The start of 2014 saw a new tradition begin with the first Jan One(sie) at Ipswich
Then, a couple of weeks later it was a trip over the border to Essex to talk to the local council about how to establish a parkrun in Great Notley
The funny thing about this post is that comments were made by Len Maren, a member of the Chelmsford core team. The man who would end up as the Event Director for the event.
A day later and all was about to change for Ipswich parkrun for ever. It was to be the second week back at Christchurch park. Prior to the return, our biggest attendance had been 207 at the end of 2013 followed by 204. First week back at Christchurch was 260. Our first 3 times over 200 had been on consecutive weeks. I wasn’t there for week 2 at Christchurch but the following post explains it all Ipswich parkrun was no longer a little event!
From that point onwards we needed to have more marshals to ensure every crossover point with the general public was covered. From memory we increased the numbers by 10.
As a result of this I went on a scouting mission at the start of February to see what other local options might be available to us. As well as Orwell Park, I looked at Bourne Park and Jimmy’s Farm, all of them, however, couldn’t improve on the situation at Chantry.
Not long after it was time to put the Ambassador hat back on as yet another part of the county wanted to join the parkrun party. This was a meeting with the local council and I had to explain the full process that would be needed to establish one. Left feeling very optimistic for this one.
After a brief holiday it was back to ambassador duty and a test event.
This was Great Cornard who were starting the following week at one of my favourite inaugurals 65 runners turned up to the inaugural including several uber tourists from those days, however, the run was still very manageable and my parkrun baby number seven was delivered very safely.
The day before this, I had been invited along to Suffolk County Council for a strategy discussion on running in the County. At this stage I was considered to be a key person in helping them to achieve their aim of becoming the most active County in the country.
The middle of the following month saw my good friend Heidi step down from the ED role at Cambridge. Heidi helped me so much when I first started at parkrun that there was only ever going to be one place to be that day. Here I am with all the Cambridgeshire EDs, Suzi from Huntingdon, Richard from Wimpole Estate, Heidi, PSH and Paul (new Cambridge ED)
The ironic thing on the day was that we all had Red wigs as Heidi normally had red hair and this was the week she decided to change!!
Although not parkrun related, Suffolk County Council had invited me along to a meeting hosted by Great Run Local to talk about their plans to bring new events to Suffolk.
Their plans were to allow local teams to hold weekly 5km and 2km events at any time during the week EXCEPT Saturday at 09:00am. Nice concept but only really took off in one location in Suffolk.
The final week of the month proved to be very difficult with a new RD, and at that stage a potential future member of the core team, holding the fort. Whilst trying not to come over as an Event Dictator, after several attempts to get them to do a shout out for volunteers, with nothing but excuses being offered I had no alternative by the Thursday other than to take over control and by lunchtime that day a full roster had been filled. As a result of this experience and after discussions with all members of the core team, Ipswich decided it was time to have a dedicated Volunteer Co-ordinator and member of the core team. We had also identified who we thought the ideal candidate was and on the Saturday morning I asked her and based on her own post you can probably work out the response.
The start of April saw my 3rd parkrun birthday
Some of the 19 comments are really quite nice, especially when read many years later.
Saturday 5th April was going to end up as my most difficult run brief. Following my diagnosis the previous Thursday and having already told the core team, having spent a lot of time at parkrun for the previous couple of months with crutches I felt I needed to tell the community as early as possible. After delivering most of the regular brief, I advise the community that I had something very important to share with them and as soon as I shared it I was going to say 3 – 2 – 1 GO at which time the stopwatches would be going so it would be their choice if they ran or just stood there.
I shared my news, gave the countdown and said GO. It took a second or two before the run started properly and it became much like a standard Saturday. That was until people finished their runs and came to talk to me. It was quite amazing the level of support that I received and by the time everything was packed away I was very pleased that I had taken the decision to share the news.
A couple of weeks later it was time to get a group picture at Christchurch before the return to Chantry. On that day we had 345 runners and 35 volunteers.
This leads to one of my proudest moments at a parkrun event.
On our final day at Christchurch for 2014, local legend James Kelly was completing his 50th parkrun and we really wanted to make it a really special occasion for him. As you can see from the picture there were a lot of James’ in attendance.
However, what made it ultra special is that almost all the runners stayed around that day and we formed a real guard of honour for the final 100 metres of the course to give him an absolutely brilliant round of applause as he completed his run that day.
