No surprise how 2018 started as it was the Ipswich/Kesgrave New Years Day double
At Ipswich though it was also my final time volunteering as a Core team member.
For me though the highlight will always be seeing the name Cameron MacSephney on the results list. Although Cameron had been taking part in parkrun for many years being pushed around in his chair by his father, I had noticed a change in the guidelines which meant it was now permissible to get a participation credit even if you had received assistance.
My thoughts had obviously started moving towards my next major parkrun milestones These numbers would play a big part in the 2018 participation story.
By early February I had apparently changed my home run but also completed my 450th volunteer stint.
It wasn’t until the following week that the 2018 voluntourism took off during a visit to Grampshire
A second spot of voluntourism took place the following day with a trip to Gedling juniors
As I was approaching my 50th birthday I decided to do a 50@50 challenge. Not surprisingly there were a few parkrun related ones in them including:-
1 – Volunteer or participate at a Scottish, Welsh, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland parkrun
2 - Complete UK parkrun voluntourism Alphabet
3 – Volunteer at 100 different parkrun events
4 - Complete a sub 25 parkrun
Some of the other challenges that were set also helped facilitate attempting to complete some of the above.
At Ipswich juniors just before my birthday I received a fantastic present from one of the junior families
Says so much about how the junior event had developed.
In March whilst Hilary was away on an introduction to sports massage we had travelled down to London for the weekend which gave me yet another chance of some voluntourism
It ended up as the second snowy weekend of the year so junior parkrun voluntourism was looking very unlikely.
As I was on the schedule already, I turned up to Dartford juniors at about 7:45am in the hope they would do an early course inspection. Whilst waiting I did one myself and although I never saw the team, I wasn’t surprised to see a cancelation notice appear on the Facebook page. Not wanting to miss an opportunity I headed over to Dagenham.
Although there was snow on the ground, the team decided to go ahead and 8 lucky youngsters got their parkrun fix. This event always had low numbers but the team, of whom I knew quite a few, were very dedicated. I felt very lucky that day to have got some volunteering in.
The final spot of voluntourism this month took place at the newest Suffolk event
Whilst being stuck in a hotel for work purposes and with little else to do I was clearly plotting my next set of places to voluntour at
At the end of the month I clearly discovered the “top volunteers” report and was surprised where I was in the table.
It’s fair to say that April 2018 was a travelling month. There was a maximum of 9 parkruns to be at in the month and I managed to only repeat at Ipswich juniors, meaning I went to 7 events during the month! 6 of them were my first visit to the event. A trip to Grampshire resulted in persuading Cian to join us for his third ever parkrun. At time of writing (15/12/2023) he is still on 3!
To round off the month we went to an event that has become our home event whenever we are in Grampshire. The Event Director has become a true friend and the whole of the team make us feel so welcome that it is hard to believe we have only been there 13 times at time of writing.
A week later and yet another event reaches Suffolk so we had to complete the map again
Although having a volunteer record at Ipswich juniors, this was the mother-in-law Ingrids first participation credit at a parkrun.
It had never been my intention to include junior events in my PIED attempt (parkruns in Essex done) we went along to the inaugural event at Clacton juniors. Most unlike us to pop along to a junior inaugural so I’m not 100% sure why we went along for this one. Looking at my records I had only been to inaugurals at either Cambridge or the Suffolk events.
We were clearly into our touring bug as the following week we were back ticking off another Essex event.
On this occasion the decision where we ended up was more about the shopping place we were going to afterwards (Freeport) than anything else. It has to be said though that the pub that was being used after the event for park faffing was absolutely fantastic.
The final Saturday in April saw us making a trip to London and as a Facebook post stated “Looking forward to my first Saturday parkrun inaugural event for 2 years and 9 months tomorrow. Followed by a trip down memory line to tick off a section on my 50@50 list.”
Having lived close to this park when my children were growing up in the 90s and going to it frequently, I simply couldn’t miss out on the inaugural Catford parkrun.
