2016 was to be a year of difference. With the birth of my Grandson at the end of 2015 I knew that I would be spending more time in the Derby/Nottingham area and Long Eaton was my first destination towards the end of January.
Rushcliffe juniors became the first junior event that I attended where I wasn’t the ambassador!
Moving on to February and to celebrate her fourth birthday, a very excited Violet was finally able to do her first junior parkrun and join in the fun that her brothers had every week. Later that day a very special thread appeared on Facebook.
And that whole exchange really did sum up why junior parkrun is such a special event.
A couple of weeks later it was the 5th birthday for my original event so there was only one place to be really.
Even better was an opportunity to catch up with the “Nemesis”
The voluntouring continued the following week with a trip to Leicester and Braunstone parkrun after a short trip to Grampshire.
When writing this in 2023, those numbers seem quite small.
A comment from Lisa Dalton about the 2nd birthday for Great Cornard parkrun, prompted the next FB post.
The first sentence is one that I use quite often. What is interesting though is reading through the 30 comments in 2023 and realising how much parkrun has changed peoples lives.
It’s always good to get a reminder as to why you do something and this was certainly the case when this happened
A picture that really sums up a perfect Sunday morning for me. Children running round a park and me wearing a silly hat to keep my head warm.
A spot more voluntourism at the end of the month. This was an unusual one though at the time as the event was taking place in a different park but was still known by it’s original name “Darley parkrun”. It was eventually renamed Markeeton as the change was made permanent.
The Grampshire voluntourism continued the following month with a trip to Beeston
and Swadlincote juniors
The final Sunday that month had a “new addition” to my parkrun journey as Hilary was on the volunteer roster for the first time. Not sure why it took a whole 2 weeks after we started dating before she came along!
April 2016 was one of the most contentious periods in parkrun history
Stoke Gifford Parish Council decided they would charge parkrun to use the park for the weekly event. As this is something that went against parkrun guidelines the only option available was to cease the event going forward. This was picked up all over the place and locally I was back in the media spotlight
The following month saw Hilary and I volunteering in Grampshire and the two events couldn’t have been much different.
We arrived at Gedling parkrun and I immediately approved of it as I looked at a very Roryish hill. I was further delighted when the RD of the day said “Well if you like that hill, you’ll love that one” as he pointed to an even steeper hill behind us. I was on timekeeper duties and Hilary was giving out the tokens. So many of the runners appeared to be considerably the worse for their efforts as they went through the finish funnel. The event was finished off perfectly with a hearty breakfast.
On the Sunday we volunteered at Hucknall juniors which sadly was spoilt by “competitive parent” syndrome. With one father in particular screaming and shouting at his kids to “run faster”, “come on you can beat him”. It was only the teams 10th event so were still finding their feet. This behaviour though put me off ever returning.
Without doubt one of my favourite pictures from Ipswich junior parkrun.
Unlike 5km parkruns, as juniors were still in their early days, as new events started you were more likely to see runners move to one nearer their homes. This picture was at a high stage for the event and you really get a sense of the huge number we were getting (150+).
To be honest I think I prefer the 50 – 70 range for juniors. The best thing about a Sunday morning is without doubt lots of high 5s or high 10s
As Hilary had inexplicitly entered the 2017 London marathon we decided to start incorporating parkrun into her long runs and I had also decided to revisit the events I had run at but never volunteered at. These two decisions saw us visiting, Hatfield Forest, Kettering, Norwich, Bromley and Greenwich.
During 2016 I completed 0 parkruns and recorded 98 volunteer credits. These were done at 29 events including 19 new ones, and 0 times I both ran and volunteered. Keeping my run total at 50 and taking my Volunteer number to 360, of which 24 times I did both. These were completed at 50 different events.