Both sides of the path were covered and it was a fantastic way to show how much of a respected part of the community James was.
The full video of his finish can be found here https://www.facebook.com/Ipswichparkrun/videos/626303304120507
On to May and although I was there for totally different reasons my life was about to change yet again!
That was the day that I decided setting up a junior parkrun in Ipswich would be a great thing to do. The process started that day with me sounding out a couple of people to be part of the starting core team.
It was a busy day as I was also in Great Notley for some course measurement supervision. Despite my best efforts, Len wasn’t convinced that 3 times up the big hill was a good idea!
Having decided junior parkrun was the way ahead for me and not letting the grass grow under my feet, within 24 hours of making a decision and bringing a few people into the core team
It was clearly a day for parkrun paperwork as later that day
My ability to count my babies was questioned though!
On this occasion Len was correct though as Great Notley was baby number 8! Although with the benefit of hindsight it was actually grandbaby number 2.
Back to junior parkrun and I was clearly on a mission.
And because it was a Bank Holiday Monday, less than 5 hours later
By the end of the month it was time for parkrun UK Ambassador conference number 2. Birmingham was again the location and Canon Hill was once again where we were getting our Saturday morning fix.
Having been around for an extra year much more was known about the Ambassador programme and who was involved with it which resulted in a record breaking 560 participants that day. Perfect day for me to demonstrate my funnel manager skills! I don’t remember too much about the conference but everyone would have left buzzing.
Next on the agenda was the test event for Great Notley
I obviously kept the ambassador hat on for a while as soon after this the following happened
On the day that Great Notley started
I posted the following
Hopefully, if my memory is correct, Cambridge juniors were about to deliver, Kesgrave and Ipswich juniors were awaiting delivery dates , Lowestoft thought it was preggers, Harlow and Harwich were thinking about it.
At this stage, parkrun in the East of England was growing very quickly, so some of the Event Directors decided to get together. Ipswich was chosen as the venue and the 9 Eds from Southend, Basildon, Chelmsford Central, Peterbrough, Ipswich, Maldon Prom, Great Cornard, Cambridge and Huntingdon all met up. Many ran, but some volunteered. Once the event was all done and dusted and lots of faffing had occurred, the EDs went for a meal at Jimmys Farm and the faffing continued for several hours.
The following day saw my first act of junior parkrun midwifery when 97 youngsters joined the fun for the inaugural Cambridge junior parkrun.
August 2014 seemed to be “media month” with newspaper and radio interviews almost every other day.
And then the biggest surprise happened I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting this particularly as I had also been nominated the previous year so technically speaking I had been sung about.
A month later and this happened
Totally shocked and flabbergasted by winning the award!
The following day was the 2nd birthday of Ipswich parkrun and for once we managed to get a picture of the whole core team
From Left to Right Gary, Linda, Jen, Marcia, Rory, Colin, Ali and John.
Following a birthday the next best thing to do is have a practice birth for another new event. This time Ipswich juniors
Which led nicely on to parkrun baby number 10 Kesgrave.
Quite possibly this will go down as the wettest and coldest inaugural that I ever attended and given how wet it was at Mulbarton that gives an indication of how wet it was. Despite the weather 164 brave souls came out to give it a fabulous launch.
The following Sunday was going to be something special and I’m going to let several Facebook posts convey what was happening.
It is really difficult to express how elated I was with event number 1. I’m not sure it could have gone any better. The children loved it, the parents loved it and the volunteers loved it.
And there couldn’t be a better way to finish this little segment than with this post
Although late in the year there was still time to give birth to another parkrun baby. Technically I wasn’t the Ambassador for this event at inaugural time, however, I classify it as one of mine as I was there for the conception. Although the date shown is 13/11 the inaugural was actually on the 8th.
The final highlight for the year was another award nomination
This time though I managed to make the front page of the local newspaper
It wasn’t to be though and it was Nino Severino (Tennis) who won the Outstanding Sporting Achievement award.
The final big parkrun activity of the year saw me wheeling along the prom at Lowestoft. This was almost 11 months after the initial meeting!
During 2014 I completed 0 parkruns and recorded 59 volunteer credits. These were done at 10 events including 6 new ones, and 0 times I both ran and volunteered. Taking my totals to Run – 50, Volunteer 165, of which 24 times I did both. These were completed at 25 different events.