Having gone on holiday to Canada, with no events close by my, 500th all time parkrun had to wait until we returned and ended up being at the final Grampshire event that was left to be ticked off.
Those “Different Event” numbers were definitely creeping up very nicely.went here for parkrun
Back to the PIED task for the final week of the month
In June, for once we crossed the border in the opposite direction and seeing as we were in Great Yarmouth for the weekend we went here for our parkrun fix
We were back the following day for the juniors, however, I wasn’t so happy at this one due to the nature of the course. Essentially it is along the prom with 1km out followed by 1km back. As timekeeper I needed to be at the end. The Prom veers off after about 100 metres so you very quickly lose sight of the kids until they return.
Over the other border the following week and also one of the early mentions of hitting my v500
My tourism geekery went ballistic when I discovered how to do google maps and started plotting my journey
I was clearly very prolific in two main parts of the country with a couple of outliers to spice it up.
Burnham on Crouch was added before another trip over the other border to complete another 50@50task (camping) whilst also being close to a parkrun
We were at Fritton Lake for the parkrun on Saturday and then ventured to Norwich juniors on the Sunday. Billericay was our final parkrun for a while as we had to jet off for another holiday where there were still no parkruns!
Another trip to Essex on my return for Harwich juniors. I have a vague recollection of trying to match events which had both a 5km and junior parkrun to my list. More importantly though is how quickly the number of different events was climbing.
The next event displayed plays a special but funny side in my park run journey
We visited here as we were spending time visiting Kew Gardens. We had a fantastic time at the event and the after event parkfaff was also brilliant but that isn’t what makes the memory so funny. I eventually reached a point where I had all the names of events I had volunteered at, printed on a tee shirtf. It was several years before I realised there was a slight typo for this particular event.
Old Dear conjures up a completely different event ��
The next spot of voluntourism happened at the end of August with a trip to Cornwall and the fantastic Eden Project parkrun. Located at the tourist attraction of the same name we volunteered and then were allowed to stay in the project to see what they had in the biodomes. We were also joined by Sam and Timi Veerasamy who I knew from Valentines parkrun. The picture gives the first indicator as to where I was going to do my 500th.
Bodmin juniors was our destination on the Sunday and another increase to my event totals.
After having had a couple of Saturdays off during August the start of September saw me hit a major volunteering milestone.
I had decided many weeks in advance where this was going to take place and it had been agreed with the Event Director that I would be Run Director for the day at Pocket parkrun.
To acknowledge the occasion, I had had a new logo created and had put this along with a list of the events I had volunteered at on several items of clothing.
Absolutely loved the occasion and spent a lot of time afterwards with the faffing.
To complete the weekend, we attended Jubilee juniors to knock the J off the alphabet challenge
Whilst the weekend was very memorable it was sadly just a few weeks before I had my worst experience ever at a parkrun. I went to this particular parkrun solo as Hilary was doing something else. I found some of the team very patronising towards me. Not much to say about the event itself but in the café area after the event, bearing in mind I was on my own and in a wheelchair I was very surprised that no one even thought to ask if they could get me a drink. The only positive I took away from the day was one less letter needed to complete my alphabet.
The month finished off with another trip across the Suffolk/Norfolk border.
October saw me making best use of my 50@50challenge to cross out some parkrun stuff as well York at the start of the month and Avenham juniors at the end left me needing just Q to complete the alphabet. Avenham took me to 91 different events.
Finished the month back in Essex to take me up to 92 different events. By this stage I had figured out that getting to 100 in the year was very possible.
The end of October saw me move up the volunteer table
November was almost a repeat of April. There were 8 volunteering opportunities and these were done at 7 different events including 5 that were totally new, which would take me to 97.
The month started in Grampshire with a trip to Mansfield on the Saturday and another visit to Forest Rec juniors. Back over the Northern border for a trip to Caton parkrun the following week and then into Essex the week after whilst doing more 50@50 tasks.
It was interesting going to Brentwood parkrun as this had been one of the venues used for Cross Country events when I was part of Barking Road Runners.
