A massive thank you to Josie Bridges from Llanerchaeron for this week's event report . . .
I was very excited today to tourist in a very sunny Worsley woods, coming all the way from West Wales. My ‘local’ parkrun, Llanerchaeron (pronounced Clan-ah-kai-ron for those interested) is a 40min drive from my house, so it’s a real treat to have a vast number of different parkruns within driving distance when visiting family up here. Although it is a bit of a culture shock coming to a parkrun with 522 people, my local has on average 80 people and that’s only if the weather is nice!
After a bit of explore of the woodland (which ended up with us going the complete wrong direction to the start line), Scout the dog and I found our way to the first timers briefing. As we set off we started at a slow pace until the bottle neck cleared and I was very thankful for the shade of trees and tunnels. It was a really interesting course with lots of twists and turns and different terrain to keep it exciting and there were lots of thank yous to the marshals on the way round which is always lovely to hear!
I was ably assisted by a dog who likes to chase cars, squirrels, and bikes, and seems to have been a sled dog in another life but I maintain it is not an advantage if he also stops to wee on every tree root and fence post. There was a very nice reception over the finish line and I was so impressed with the organisation of the tokens and marshalling for so many people.
Congratulations to Steven Henderson coming first a brilliant 16:48 (and a new PB for him too!), and the first female finisher Amelia Bratt in 18:12 (also a PB!).
We had 97 first timers, and celebrating 100 events were Alistair Heeley, reaching his 50 milestone was Adam Costello and amassing 25 events were Daniel Bowden and Kerry Carinchi. Matt Shaw achieved a volunteer club milestone. Da iawn pawb! (Well done all!)
Despite growing up in Bolton I have never been to this lovely woodland, but I will definitely be back, especially after experiencing what a lovely atmosphere there was today.
Diolch yn fawr pawb (Thanks very much everybody!)
A few other stats include:
86 people recorded new Personal Bests and representatives of 44 different clubs took part.
The event was made possible by 30 volunteers:
Lauren MARSDEN • Adam PICKUP • Chris VOGL • Mark JOHNSON • Karen ROGERS • Laura HENDERSON • Fiona ROBERTS • Ian WILLIAMSON • Jonathan SIDES • Robert MASON • Mark Anthony BARTON • Iain CLARKE • Rachel BILLINGTON • Kathryn JOHNSON • Emma LOUISE • Fran TOWNSEND • Helen HYDE • Robert VAN • Geoff KAY • John DALY • Helen LLOYD • Els STEIGER • Jane WORTHINGTON • Madeleine DALY • Gwen AYERS • Cornelius OKEEFFE • Andrew WOOD • Noku NYAMAKOPE • Archie MACPHERSON • Millie HOGAN
Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Worsley Woods parkrun Results Page.
The female record is held by Sophie WOOD who recorded a time of 17:08 on 2nd July 2022 (event number 461).
The male record is held by Andrew MILLIGAN who recorded a time of 14:47 on 3rd December 2022 (event number 482).
The Age Grade course record is held by Jackie CORDINGLEY who recorded 91.77% (22:05) on 13th May 2023 (event number 502).
Worsley Woods parkrun started on 3rd March 2012. Since then 18,088 participants have completed 148,615 parkruns covering a total distance of 743,075 km, including 22,465 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,144 individuals have volunteered 11,142 times.