Elspeth’s August parkrun report

Elspeth writes…

The parkrun competition is now beginning to gain momentum. As available races disappear from the calendar this could be a valuable chance to gain a road or trail entry on the summer series table.

The parkrun competition will end on Saturday 5th November, the day before the final Summer Series Race, the Dovedale Dash. Therefore, we have another 10 Saturdays remaining in the competition.

For anyone who is still unsure of the rules, to qualify for a parkrun entry (*) for the summer series table you need to complete Lyme Park Parkrun plus another three courses from the following list :- Congleton – Bramhall – Wythenshawe – Burnage – South Manchester – Stretford – Wilmslow – Woodbank. (Previous entries at the closed Cheadle Hulme parkrun will still count)

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

Currently we have 69 runners who have entered the competition, 25 have only completed one course and 13 have completed two courses.

We have 9 runners who have completed 3 courses each and are one away from qualification. Carolyn Hirons, Ques Hussain, Craig Hunt, Janine Ellis and Trevor Morris all need to head for Lyme Park for their 4th run. Roy Pownall, Gail Hill, Brian McCoubrey and Jeremy Bygrave have already tackled Lyme Park so they need to complete one of the other courses to gain qualification.

We also have another 2 runners who need to attempt Lyme Park for qualification, Jarrod with 7 runs in total and Huma with 4.

This month we have another 7 runners who have qualified for a parkrun entry, each having completed Lyme Park plus a minimum of three other courses. So congratulations go to Andy Whittingham, Bernard McCarron, John Porteous and Ian Ashcroft. Finally, we have some female entries on the table, well done to Sharon Johnstone, Nicky Mowat and Elspeth Gibson.

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

Andy Whittingham – 1hr 11m 37s + 2 Bonus Points

James Macdonald – 1hr 18m 24s + 3 Bonus Points

Sharon Johnstone – 1 hr 18m 42s + 3 Bonus Points

Matt Taylor – 1hr 19m 19s + 3 Bonus Points

Steve Bunker – 1hr 21m 38s + 7 Bonus Points

Tim Billington – 1hr 24m 10s + 4 Bonus Points

Christian Hook – 1hr 25m 21s + 1 Bonus Point

Bernard McCarron – 1hr 25m 34s + 1 Bonus Point

Alan Turner – 1hr 29m 21s + 1 Bonus Point

Gareth Trimble – 1hr 29m 51s + 1 Bonus Point

Tony Hulme – 1hr 30m 31s + 4 Bonus Points

Mark Crossland – 1hr 32m 51s + 3 Bonus Points

Geoff Gilbert – 1hr 34m 13s + 1 Bonus Point

John Porteous – 1hr 34m 39s + 1 Bonus Point

Chris Cannon – 1hr 35m 2s + 4 Bonus Points

Nicky Mowat – 1hr 36m 47s

Patrick Grannan – 1hr 37 m 19s + 4 Bonus Points

Ian Ashcroft – 1 hr 44m 0s

Elspeth Gibson – 1hr 52m 50s

Don Bullough – 1hr 58m 51s

Once you have completed Lyme Park + 3 other parkruns, any further parkrun courses completed will earn extra 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!!

No-one this this month has completed all nine courses, so Steve Bunker remains the only runner with maximum bonus points. We do however have 4 contenders for next month, Tony only needs Woodbank, Chris must visit Wilmslow, Tim requires Bramhall and Patrick should head for Stretford.

August has provided many runners with course PBs and those making return visits have showed great progress. Roy knocked 1m 22s off his previous Lyme Park time this month, Tony had his best parkrun all summer at South Manchester with a time of 21.35, and Mark Crossland’s three August Parkruns have been his three fastest times in the competition. Nicky’s parkrun at South Manchester not only gained her entry onto the main table but she celebrated her 50th Parkrun that day.

With five Saturdays available in September hopefully attendance will remain high. My personal recommendation this month would be to try Lyme Park. If September remains dry the course will be faster (as long as they remember to open the top gate – both Sharon and I chose the wrong weekend and ended up having to clamber over the stile, thus losing valuable seconds!). Lyme Park is a tough but rewarding course. It starts with an uphill section into the woods and ends with a long incline into the finish, however the uplifting feeling of running past the Cage on a sunny morning makes the whole thing worthwhile. This month WRC members excelled at Lyme, on 6/8/16 Andy, Stuart and Mike took the first three finisher places, and Sharon was 1st lady on her run on 27/8/16. So let’s see how many great times we can get again this month!