From time to time there is a “takeover” of a parkrun event by a local running club or other group. On Saturday it was the turn of Cirencester AC to fill all the vital volunteering positions, and also boost the number of runners to see the third highest turnout ever at Cirencester. Thankfully a few dry days of weather meant the show was on after the unfortunate cancellation the week before due to the very waterlogged course.
Kate Jacobs put out the call for volunteers some weeks ago and got together a cheery team to do all the important marshalling, encouraging, time keeping and barcode scanning that makes parkrun happen week in week out.
She reports “CAC took over the 13th January parkrun, providing all the marshals and adding runners. It was a great opportunity to raise awareness of the club and give something back to our local event. It went tremendously well and was good fun. With temperatures not much above zero, the ground had improved from the previous week when it had to be cancelled due to flooding. Despite chilly conditions we helped parkrun get their third biggest turnout ever with 234 runners. Race Directors Derek and Neil enjoyed us helping out and welcomed us back. We look forward to doing it again nearer the summer.”
On a fun morning out CAC members filled 6 of the top ten positions with another win for Rob Forbes, a very close battle between Brecht Grieten and Ian Barrett and some fun family competition between Joseph and Robert Stickney. Kate Jacobs was 1st lady. Wendy Nicholls also had a fantastic age graded run.
There was a really good turnout of our juniors and teens too. Jos Randall ran her 100th parkrun and has almost as many volunteer credits to her name. Liza Darroch and Rupert Chesmore were the tail walkers this week.
parkrun just can’t happen without volunteers to fill all the roles. So, if you can spare a bit of time every now and then on a Saturday morning, particularly if you enjoy taking part in parkrun but have never donned the hi-vis waistcoat, please consider helping out once in a while. Its great fun and you will feel the appreciation of those taking part and leave with a smile on your face.
Elsewhere, Ollie Campbell had a win at Coventry ahead of over 800 other runners. Brendan McCarthy enjoyed some Cornish air at Lanhydrock and Martin Croucher ventured to the Forest of Dean.
13th January, parkrun, 5k trail
Cirencester parkrun
1 Rob Forbes (Cirencester AC) 18.22
3 Brecht Grieten 19.46
4 Ian Barrett 19.51
5 Joseph Stickney 19.54
7 Robert Stickney 20.08
10 Kate Jacobs 20.35 – 1st Lady
12 Isabella Stickney 21.17
18 Wendy Nicholls 22.10
21 Benjamin Conway 22.21
26 Charlotte Wilton 22.50
32 Heath Forbes 23.07
35 Brian Harris 23.13
41 Bertie Andrews 23.40
46 Tom Morgan 25.55
63 Josh Neal 25.59
65 Rachel Ranger 26.09
73 Alan McAdam 26.44
84 Hugo Dobson 27.37
86 Rachel McAdam 27.46
88 Aria Stavrakakis 28.07
89 Henrietta Davidson 28.08
91 Abigail Dunn 28.10
99 Sophie Humphries 28.48
116 Pamela Wheeler 30.05
121 Anneliese Crawford 30.17
123 Leo Crawford 30.20
134 Kirsty Leggate 31.25
142 Jocelyn Randall 31.50
143 Isabelle Dunn 31.54
147 Stanley Harrison 32.02
154 Gary Wood 32.44
159 Emma Cunningham 33.05
176 Aaron Willis 34.38
177 Alex Willis 34.38
198 Eden Brown 37.13
232 Liza Darroch 55.27
234 Rupert Chesmore 57.36
234 finished
Tetbury Goods Shed parkrun
1 Ben Crouch 18.41
67 Peter Rowland (Cirencester AC) 27.04
200 finished
Mallards Pike parkrun
1 Kieron Brown 19.09
22 Martin Croucher (Cirencester AC) 25.13
104 finished
Coventry parkrun
1 Ollie Campbell (Cirencester AC) 17.16
835 finished
Lanhydrock parkrun
Alan Jeffrey 21.12
62 Brendan McCarthy (Cirencester AC) 31.34
129 finished
Jos Randall had a very busy weekend and followed up parkrun number 100 with a half marathon at Heaton Park in Manchester on Sunday.
The route involved four laps of the course and so there was no avoiding that hill! Jos was third in her LV55 age group. A good weekends work.
14th January, Heaton Park Half Marathon, 13.1 miles, road
1 Matt Cooper 1.14.44 (1.14.43)
265 Jocelyn Randall (Cirencester AC) 2.08.10 (2.07.40) – 3rd LV55
384 finished
Gareth James and his wife enjoyed a midweek, night trail race at Chepstow. They had fun and were pleased to finish 4 minutes quicker than last year.
11th January, Wye Valley and Piercefield Park, 5 miles, trail
1 Daniel Shepherd (Bristol & West AC) 37.41
97 Gareth James (Cirencester AC) 58.48
172 finished
On Friday evening a band of our senior members went to Gloucester to be awarded their trophies and medals for some brilliant age group successes in the County Road Race competition for 2023.
From our ladies team, Jo Musk, Kate Sackett and Ruth Fulford all came 1st in their respective age groups, taking home some impressive silverware. Kate Jacobs was 3rd lady overall and 3rd in her age group despite missing the first chunk of the 12 race series, adding to her recent cross country medal haul.
Brian Harris reports being happy to settle for 2nd place in his MV60 age group. He says that, despite running consistently faster than last year, he was regularly beaten by a “youngster” from Severn AC whose impressive results included breaking our own Tony Shelbourn’s long standing age group record at the Stroud Beer Race.
Many congratulations to all of you.
If you fancy competing against other runners in your age group from across the county, check out the road racing section of the Gloucestershire AAA Athletics4u website for a list of races in the 2024 series.
As ever PLEASE, results to Martin at cirenacresults@gmail.com and any snippets to embellish them to Rachel at rachelelisabethbarrow@hotmail.co.uk or via WhatsApp