"WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT" as George once said when we had a turnout of 296 in May 2014! Well what a turnout we had on Saturday! We thought there might be a few more runners this week, with Heaton Park being closed, but we absolutely smashed our recently achieved record of 337 runners with a field of 450 parkrunners!
We had runners from near and far: our regular runners, first-timers to parkrun, first-time parkrunners to Worsley Woods, a baby (and mum) completing the out and back buggy run. Dads, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles... We had it all! Quite a lot of our regular runners were absent this week so can you imagine what it might have been like if everyone had been able to make it!
In fact standing at the start line, after the 5,4,3,2,1 go countdown, the runners just kept on coming! So much so that we decided to get the "spare, spare" tokens out just in case. Only one problem with that - we've not yet needed to put them on a shoelace so the ladies on tokens, Helen and Abigail, had to punch them out of the plastic holder to hand them out! Helen also took a fantastic video of the start which you can see on our facebook posts (below).
Scanning worked well again, with only small queues forming. Lots of the Heaton parkrunners visiting us this week clearly know the drill and presented their barcode first then their position token making scanning really easy. They've been well trained - we'll have to work on the rest of you in the coming weeks!
The volunteers were brilliant, not only out on the course (Rob Mason said he had whiplash watching all the runners go past!), but also at the finish where they were really organised. Everyone seemed to appreciate the size of the field and the task ahead and all got stuck in. It was fantastic team effort all round and very much appreciated by our runners.
There was also lots of chatter and socialising after the run which was lovely to see.
Token sorting was a mammoth job this week but many hands make light work! Also coffee and doughnuts help - thank you Shu-Ling Li! We found quite a few position tokens were missing and commented that it must have been becauser of the size of the turnout and lots of new runners. Mike got on with the results processing, which went well, nodding and mumbling in agreement with us. It wasn't until later that day someone who shall not remain nameless (Mike Graney, Run Director on Saturday!) fessed up to having found a pocket full when he got home!
And as quickly as we had started, it was all over for another week! Phew!
This week's Road Runners:
Male placings:
John KNOWLES (VM40-44) of Bolton United Harriers & AC, was first over the line in 16:51 in his first appearance at WW parkrun.
Daniel J BIRD (SM20-24) of Swinton RC, was second over the line in 17:35.
Stuart James TUCKER (VM35-39) of Swinton RC, was third over the line in 18:03 - has been first to finish on 2 previous occasions.
Female placings:
Catherine O'DWYER (VW35-39) of Bolton United Harriers & AC, was first (10th overall) over the line in 18:54 in her first appearance at WW parkrun.
Zoe GMEREK (VW40-44) of Sale Harriers Manchester, was second (40th overall) over the line in 21:03 - has been first to finish on 3 previous occasions.
Ella PENDLEBURY (JW11-14) of Horwich RMI Harriers, was third (61st overall) over the line in 21:57.
The latest standings on the podium:
Mark BIRCHALL (Swinton RC) 1231 pts.
Mark CLEWARTH (Unattached) 1079 pts.
Peter BROWN (Salford Metropolitan AC) 1003 pts.
Theresa SHAW (Salford Metropolitan AC) 1235 pts.
Helen NATION (Swinton RC) 1094 pts.
Shu-Ling LI (Unattached) 1056 pts.
This week there were 450 runners, of whom 104 were first timers and 67 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 25 different athletics clubs took part.
DID YOU KNOW? Worsley Woods parkrun started on 3rd March 2012, and since then 4,388 different runners, including participants from 240 athletics clubs, have completed 30,011 runs covering a total distance of 150,055 km, and there have been 6,176 new Personal Bests. Amazing!
See you all next week!