That weekend also saw me complete my UK volunteer alphabet when I volunteered at Queens Park juniors, London
With no X or Z parkruns in the UK this was the final letter I can currently get in a UK parkrun quest.
The start of December saw a trip to Hertfordshire for a change to add another County to my parkrun map.
Followed quickly by the penultimate Essex event at Gunpowder and my 99 day
Having set myself a target of volunteering at 100 different parkrun events during my 50th year back in February, December 15th became the day for completing the task and also completing the PIED challenge by voluntouring at Hadleigh parkrun. The v500 merchandise had been extended to include the 100 events that I had volunteered at.
My numbers at that point were as follows:-
The following day we reached a major milestone at Ipswich juniors
Continuing my theme of combining parkrun with my 50@50 tasks Facebook shows the following
The entire run report is reprinted below
Guest run report for 15th December 2018
Event #107
By Rory Marriott (A130428)
Home parkrun: Ipswich juniors
As this is a particularly special parkrun for me I was asked if I would mind writing the run report, so here goes.
First of all a massive thank you to all the Hi Viz heroes that we had this week, Sarah Ball, Andrew Beard, Gary Bright, Amie Bright, Sally Clarke, Dave Flanagan, Thomas Gerrie, Valerie Jarvis, Samuel Knight, myself, Sue Karen Mayes, William David Mayes, Oliver Smith, Adam Smith, Dave Spain, Ellis Swindell, Alexandra Tourbassova.
It is on cold days like Saturday when the volunteers really deserve more thanks than ever so I really hope you said a cheery “thank you” as you made contact with them. If you haven’t volunteered yet or haven’t for a while, why not pick a date in the next few weeks to help out? All of the roles are really easy to do and you will be given training on how the equipment works if you are allocated a technical role. So, whilst it’s fresh in your mind drop an email to hadleighhelpers@parkrun.com and let them know when you will be helping out. That’s all I did in June when I knew I would be visiting on Saturday.
In a series of email exchanges Co-ED Sally invited me to let you know about my parkrun journey as she thought you would be interested in my story. The journey starts back in March 2011 when a friend posted on Facebook about a new running event close to him. At the same time, I was in training for the London 10km so I thought I would give this “parkrun” thing a try out. On the 2nd April I went along to Valentine’s park and fell in Love. I recorded my highest finish, 19th (go me) and as soon as I got home, I sent an email to the team saying that I would be able to volunteer on July 9th as that was the day before my race debut. Little did I know then what a big part parkrun was going to play in my life. More of that later.
So some stats and achievements from Saturday's run. There were 85 runners/joggers/walkers that took part in the event. This is only the fourth time this year that the numbers have been below triple digits so major kudos to all the participants for coming out on such a cold morning. The cold obviously had a major impact on people’s times, as a fantastic 20 runners (24% of the field) recorded PBs. Clearly they were trying to get back into the warmth as quickly as possible!
Some highlights from those that achieved PBs this week. The runner with the best improvement in PB (based on time only) was Christopher King with a 2 minute 56 second PB. This is his 4th run at Hadleigh and his 3rd PB, however, he is a seasoned parkrunner with 61 runs in total. Also seeing an improvement of over 2 minutes was Southend regular Jonathon Rowley, this was his 5th run with at Hadleigh and his 3rd PB on the bounce. Alison Connah (1 minute 26 seconds), Tracy Ann Graham (1 minute 18 seconds) and Emma Humphreys (1 minute 9 seconds) also all achieved times over a minute quicker than before. After an eight month wait, Stuart Harrison managed to knock 9 seconds of his previous best time.
New parkrunners can quite often record several consecutive PBs and this was certainly the case on Saturday for Mark Bessell. completing his 4th ever parkrun this was his 3rd PB and since his first run he has seen his time improve by 2 minutes 56 seconds, however, the reason for singling him out is that in his runs so far the minutes section has gone from 29 to 28 followed by 27 and on Saturday was 26. No pressure Mark but I’m expecting to see 25 something on your next outing.
