Parkrunners Celebrate 300th Outing on Wormwood Scrubs
Having run 1,500 kilometers since 2011 - further than the length of Italy
Parkrun 300 - 4 March
Today was the 300th parkrun at the Wormwood Scrubs. That’s 1500 km, longer than the length of Italy, and only 20 runs shorter than the length of New Zealand. In fact, there can be quite a neat association between 300 and running, in a 6-degrees of separation style way (Wikipedia trawling can be such fun sometimes).
So 300 is the name of a film based on the comic by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley.
Which is based on an actual event of the Battle of Thermopylae fought over 3 days by an alliance of Greek city states lead by the Spartan king against the second invasion of the Persian Empire.
Which was the response to the Persian defeat during the first invasion, crucially involving the Battle of Marathon.
Of which the victory for the Greeks resulted in a messenger running 26 miles to Athens to report the result, giving us the origins of the running event.
Ta Da!
Okay, for those of you whose eyes just glazed over at the history lesson, onto the actual run report. There was an excellent turnout of runners today, with 76 individuals taking part (77 if you count the brave child in the stroller). It was the muddiest it’s been this year on the Scrubs, which is noteworthy in itself, but certainly not quite up to the worst it’s ever been standards. The weather was mild and winds were light, and the regulars were certainly all motivated by the knowledge that plenty of delicious cakes waited for them at the TVH clubhouse (James’ millionaire shortbread, Charlie’s chocolate & banana loaf, Anthony's buns, and my chocolate cake, and orange and almond cake for those of you who missed out).
There were 26 parkrun tourists, we hope you enjoyed your trip to the Scrubs. There are some advantages to visiting a smaller parkrun, as one of the tourists remarked “Guaranteed top 100 finish”. We were also joined by five first time parkrunners. Welcome to the Parkrun family Tom GORMLEY, Cathy SCOTT-CLARK, Katy WHELAN, Elizabeth CARLIN, and Clare HESTER, we hope that you’ll be back!
Onto the results: For the men, Scott HILL lead the way home in a time of 18:50, followed by James SPENDER (20:26), and Charles CRAVEN (20:53). For the women, Alice HARRAY was the first over the line (and 3rd overall) with a time of 20:49. Jasmine SANDALLI (26:00) and Lucy POLLOCK (26:51) rounded out the top three.
Sadly, the points competition has come to an end (I suppose it’s due to those pesky over 100 regular runners events). We can report the final podiums. Kirstie TEW retains her title for the female competition with 2714 points. Charlie LE ROUGETEL was second with 2153, followed closely by Lan-Lan SMITH (2134). For the men, James MALCOLM finished at the top (2924) followed by Nick MICHAEL (2764) and Craig GUNN (2711). Good-bye points competition, you will be missed, it’s the only time I’ve ever been near the top of the leaderboard for something running related.
Last, but definitely not least, thank you to the volunteers: Robert BRICOUT, Andrea BROUGHTON, Marion BRYDSON, Fraser BRYDSON, James DOE, Robert FERGUSON, Craig GUNN, Peter JORDAN, Charlie LE ROUGETEL, Nick MICHAEL, and me, your correspondent, Lan-Lan SMITH
Happy running, and see you again soon!
Lan-Lan
March 6, 2017
