It is a September of celebrations for Sandringham parkrun.
Following last Saturday’s 250th event, organisers are preparing for their fifth anniversary run this week.
The week’s first landmark brought a good turnout of 349 participants and, from the first 12 finishers, nine were first timers to the Royal Estate. Tourists were in attendance from a variety of places, including Huddersfield, Marlborough, Easingwold, Dunblane, Chipping Norton, Folkestone, Devon and Belgium.
They were led to the funnel by Sam Garforth, of Headington RRC in 18mins 59secs. The first female over the line was Poppy St Lawrence in a personal best time of 22:04.
Of 87 Sandringham first-timers, eight were making their parkrun debuts – Sebastian Skinner, Courtney Whittle, Freya Clarke, Nina Finnegan, Lyra de Tanaia, Bertie Bowes, Otis Branson and Hilary Medlack.
Major milestones were achieved by Kelly Watts, 100 parkruns; John Hewson, 250; and Gary Berry, 350.
Five of the finishers were in the 500 club – Malcolm Hunt (504), James Lester (553), Paul Verrando (561), Stephen Brooks (567) and Andrew Lane, of Wymondham AC (616). The veteran 70-74 runner clocked 30:24, just over 10 minutes slower than his time from October 2004 when, as an age 45-49 participant, he was one of the original 13 runners to complete the very first parkrun at Bushey.
A total of 43 PBs were recorded.
Despite the counter attraction of the Round Norfolk Relay, local running clubs were well represented. Dersingham Runners had 20 members taking on the 5K course, with 13 from Ryston Runners, nine Renegade Runners and eight from West Norfolk AC.
The first of them to finish was West Norfolk AC’s James Watt, who was fourth, 19:33, despite being in the 11-14 age group.
Mark Ramsden, of Dersingham and Ryston, was eighth, 20:45.
Parkrun cannot go ahead without the sterling efforts of the team of volunteers and 36 were in place, including three first-timers. For more details of how to volunteer, email [email protected].