One thing you don’t need me to tell you, is that the course at Hadleigh is “undulating”, however, what impact does that have on your times? Well, Emma Mitchell completed her 9th run on Saturday and got a 22 second PB. Her time was 26:20. Emma has also completed 3 parkruns at Sizewell which I believe is fairly flat although the terrain is described as “mostly well drained firm sandy grassland tracks” and she has a PB there of 24:51. Therefore the slopes are adding an extra 1:29 to her time.
There were no parkrun newbies in amongst the 11 first timers today, however, there were visitors from Southend, Ipswich, Huntingdon, Wimpole Estate and Frimley Lodge. The prize for “furthest away from their home event” goes to Emily Condon who has her home run listed as Horton Park which is in Bradford. However, she has Brighton and Hove Womens Running Club as the name of her running club so the journey might not be quite as far as it could have been (still a long journey though)
On a personal note as one of those visitors today there were two real reasons for coming along to Hadleigh this week. Firstly, it was to complete my parkrun voluntourism journey around all of the Essex parkruns. Secondly, having turned 50 in February I have been given 50 tasks that I need to complete before my next birthday, on Saturday I managed to put a tick next to the task that says “Volunteer or participate at 100 different parkrun locations”. By volunteering as your timekeeper, Hadleigh has become the 100th different parkrun that I have volunteered at.
As I wrote earlier I have been involved with parkrun since 2011 and in that time I have been an event director at two Saturday parkruns, Valentines parkrun in Ilford, and Ipswich parkrun in Suffolk. I am also currently the ED at Ipswich junior parkrun. I was responsible for starting both of the Ipswich events. In addition to this I was one of the original parkrun Ambassadors, although I had actually started helping with new event activations before the Ambassador programme started. In my 3.5 years as an Ambassador I helped establish 15 different parkrun events, mainly along what I call the “A12 Corridor” from Chelmsford up to Lowestoft via Maldon, Great Notley and a few other places in between. I have played a part in setting up most of the Suffolk parkruns and it was a result of that involvement that I received the Unsung Hero Award at the 2014 Suffolk Sports Awards ceremony.
Quickly back to the results from today, First finisher amongst the men was Mark Blee (20:17) and for the women it was Ellen Williams (23:41). Both have run previously at Hadleigh although they are tourists coming from Southend and Hockley Woods respectively. Both came within seconds of matching their previous best times at Hadleigh. Best age grade was Jenny Harley with 74.45%.
Since it started in 2016 2,827 participants have completed 12,291 parkruns at Hadleigh covering a total distance of 61,455 km, including 2,675 new Personal Bests. All of this has been made possible by 290 fantastic individuals who have volunteered 1,818 times
To complete my parkrun journey story far and away the main contribution I have made has been through volunteering. Of the 555 parkrun events that I have been to I have received a volunteer credit at 528 of them. I have undertaken almost every role at least once before and in most cases at least 25 times.
I absolutely love volunteering but hope to get my run credits up in the future. Between 2011 and 2013 I completed 50 parkruns so am the proud owner of a 50 club tee shirt. I have also completed 2 parkruns in my race wheelchair so I’m still hopeful that one day I might get a 100 tee shirt.
That pretty much wraps up my run report and parkrun journey so I will leave you with the following advice, make the most of your parkrun experience both at your home event and at other local ones, run as often as you can but also give back to your event by volunteering a few times every year and in particular in non-running roles.
You would have thought that I had toured enough for 2018 but I wasn’t finished yet.
We had a new event in Suffolk that required a visit, so on December 22nd we made our way to Sizewell
To complete the hectic touring trip I made a trip to Cambridgeshire for a visit to see my friends Tracy and Paul at Coldhams Common
My final comment on the year from a parkrun perspective
During 2018 I completed 0 parkruns and recorded 98 volunteer credits. These were done at 47 events including 43 new ones, and 0 time I both ran and volunteered. This kept my run total at 52 and took my Volunteer number to 541, of which 25 times I did both. These were completed at 102 different events.