Elspeth writes… April has been a good month for parkrunning, and perhaps a combination of drier weather and improving fitness has seen many repeat runners better their earlier 2017 times as April has progressed. The highest attendance for Wilmslow RC was on the 8th April at Bramhall Park Run, it has always been a popular course and a few weeks later Bramhall celebrated its 9th Birthday.
We are now a third of the way through the competition and we have a total of 59 members who have now joined the parkrun competition with 32 runners completing at least one course and 11 runners completing two of the following qualifying courses: Congleton, Bramhall, Wythenshawe, Wilmslow, Burnage, South Manchester, Stretford and Lyme Park
We have five people who have completed three courses and must now run Lyme Park to qualify for points on the main table, they are Carolyn Hirons, Alan Turner, Jarrod Homer, Richard Hirons and Andrew Given. Ian Ashcroft has also completed three courses but as he ran Lyme Park in April he has more choice of courses to give him qualification.
We also have another five members who have run four courses but they have not yet completed the compulsory course at Lyme Park, so Chris Cannon, Sharon Jones, Jan Wyles, Patrick Grannan and John Porteous all need to head to Lyme Park for qualification.
Parkrun enthusiasts Trevor Morris and Catherine Mellor have both completed five different courses but are also still to qualify as they have not yet enjoyed the challenge of Lyme Park.
We have two qualifiers this month, both Matt Taylor and Mark Crossland have completed Lyme Park plus another three courses to join Tony Hulme as the current 3 qualifiers. Tony has now completed all 8 courses in the competition, so the parkrun table is as follows:
Tony Hulme: 8 Courses : Total Time 3hrs 7m 10s
Mark Crossland : 5 Courses : Total Time 1hr 58m 43s
Matt Taylor : 4 Courses : Total Time 1 hr 20m 52s
Congratulations this month go to Paul Garnett who has celebrated his 250th parkrun. Di McVey had an inspiring run at Wilmslow, not only gaining a course PB but taking first place ahead of her male rivals. Barry Archbold also ran an overall parkrun PB on 15/4/17 at Bramhall, an impressive month for him also taking first place at Bramhall on a separate occasion. It was also great to see both Kate Sutton and Jim Pendrill, who have been absent from racing last year due to injury, both completing parkruns this month.
With so many members teetering on the brink of qualification, Lyme Park may prove to be a popular course in May. Hopefully drier and brighter weather will encourage attendance and these runs may prove to be a sound tactical decision at the end of the season, as speed on the Lyme Park course not only depends on fitness but on good conditions underfoot.
Happy May parkrunning!
Elspeth