Parkrun news Saturday 31 May 2025
A fantastic weekend of running with 30 MAC members participating at 12 venues in all parts of mainland Britain plus Sweden.
Starting from the top literally, Kate Ruffell added Alness parkrun to our growing list of events mentioned in these reports. As usual Kate had an excellent run finishing in a time of 24.07 for 5th lady and 17th overall and a massive 80.44% age grading.
Gav Elliott made his regular trip over to Ashbourne where he recorded a steady 26.47 and a 64th place finish.
Black Rocks was yet again our most popular event with 10 runners plus 2 volunteers. Tony Barrable continues to achieve times which some of us can only dream about. His 21.15 and 33rd position finish made him first MAC back with Gary Jones only 30 seconds behind him in 41st position. Third in for Matlock was young Oliver Jones running in the JM 11-14 category and finishing in an amazing 22.30 for 53rd place. Only 2 seconds behind but 3 decades older was Simon Flitter, then a further 29 seconds later plus another decade saw Steve Goodall finish in 23.03 for 61st place. Going right back down the years next in was Emily Jones in the JW10 category finishing with a sprint to leave mum Lisa well adrift of her amazing time of 23.51 which is a 75.96% age grading. Lisa will have to try harder! Our final 3 boys, Malcolm Betts, Brian Chan and Stanley Flitter completed our impressive MAC team and we should not forget to mention Simon Brister and Andrew Watson who were our 2 volunteers at this event.
John Birch had his regular run out at Blickling whilst Oscar Szabo was also to be found at his local haunt at Cardiff.
Having recently completed her parkrun alphabet, Sarah Witham might be looking for a new challenge and chose the new parkrun, Coronation Park in Swadlincote for her run out this weekend. A 24.45 and 48th place finish was duly recorded as well as a 71st different venue so fast approaching her 3/4 cowell. (a parkrun thing).
Roy and Sarah Austin must enjoy pain as they chose to revisit Gedling parkrun which on my scale is certainly between undulating and damned right hilly so not likely to be a PB course. Roy ran a 25.54 for 34th place whilst Sarah finished in 34.50 and 117th.
Down in the big city, David Howarth ran Hamstead Heath parkrun in a so far unverified time of 25.42 due to some bureaucratic cock up with the documentation??
Dennis Holmes was off touristing again this time at Judarskogen parkrun in Stockholm and was almost tempted by the marathon event which starts at midday on the Saturday therefore making a full 47k available. He did however quickly come to his senses and was able to enjoy his afternoon watching others suffer in the 24 degree heat.
At our other local event, Monsal Trail we had 5 runners plus Andy Mellor doing a bit of time keeping. Caspar Reynolds had a great run finishing in 19.49 and 11th place with Paul Clark just over a minute behind in 20.54. Making a rare parkrun appearance Jim Thorneycroft ran 22.25 for 38th place with the 2 other Reynolds boys, Jago and Pasco finishing in 25.07 and 27.13 respectively.
Cherry Moger made the relatively short trip to Millhouses to put in a good performance and a time of 26.57 whilst at our penultimate event, Megan Hopkinson ran 30.05 at Pavillion Gardens parkrun Buxton.
Completing our trio of solo MAC lady runners, Christine Howarth completed the hilly Shipley Country Park course in a time of 23.26 earning her the 3rd place lady finish and 32nd overall plus a 75.25% age grading. Well run Christine.
Edit number 1. VAR has confirmed that David Howarth did complete Hampstead Heath parkrun in a time of 25.42 for 167th place out of 648 finishers and only just failed to take the first MV 65-69 position by 1 second! So close!!
Well done everyone.
