40th Anniversary celebrations part 1 - Parkrun Takeover - winners, new faces & PB's galore

There was a fantastic response to our invitation for current and former club members to join us at the Cirencester parkrun on Saturday 28th June to kick off celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the club’s foundation (it was formed at a meeting on 28th June 1985).

Quite by chance, the number who made it into the group photo below just beforehand totalled exactly 40 (thanks to Liza, first to spot that).

We had some competition for attention as Jos Buttler, an England cricketer was visiting (with film crew) as a Parkrun HQ (Vitality) ambassador to promote “parkwalking”. Jos only completed one lap, but other walkers did all 3, with the tail-walker group taking almost 75 minutes, requiring the volunteers (including 7 from the club) to wait for them. The weather was warm with some intermittent refreshing drizzle, so not too bad for standing around in, but rather boring by the end to be honest.

Anonymous impatient marshal

In the run itself, club members truly rose to the occasion and produced a fantastic bunch of results. including both first man and lady home, no less than 10 PB’s, and multiple first timers.

Kate Jacobs was first lady home in 20.08, the best age-graded performance of the day at 81.3%. Without a proper warm up she wasn’t sure about how hard to go but “her racing brain took over”.

Teen Ben Clarke followed up his recent 3k Sizzler win to finish first in 17.17. This took an astonishing 64 seconds off his previous PB from 3 months ago, and it was the next best age-graded performance (80.5%).

Whilst Rich Allen in 3rd place couldn’t hold onto Ben, he also set a new PB with 18.13.

Club member Brecht Grieten, only 1 second outside his PB, and former member visiting from abroad, Joe Barrowclough also finished in the top 10.

There were also PB’s for Toby Conway, Bertie Andrews, Brecon Musk (by over a minute!), Rachel Ranger, Ephra Coupland and Holly Stewart-Hodges and a course PB for Steve Hale.

It was also great to see not only juniors but also some of the club’s most experienced runners running Parkrun at Cirencester for the first time – including one of the club’s most prolific racers over the years Barbara Thomas (a Lydiard regular at one stage) and two ladies more used to ultra-running, Lara Tompson and Fi Collings.

Some older vintages of the club’s vests were also given an airing.

In addition to the runners listed in the results below, our thanks go to several parents running so that our under-11 junior members could take part.

Also several members pictured here who took part for some of the run

Nicola Wood with Alan Macadam

Aaron Willis trialling "ParkCarry" with son James

Bill Leggate & Hamish

Cirencester (inc. CAC’s 40th anniversary run): 

1 Ben Clarke (J)(PB) 17.17, 3 Rich Allen 18.13 (PB), 5 Brecht Grieten 18.32, 8 Joe Barrowclough 19.01 (ex-member), 15 Kate Jacobs (1st lady) 20.08, 18 Edward Knight (J) 20.47, 23 Toby Conway (J)(PB)21.00, 25 Heath Forbes (J) (ex-member) 21.11, 19 Albert Platts (J) 21.20, 37 Bertie Andrews (J)(PB) 22.04, 44 Annie Campbell 22:18 (PB), 45 Brecon Musk (J)(PB) 22.30, 46 Jo Musk 22.33, 66 Paul Timms 23.37, 67 Rachel Ranger (PB) 23.44, 91 Stephen Hale (Course PB) 24.44, 96 Luke Campbell 24.57, 109 Jonathan Higgs 25.48, 120 Phil Davey 26.19, 138 Susanna Austin 26.44, 149 Fi Collings (1st timer) 27.03, 160 Jo Roberts 27.28, 161 Lara Tompson 27.29 (1st timer),162 Martin Croucher 27.30, 184 Gary Wood 28.23, 190 Rachel McAdam 28.44, 243 Andy Kilby 30:45 (2nd claim), 262 Amanda Naylor 32.03, 277 Kirsty Leggate 32.27, 279 Alan McAdam 32.38, 295 Alan Tompson (1st timer, about to rejoin) 33.10, 312 Barbara Thomas (first timer) 34.12, 319 Ruth Fulford 34.35,403 finished and the following club members volunteered

Rupert Chesmore (from his camping chair), Cathie Cowell (first time tecchie), Liza Darroch, Richard Edwards, Brian Harris, Lorna Harris (on Barrow corner), Caroline Pople, and Pam Wheeler.

The following juniors also ran, but their results weren't attributed to Cirencester AC as their their Parkrun profile is incomplete. Please see the newsletter earlier this week on how to update your profile for inclusion in future race reports. https://www.cirencesterac.com/post/parkrun-update 

74 Ruaridh Wright 23:59

111 Emma Cunningham 25:53 (1st timer)

119 Sebastian Compton-Evans 26:19

124 Beatrice Wallis 26:28

130 Digby Withington 26:32

135 Alice Averies 26:38

185 Abi Cunningham 28:24

188 Ephra Coupland 28:30 PB

193 Holly Stewart-Hodges 28:48 PB

{Ed. – between hanging around for the amblers and last minute prep for the celebrations later on, I didn’t see the Parkrun results until today Sunday, so apologies for not congratulating several of you in person on your PB’s yesterday afternoon – what a day to do it!).