As is often the case with parkrun in Hull, the rain threatened, but didn’t actually have the courage to spoil things for us and even though its nasty side kick the wind did its best to make its presence felt, we hardy parkrunners paid it no attention. As the crowds started to gather, they were greeted by the friendly site of the red vests of EAST HULL HARRIERS who thanks to the endeavours of Mark and Kristina GADIE, had made race 339 a very special occasion, filling many of the volunteer positions with members of this great running club, most noticeably pacing. Judging by the various comments on social media this was very well received and a great number of people seem to have benefited from their efforts by attaining a new pb, 75 this week and many of you noting that the pacers helped you greatly. Jane SMITH of FITMUMS and FRIENDS, took the time to tell me that she thought the Harriers had been magnificent, so thanks for your comments Jane, it really is appreciated.  I myself took the 24:30 pacing position and although I am no stranger to pacing at parkrun, I can verify that it is very easy to get it wrong, so I think the pacers did a fantastic job, even the one (naming no names) who had to admit that they resorted to telling people to “just follow the bloke in the blue shorts”, when she realised that things had gone amiss.

David GINGELL who himself was rewarded with a pb of 23:01 this week (well done Dave, you’ll soon be flying in the 22’s) did the pre-run announcing and it’s certainly been noticed that the gathering crowd has been much more attentive of late, thus allowing Dave to be heard clearly for those important safety announcements and perhaps more importantly, ensuring our milestone achievers get the recognition they deserve. This weeks special accolade of leading off the runners from the front, went to Julie SALVIDGE at the start of her 250^th parkrun, Julie actually ran in the second ever Hull parkrun way back in April 2010 and is currently in training for the Berlin marathon, so well done Jules, you’re going great.

Other milestone runners this week were Leigh COLLINS who celebrated with a new PB of 21:21 on his 50^th run and on a 100 runs Angie O’BRIEN, who might not have got a PB, but certainly scored highly with the tasty cake in the café afterwards.

Perhaps noticing that the Harriers would be otherwise engaged, we were joined by Kris Lecher of City of Hull AC this week and he took advantage of the lack of serious opposition by coming home first in a very pedestrian 15:54 J I am of course joking with the pedestrian comment, Kris is actually one of only ten athletes who have ever done the Hull parkrun course in under 16 minutes and is in-fact the second quickest ever on the route with a pb of 15:23.

Here are the rest of the stats for this week:

Male placings:

• Kris LECHER (SM25-29) of City of Hull AC, was first over the line in 15:54 – 4^th time in 4 appearances.
• David BALL (SM25-29) of City of Hull AC, was second over the line in 17:06 – has been first to finish on 3 previous occasions.
• Barnaby WALKER (SM20-24) of Cambridge University Hare and Hounds, was third over the line in 17:13.

Current standing in the Men’s annual points competition:

• Steve MASON (Hull East Park Runners) 7959 pts.
• Karl ROLSTONE (East Hull Harriers & AC) 7179 pts.
• Paul MAUNOURY (Unattached) 6971 pts.

Female placings:

• Keri PEARSON (SW30-34) of City of Hull AC, was first (14^th overall) over the line in 19:01 – 10^th time in 22 appearances.
• Megan WILSON (SW20-24) of Cambridge University Hare and Hounds, was second (19^th overall) over the line in 19:08.
• Naomi BRIGHT (SW25-29) of City of Hull AC, was third (31^st overall) over the line in 20:17 – has been first to finish on 2 previous occasions.

Current standing in the Women’s annual points competition:

• Kerry YOUNG (East Hull Harriers & AC) 7582 pts.
• Vicky GODFREY (Unattached) 7548 pts.
• Amy BARTON (Unattached) 7311 pts.

The following runners recorded the best Age Grade scores:

• Steve MASON (VM55-59) was graded 90.03% for the time 17:13 (4^th overall).
• Jeff MCQUEEN (VM45-49) was graded 82.60% for the time 17:43 (6^th overall).
• Kris LECHER (SM25-29) was graded 81.13% for the time 15:54 (first overall).

This week there were 423 runners, of whom 33 were first timers and 75 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 18 different athletics clubs took part.

Here’s a link to the photo’s taken by Dave Gowans this week :

• https://www.facebook.com/groups/162339058586/permalink/10153827519078587/
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/162339058586/permalink/10153827448203587/

It’s often mentioned that parkrun is not a race but a run with friends and this fundamental to the inclusive spirit of parkrun, however we do like to herald people who achieve great things by pushing themselves, so on that note, here are a handful of the 75 PB’s for special attention :

Jack ARNOLD is a young lad showing great potential, running in the 15-17 age category, he ran a very swift 17:36 this week and I don’t think it’ll be long before he’s one of the exclusive under 17:00 club.

Gavin GALLOP has the distinction of being this weeks PB’er with the must runs under his belt, setting a new fastest time of 19:12 in his 121^st run.

Oliver BURNETT was definitely helped by having a pacer form the East Hull Harriers as he stated his target before the run commenced, Oliver is well known to us at the Harriers as his Mam is Ladies team captain and he has been working hard on hill training to speed himself up. He got his reward this week running with the 22:00 pacer to come home with a new PB of 21:56 in his 91^st run.

Paul AUSTIN is proving that age is no barrier to success on his 55^th Hull parkrun and running in the 55-59 category, he made it a hat trick of PB’s taking his time down to 23:17.

Patrick WALKER has been having a lot of success recently on local organised events such as the East Hull Harriers summer league and his own clubs (City of Hull) champagne league, and he’s carried this success over to parkrun with a new pb of 22:37 in his 53^rd run.

Lastly it wouldn’t seem right to have an occasion so well represented by East Hull Harriers, without mentioning their members that got pb’s themselves this week, obviously with so many on pacing or other duties, there would be a limited few that were free to have a go, however, Paul TEECE (18:09), Adam CALLAN (23:12) and David RIMMER (23:45) take a bow sons.

As a final note, if all this mention of running clubs has whetted your appetite please see the following link that will take you to a list of all the local (and some not so local) running clubs that have members taking part in parkrun – http://www.parkrun.org.uk/hull/results/clublist/

That’s all folks
Keep on runnin’

Keith Conkerton