JULY PARKRUN REPORT

July finishes with 68 runners who have entered the parkrun competition.

Unfortunately July has seen the closure of Cheadle Hulme parkrun therefore from next Saturday 6.8.16 Woodbank parkrun will replace Cheadle Hulme for our competition. For any runners who have already participated at Cheadle Hulme their entry will still count towards the 4 qualifying runs needed and any extra bonus points earned.

So just in case anyone is still unsure about the parkrun competition, to qualify for a parkrun entry (*) on the main you need to complete Lyme Park Parkrun plus another three courses from the following list :- Congleton – Bramhall – Wythenshawe – Burnage – South Manchester – Stretford – Wilmslow – Woodbank.

(*) this entry can be used as one road or trail race needed for the 5/12 mug/t-shirt qualification

Once you have completed Lyme Park + 3 other parkruns, any further parkrun courses completed will earn you bonus points, one point for each of the five remaining courses with a further two bonus points upon completing all nine courses, a total of 7 bonus points up for grabs!!

Currently of the 68 parkrunners, 26 have only completed one course and 13 have completed two courses.

We have 12 runners who have completed 3 courses each and are one away from qualification. Carolyn, Janine, Craig, John Porteous, Ian Ashcroft, Qes Hussain and myself all need to complete Lyme Park for their 4th run. Jeremy, Brian, Bernard, Gail and Roy have already completed Lyme Park so need to complete one of the other courses to gain qualification.

We also have another 4 runners who need to complete Lyme Park for qualification all of which have already completed 4 courses or more, Jarrod with 6, Sharon Johnstone with 5, and Andy Whittingham and Huma both with 4.

This month we have another 5 runners who have qualified for a parkrun entry, each having completed Lyme Park plus a minimum of three other courses. So congratulations go to Matt Taylor, Tim Billington, Christian Hook, Gareth Trimble and Don Bullough. Hopefully August will see some female entries next month.

The current list of combined qualifying times for those who will be awarded points on the main table are as follows:

James Macdonald – 1hr 18m 51s

Matt Taylor – 1hr 19m 19s

Steve Bunker – 1hr 21m 38s

Tim Billington – 1hr 25m 28s

Christian Hook – 1hr 25m 54s

Alan Turner – 1hr 29m 21s

Gareth Trimble – 1hr 30m 51s

Tony Hulme – 1hr 31m 21s

Geoff Gilbert – 1hr 34m 13s

Chris Cannon – 1hr 35m 2s

Mark Crossland – 1hr 36 m 1s

Patrick Grannan – 1hr 39 m 25s

Don Bullough – 1hr 58m 51s

We also have one runner who has completed all nine courses – Steve Bunker, he will receive a total of 7 extra bonus points at the end of the season – Well Done!

Tony has high hopes for bonus points in August, only needing to run at Woodbank for a full set and Chris can also gain those extra points if he heads for both Bramhall and Wilmslow. Good Luck Guys!!

Notable parkrun appearances this month must include the welcome return of Di McVey with her two runs at Wilmslow and Burnage both taking first lady position, it doesn’t look like motherhood has slowed her down too much! Staying with the ladies we have also seen some great parkruns this month, Jan has improved her course PB again at Wilmslow, and Cat achieved a great time at Congleton of 22.43 showing that she will definitely be moving out of group 5 at the end of this season. Newcomer Ginny has also seen the benefit of our Tuesday night training sessions and broke 22 minutes with a new PB of 21.58.

We now have four Saturdays in August, so hopefully we will see more people gaining qualification and if the weather stays dry attendance at Lyme Park may seem more attractive. My personal recommendation this month would be to try Burnage Parkrun, a great course next to the river with a bit of everything (trails, undulations, steps etc.) and with on-site parking, toilets and post-run refreshments it’s a stress-free trip on a Saturday morning.

Elspeth