With the Ashridge Boundary run taking place on Saturday, parkrun numbers were down to 34 (13 at Wendover Woods and 6 at Dunstable Downs). Our lowest parkrun turnout in 2025 so far.
Clare and Richard Murphy were our furthest travelled with their visit to Donaupark parkrun in Austria. They doubled the number of parkruns TRC have run in Austria and Murphy is now the most seen TRC surname at Austrian parkruns. Another random fact is that Austria is now the only country where the 3 fastest TRC times have all been run by females.
Maddi and Stephen Pendrigh were the first members to visit Birchall Playing Fields. This is a relatively new parkrun in Leek, Staffordshire. As a unique feature the course includes an old-fashioned red gravel running track with an unusual oval shape, longer straights, and tighter bends, measuring 440 yards in length.
Jules Wake ticked off a rare “Q” with a visit to hilly but scenic Queen Elizabeth Park, north of Portsmouth.
Well done to Lydia Vye who, at Dunstable Downs, ran her 300th parkrun (with a slightly different % split – Bevendean Down 26%, Dunstable Downs 24%, Preston park 22%) and with split second time finished in a perfect 30:55 which obtained her “Second Bingo” as 55 was the only second that she hadn’t previously recorded.
We had a big drop in our 2025 100% club with now only 3 members left. Out of Clare Murphy, Lorraine Hurford and Neil Adcock who will keep their 2025 streak going the longest?
A good day for the O’Keeffe’s at Dunstable with Ben finishing 2nd and dad, John taking 4 seconds off his time with a new personal course PB of 21:17. Other people who came close to their personal course PBs included Paul McCormack, Brian Richards and Ben O’Keeffe. Well done all.
Did you guess our favourite “O’s” ? – our top 3 were Oxford, Osterley and Oaklands College. So we move on to the letter “P” – For these 3 – you are looking for one in central Hertfordshire, one on the south coast thanks to Lydia Vye and one that is on the list due to an ex-club chairman’s Cornish roots.
The next TRC parkrun outing is a trip south to the popular trail route on 19th April at Church Mead in Amersham. More details can be found here https://www.parkrun.org.uk/churchmead/course/ Hope to see you there.
Andy Evans