From one extreme to another
Was it the beginning of half term, the clocks about to change, or simply a better weather forecast than the week before? Whatever it was, we went from one of the lowest 2024 attendances in the previous week to our joint 4th highest turnout ever of 55. Last time we saw a bigger number was in May 2022. In fact, this was our highest turnout ever in the months June-December. Interestingly this mirrored a national trend where this week was the 4th highest ever turnout in the UK (and all the top 3 were in January 2020).
By location, Wendover Woods 24 runners, Dunstable Downs 16 and 15 further afield. Emma and Neil Adcock were the 1st from TRC to visit Kralingse Bos (Rotterdam) but weren’t much further from Tring than Stuart and Carole Page in Keswick. Kirsty Dance was visiting her homeland with a trip to Holyrood (Edinburgh) but Sue Frewin was this week’s furthest travelled with a run at Milano Nord. Always interesting to look at the parks that we haven’t visited before – things you might not have known before reading this update include the facts that Kralingse Bos is the largest park in Rotterdam and was awarded Best Public Space in the Netherlands in 2007!
Conveniently for this paragraph – those of you who travelled the furthest sent in pics, so thanks for those.
Podium finishes included Dan Newman (3rd Leavesden), Josh Frewin (3rd Houghton Hall) and Sarah Needleman (2nd female Wendover Woods).
Personal course PBs came in 2 sizes this week with a few of about a minute and the rest by a matter of seconds.
Well done to those who knocked roughly a minute off their course PBs including Carole Page (Keswick), Mark Tikaram (Black Park), and what is becoming a weekly mention for Huw Moreton (Wendover Woods).
Those who got their split-second timing just right and beat their personal course PBs by just a few seconds included Christine Dennis and Gill Gordon (both at Wendover Woods), Sue Frewin (Milano Nord) and Josh Frewin (Houghton Hall). Well done all.
Most aesthetic time goes to Hilary Needleman for her descending digit time of 32:10. Not only that, but a double mention as “Needleman” was the most seen surname in our results, the only name to be seen 3 times.
Did you have a go at last week’s “guess the 3 parkruns beginning with “B” that have been most visited by the current TRC membership” – well the answers were (1) Bushy Park (41 visits by 27 of us, boosted by our club visit last month), (2) Black Park (35 visits by 16 of us, a useful one if travelling around the M25 on a Saturday morning), (3) Bedford (19 visits by 5 of thanks primarily to Helen Tullie).
This week can you guess the 3 most seen “C’s” – possibly a couple of obvious ones but no.3 will be a surprise.
Finally, just a reminder that our next TRC parkrun visit will be on 23rd November – travelling north to Linford Wood (in Milton Keynes).
Andy Evans