From Jonathan Turner…
A busy day on the parkrun front on Saturday saw two particularly notable displays.
Nick Kealey bagged his maiden first-place finish at Myrtle in 18:50 while Geoffrey Howard topped the age-grading charts from nearly 400 runners at Fountains Abbey, with his time of 22:05 earning a stunning figure of 89.06% for the MV75-79 band.
And I was lucky enough to take part in the first-ever Chevin Forest parkrun above Otley. A soft launch, which deliberately wasn’t publicised, saw just over 100 runners take part at an event that has been 11 years in the making.
The organisation was superb and very welcoming. It’s definitely not a PB contender as you’re faced with two up-and-down loops entirely on trails, but sunshine and blue skies meant it was far less testing than it could have been.
It’s great to now have a parkrun on our doorstep – if you’re going to give it a try and have to drive then allow a bit of extra time as the start is at least a 10-minute warm-up jog from the suggested car park at Surprise View.