When not training for races or racing, if you asked the average Peeler what their favourite running event was, many would say parkrun and judging by the number of Peelers running parkrun every week at locations all across the country and beyond you would have to agree. This week, as seen on the national news, was the 20th anniversary of parkrun which began in Bushy Park, London on 2nd October 2004 with only 13 runners. This weekend worldwide there were 2047 parkruns plus 469 junior parkruns drawing in 336,000 parkrunners, 28,000 junior parkrunners and 46,000 volunteers. Suffice to say that for a voluntary organisation, this is an incredible achievement!
Celebrating this auspicious milestone, 20 Peelers ran at parkruns at the weekend including Emma Pick (24:05) at Rosliston; Ben Dorkins (25:18) and Jackie Tierney (30:01) at Kingsbury Water Park; Ian Orton (24:00) at Kew Woods, Southport; Michael Woods (26:43) at Penistone, Sheffield; Mike Shelton (47:34), Lee Guffick (50:42) and Claire Guffick (50:44) at Beacon Park, Lichfield; Simon Gordon (26:40) at Roberts Park, Baildon; Joanne Sharman (50:55) and Steph Attenborough (50:55) at Zielony Jar, Slovakia and Matt Salisbury (20:48), Allen King (23:49), Chris Bennett (24:04), Lisa Stretton (24:53), Roger Lloyd (25:28), Katie Stretton (26:04), Sophie Galloway (26:34) and Lisa Fletcher (48:01) at Tamworth Castle Grounds.
Now that the dark nights are with us, the challenge of running a head torch trail race on Cannock Chase proved too much to resist for Allen King and Chris Bennett who took on the Petzl Night Runner 10k at Birches Valley on Tuesday evening. King was first to finish the challenging and undulating course in a time of 54:50 with Bennett not too far behind crossing the line on 62:43.
Further afield, Steph Attenborough and Joanne Sharman ran the Kosice Peace Marathon in Slovakia on Sunday. This marathon is the oldest marathon in Europe and this year saw its 100th anniversary, with Sharman finishing in 5:29:22 and Attenborough finishing in 5:29:25.
Closer to home, Neal Dempsey ran the Chester marathon in a time of 4:57:01, whilst Helen Dempsey completed the Chester Metric marathon (26.2 km/16.3 miles) in 3:21:59 to achieve the Chester Triple (10k, half and full marathon). Also running the Chester Metric marathon was second claim Mark Harriott completing his first race since breaking a bone in his foot in May. He crossed the line in an impressive 2:08:55 and second in M55 age category.
Peel Road Runners meet every Tuesday at 6.45 pm in the Skate Park car park in the Castle Grounds and welcome runners and walkers of all abilities. See website www.peelroadrunners.co.uk for further information.
