Parkrun Week 45

“The man who invented the umbrella was just going to call it the brella but was a bit hesitant” – Milton Jones

Good morning lovely Dashers. Winter has well and truly set in now and we seem set for some proper Lancashire bracing weather in the coming days. Personally, I enjoy running in the crisp, winter conditions as long as the wind stays low – but then again I must confess that I don’t really care over the next few days because I’m flying to California tomorrow!! (sorry, not sorry, for rubbing that in…)

In all seriousness, the start of the cold snap didn’t deter you all from, once again, excelling across multiple events over the weekend. There are far too many outstanding performances to list here but congratulations to everyone who crushed the David Staff Fell Race (some great pictures from that one), the Morecambe 10 miler and the Alton Towers 10k. It’s so good to see Dashers excelling far and wide.

Of course, parkrun was no exception and all 20 Dashers did themselves proud at the 15 different parkruns (7 for the first time) that we attended. I was at lovely Arrow Valley near Redditch which is my traditional stop en-route to Cheltenham races and one which I can highly recommend if you are ever down that way. More locally, we had 4 stunning Top-10 finishes from Brian Shaw (7th at Burnley), Martin Oldfield (4th at Keswick), Diane Dudgeon (4th at Witton) and Richard Marsden, who was also 4th at Fleetwood Prom. This was also another PB for Richard who is competing with Jez Turner for the most in-form Dasher and who also had another PB – this time at Alexandra, Moss Side.

In the men’s Championship, David Seddon posted his best score of the season, which helped bring a 2-position rise in the league table up to 22nd. The top 3 remain the same with Brian Shaw now looking uncatchable in the lead but Jez Turner is closing fast on second place Simon Smith and now sits only 0.21 points behind with 2 weeks of the season remaining. Richard Marsden now has 7 scoring weeks and could easily challenge the top 5 with a strong finish.

Linda Coffey and Jacqueline Shaw continue to set a furious pace at the top of the Ladies Championship and are finishing as strong as ever. Both Linda and Jacqueline remarkably posted their best scores of the season which is a great effort considering the high standards they set. Diane Dudgeon also had a good week and looks sure to finish in third place when the season closes in 2 weeks.

So, with only 2 weeks left of what has been an outstanding parkrun season, the standards continue to be admirable and everyone up and down the league has made this a memorable event. Superb running and congratulations to you all. There will be no report next week as I will be away (did I mention I was going to California? ) and so the report and tables in 2 weeks will be the final ones. Apologies in advance for the absence of a report next Monday.

I’m sure there will be some admirable parkrun performances for me to review when I get back but not from Witton or Ormskirk as both events are cancelled next Saturday. I’m also aware that Lytham Hall, Worden and Clitheroe Castle are cancelled the following week (30th November) but keep a look out for any others.

So, have a great couple of weeks, apologies once again for the absent report next week, and as Mickey Mouse would say “See Ya Real Soon!” (and, as he probably doesn’t say….happy parkrunning)