It’s been a hard slog to arrive at our first North London parkrun.  There have been many valiant efforts by a number of folks to make this possible and we have been tested by local authorities and parks officials alike.  But, through the determination of a few, we can proudly announce the birth of Finsbury parkrun this Saturday (31st).

Welcome to Stuart Moakes who takes the lead on this parkrun and thanks to Anita and Christina for their determination and to Bridget Peacock for her ongoing involvement.

We are still short of volunteers for the first event and are making a plea to anyone who could be available to help to contact Stuart at finsburyhelpers@parkrun.com.

Good luck to all who take part at Finsbury parkrun this weekend.

 

Some folks worry about the level of responsibility that might be thrust upon them if they volunteered at a parkrun.  This could not be further from the truth.  Please see the note left by a virgin volunteer at the recent Glasgow parkrun: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Glasgow-parkrun/50101797962

When volunteering at parkrun, we are very happy to let you shadow someone for your first time so that you can be completely comfortable about any task before actually taking responsibility for that role.  Just talk to us and tell us your concerns in advance and we will sort it for you.

 

The barcode post event registration system is now working at all but two events.  Feedback from everyone is that it’s accurate, simple and reduces any stress involved in capturing your finish positions.

Please be sure to take your barcode with you to the event.  You can print your own barcode from the web by clicking the link at the top right hand side of this newsletter.

If someone you know is not getting the newsletter and is struggling to get access to their barcode then there is a link in the results email.

 

Congratulations to Leeds parkrun who maintained their lead throughout this competition to win the Nike + parkrun Challenge.  Nike has awarded a prize of a new gazebo to the Leeds parkrun team for their achievement.  Apparently this is sorely needed as their existing gazebo recently disintegrated.

Nike is also awarding a prize to the person who recorded the most miles during the challenge.  The Nike ID for this person is MXHORNET and their contribution towards the Gorleston Cliffs total was an outstanding 224 miles.  Nike will be in direct contact with this person.

Well done to all the teams who together contributed 2455 Mi or 3928 Km during this challenge.

Leeds - 427 mi
Gorleston Cliffs 377 mi
Richmond Park - 285 mi
Heaton Park - 260 mi
Bushy Park - 209 mi
Cardiff - 206 mi
Brighton & Hove - 183 mi
Bramhall Park - 107 mi
Glasgow - 102 mi
Albert Park - 83 mi
Basingstoke - 68 mi
Black Park - 49 mi
Reading - 37 mi
Edinburgh - 26 mi
Roundshaw Downs - 20 mi
Bedfont Lakes - 11 Mi
Bromley - 5 mi

Nike and I want to thank everyone who took part in last Saturdays Nike + Human Race. Your contribution to the UK total has been valuable.

For those of you who didn’t know what all the fuss was about, missed the opportunity to compete in the challenge  or just don’t know how the Nike + system allows you to record your runs and challenge your friends then take another look at http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeplus/?sitesrc=GBLP

 

Are you looking for a new challenge, something a bit out of the ordinary?  If so, they why not enter the Lucozade Sport competition to win one of 5 pairs of places in the Merrell IceMan on Saturday 21st November.  This is the first of four off road duathlons and will have you battling fatigue through the gritty Surrey countryside; running 10K, cycling 18K then a final 5K on mud splattered legs across an army proving ground.

Simply email me with your name, contact number and friend/partner’s name with ‘parkrun IceMan’ in the subject box.

Competition close at midnight on Sunday 1st November, winners will be notified by Tuesday 3rd November.  All participants must be 18 or over, prize does not include transport or accommodation.

Good luck!

Edd – Lucozade Sport

 

·         Brighton and Hove parkrun 2^nd birthday and Halloween this Saturday.

·         Bedfont Lakes, Black Park, Bramhall and Cardiff all celebrate Halloween this Saturday

·         Heaton’s 10K has been rescheduled to this Saturday

There is just over a week to go until the inaugural Finsbury parkrun.  We are delighted to introduce the first North London parkrun. If you would like to help at this event please email finsburyHelpers@parkrun.com

For those looking forward to running this Saturday, please remember the Finsbury parkrun will be using barcode registration at the end of the event to record your position.   Please print and bring your barcode with you on the day.

If you have any queries you can contact event director Stuart Moakes on FinsburyDirector@parkrun.com

 

We need your help! If anyone is interested in assisting at the following venues then please drop Anita an email. We are looking for potential event directors, committee members  and folks who can volunteer at these events:

·         Greenwich parkrun

·         Portsmouth parkrun

·         Swindon parkrun

·         Kingston upon Thames parkrun

 

Name: Richard Carter

Age: 64

Home Run: Banstead Woods

Occupation: Retail Buyer.

Pastimes: Cycling and running (slowly) and being part of South London Harriers

Run: 6 (2 at Bushy 4 at Banstead Woods)

Volunteered: 6. Photographer, timer, discs, car park.

Like: It gets me up on a Saturday morning, gives Holly the dog a run and lets me see and talk to all the members of the big Banstead family. I really enjoy seeing beginners improving their PBs and how much everyone gets out of the runs. I also like the coffee at the Mint!

Most memorable or Funniest parkrun moment: When Holly caught a rabbit.

Anything else: I think Chris Phelan deserves great credit for getting Banstead off the ground and it's good to see all the local clubs supporting the runs.

Here is a picture of Richard

 

 

We are slowly working our way round to replacing the existing results system on the event websites. The main benefits will be that the reports can be uploaded and ready much sooner on a Saturday afternoon, and every single results report can be bookmarked so could be linked to easily in Blogs, or social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. We are starting however, with the global results on www.parkrun.com (click on the results tab near the top of the page). We have tested these new reports on a very wide range of browsers and machines, but it’s possible that they’ll display poorly on some exotic browser, so I’d be extremely grateful if anybody who has problems with these result reports could let me know (email at bottom of this column). Remember, at this time we’re only looking at the global results on the main parkrun.com site.

67 brave parkrunners have stuck their necks out (some further than others) and set themselves a target to reach before the last weekend in May. 16 of these have already broken their previous PBs. A couple are tantalisingly close to breaking their targets already (see http://www.parkrun.com/results/challenge.aspx ). At the other end of the range, Alex apparently has some way to go, but I’m sure when he gets back from his recent injury, he’ll be chipping away at his target too. Anyway this is the last chance to join the challenge – I will be closing the challenge to new entries at close of play on Saturday evening. If you want to join please email me with your target time to my usual email address (just below).

While I didn’t improve on my previous week’s time, I had a great time at Brighton – I got lost on the way to the park so ended up running 5k before the run itself. Of all the parkruns I’ve been to so far, I’m pretty certain it’s got the best cafe (wish I’d taken more change with me). The rain really started to come down afterwards, which I understand affected quite a few events this week, and had an impact on times. Anyway good luck to all at Brighton with their anniversary celebrations this week. If it’s half as fun as last year it’ll be a fantastic event. Just hope the weather is better than last year. Also this week, our first North London event at Finsbury Park – good luck to the team there.

If you are new to parkrun you may not know that each of our marvellous events are organised by dedicated teams of volunteers. These teams are always looking for new faces to help out, so please introduce yourself at your next parkrun, or have a look at the volunteering page on every events’ website. As a rough rule of thumb, we reckon that if every runner volunteered 3 times per year, we would be completely covered. If you’re concerned that you’ll be missing out on your local event’s points competition, you needn’t be – we award every parkrunner full points for volunteering on up to three occasions per year.

 

Happy running

Crispy

chris@parkrun.com