Parkrunners celebrate a special aniversary on Wormwood Scrubs

This weekend was our fifth birthday and what a celebration we had: 66 runners including two escapees/evictees from Little Stoke parkrun who were up at 530am to travel to Kent and stopped in on us on the way!

Today was also the day the women's and men's points tables reset and we presented our trophies and certificates to the finest parkrunners of the year.

Congratulations Kirstie Tew and James Spender who topped the points tables - tremendous work both of you. Kirstie also won the inaugural Charlie Le Roo Double Award by also topping the female volunteer table too. Huge thank you to her and all of the other volunteers who make parkrun possible. Peter Jordan also volunteered the most and often closes down parkrun after having run it no matter the weather.

Also congrats to Andrea, Gideon and Christian for most first finishes, to Charlie, Ben, Fraser, Nick and Rob for volunteering more than 20 times, to Ghaseem for best newcomer and most PBs and Karen for most PBs, too. To Kate for the run reports (she's not actually writing this one - have you noticed a drop in standards (please say no)?.

We tried very hard to get our old ED Martin Gillies on the phone from Australia to join in the celebrations but sadly he was working, which meant he missed out on the inaugural Martin Gillies Award for Smugness...

And an extra special congratulations to Nick Michael - 42 runs, constant volunteering and supporting all of his fellow runners - he's our parkrunner of the year!

Of course we can't end the rounds of applause without a special Mary Berry thank you to Will, Kirstie, James, Kate and Lan-Lan for thoroughly spoiling us with the best bunch of cakes, cookies and millionaires' shortbread - it was all delicious. Well I say 'all' - I wasn't quick enough to get a macaron.

So back to business - let's start with thanking this week's volunteers: Charlie, Ben, Fraser, Marion, Debbie Peters-Mill, Fran Santos, Graeme Bozall, Kate O'Donoghue, Kirstie Tew, Simon Rubens and Peter Jordan.

This year's first finishers were an unknown in the male field and Karen Svendsen, who, to keep on as she was going last year, scored another PB! Well Done!

Shout out to Riz who, if he runs with us next week, will be celebrating his 200th parkrun, 196 of which have been at the Scrubs. More excuse for cake? We think so.

And top of the table so far this year? It's Kate, Kirstie and Charlie over in the women's corner, and Ben, Simon and Fran for the men.

ONE LAST REMINDER! One of things that makes parkrun special is its inclusivity and accessibiliy and that's why we will never charge anyone for taking part.

However, If you love running at Wormwood Scrubs and would like to make a small or massive donation - the money is used for the annual awards, race equipment and fixing the laptop! - we will be very very grateful and you can do this by visiting this page.

Thank you Matthieu for donating this year!

Have a great week

Charlie

Parkrun 260 - June 4