PBs across the board which is nearly 20% of the whole results list, which is incredible to see, I’m sure some of the club pacers at the event will have helped and supported runners all the way round, but the glory is all yours!
Unfortunately, around 10% of the results list forgot their barcode, come on everyone! You can now buy wristbands, add the barcodes to your watches or download free apps such as the 5k parkrunner results (be warned, can get very addictive!).
First into the funnel today was Martin Peter Lucass in a great time of 17:10 and becomes Eastville’s 17,000th finisher. What an accolade and a very successful tourist trip I’m sure! Second and third were David Guo (17:22) and Ollie Robertson-Kurd (17:23), respectively. With Ollie in the JM15-17 category, that’s some impressive running.
For the ladies, first female was Caroline Buckeridge coming home in 20:16 and just 10 seconds outside her all time PB, so a very strong run there! Placing just behind her club-mate was Sarah Natasha Everitt, coming home as second lady in a time of 20:26. Third lady was Lauren Farndell from North Bristol Triathlon club in 21:18 and only 2 seconds off her overall PB as well!
Thank you to the Eastville core team for allowing us to support the event with our joint message of inclusivity, fun and friendship and I’m sure on a personal level and as a club we’ll be back!
