The warm and sunny weather brings out regulars, newcomers and tourists

As with any run at the scrubs the weather plays an important part of our day, and today was sunny, warm, and most importantly dry, resulting in eight new personal bests being set out of a field of 54. There were also five runners today lacing up their shoes for their very first parkruns. Much to the disappointment of regular James SPENDER, two of these new parkrunners were very speedy and were second and third across the finish line. "You don’t get a mention when you come in fourth," James was overheard saying in the queue for drinks and flapjacks at the clubhouse, but today is your lucky day James (because your humble reporter this week is also very much a fourth place kind of person).

In a celebration of all things fourth: well done James SPENDER for being the fourth over the line with a time of 19:33. Congrats Kirstie TEW on your London marathon recovery run and being the fourth woman over the line in a time of 27:17. Paul WOODGATE has the fourth best age graded male run at 69.74 % and Andrea CALDERWOOD gets the kudos for the fourth best age graded female run at 59.64 %. In the points competition James MALCOLM is sitting in fourth place for men with 3308 points, and Lan-Lan SMITH for the female competition with 2544 points. Regularly scheduled proper reporting of the results will resume next week.

We were also joined by ten parkrun tourists this week at the scrubs. Jenny LUCAS, whose home run is at Blandford in Dorset, remarked about how nice and flat the scrubs course was (for the record there is certainly a 25m gain in elevation on that initial straight!), if you like the hills Jenny, I suggest checking out Gladstone Park on your next visit (although you are very welcome back at the scrubs).

A big congratulations to Anthony BALL on his 50th parkrun (with a whopping 49 of those at the scrubs), we certainly enjoyed the delicious celebratory chocolate chip muffins. There are a few runners who hit 48 this week, so looking forward to more delicious goodies in the weeks to come.

Thank you to all our volunteers this week Andrea BROUGHTON, Charles CRAVEN, Fraser BRYDSON, Lan-Lan SMITH, Marion BRYDSON, Nick MICHAEL, Peter JORDAN, Robert FERGUSON, and Simon MADDISON. We always need volunteers, so if you’d like to help make sure that this fantastic event can keep running, make sure to visit the volunteering page.

Good luck to scrubs regulars Marion BRYDSON and Fraser BRYDSON who are running the Lichfield Half-Marathon tomorrow as well. I’m sure Harry is looking forward to getting his regular 5km run in next week.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you all next week.

Lan-Lan

Parkrun 256 - April 23

After a series of downpours on Friday, the Scrubs was back to its lovely wet, puddly self on Saturday morning in preparation for our 256th parkrun. 62 runners joined us, some 14 first timers (a warm welcome to you, we hope to see you again), some tourists and some having a little warm up jog before taking part in the London Marathon on Sunday.

It was lovely to be joined by first timer Malcolm Gillies, dad of our former ED Martin, who’s currently running around Australia. And his mum Bernadette! From Pennington Flash parkrun we had James and Frances McGlynn, and Glenn Taggart. Katie and Isaac Taggart were also at the Scrubs helping with the finish tokens and barcode scanning. Big thank you to Isaac who is our youngest ever volunteer. And a big congratulations to James and Katie for two great performances in the London Marathon.

Massive applause, too, to Kirstie Tew with an awesome time of 4:02 for her first marathon, 3:57 for RD Andrea Broughton, 3:01 for Paul Woodgate, who sliced 13 minutes off last year’s time and is going back next year to break the 3 hour mark. And BIG BIG BIG congratulations from Wormwood Scrubs to TVH’s Tracy Barlow who came first in the women’s mass race at London is a ridiculously fast time of 2:33 beating two of the women’s elite pack. Tracy is hoping to qualify for the next Commonwealth Games.

While we’re dishing out praise, well done to Andrew TESSEYMAN, Craig GUNN, Aimee BARKWAY andAlex BALL on your PBs this week.

Gideon REID (VM35-39) of Serpentine RC, was first over the line in 19:53 - 8th time in 37 appearances. Simon WHIGHAM (SM25-29) (Unattached) was second over the line in 20:10 and Duncan GRASSIE (SM30-34) of West 4 Harriers, was third over the line in 20:26.

James SPENDER (Thames Valley Harriers) is currently at the top of the men’s points table with 3594 pts followed very, very closely behind by Manuel CORRIENTE (Vegetarian Cycling and AC) 3506 pts. Nick MICHAEL (Thames Valley Harriers) is a couple of runs out with 3359 pts.

Sarah BAILEY (VW45-49) of Highgate Harriers, was first female finisher this week and 16th overall with an impressive time of 22:42 - 4th time in 5 appearances. She was followed by Sarah TAYLOR (SW30-34) (Unattached) in 25:15 and Kathryn BROWN (SW25-29) (Unattached) in third with 26:17.

And it’s all change at the top of the women’s points table – as Marion took part in a bit of parkrun tourism at Coventry (securing her parkrun PB while she was it) Kirstie TEW (Thames Valley Harriers) snuck to the top of the table with 3178 pts. Marion BRYDSON (Thames Valley Harriers) is second with 3135 pts and Andrea CALDERWOOD (Unattached) is third with 2897 pts.

The following runners recorded the best Age Grade scores:

• Sharon TAIT (VW60-64) was graded 71.19% for the time 27:39 (36th overall).
• Sarah BAILEY (VW45-49) was graded 70.63% for the time 22:42 (16th overall).
• Gideon REID (VM35-39) was graded 67.64% for the time 19:53 (first overall).

Many thanks to our volunteers as ever. Isaac Taggart also helped out in the Clubhouse, as did Fraser and Ben. And thank you Andrea for your run direction, Katie and Paul for your photos and support, Simon and Barbara for setting up, Liz on timer and Peter on close down.

It’s been an amazing week for running. We hope you’re all inspired to keep going!

Charlie