From Dawn Turner…

Saturday morning saw Caroline’s running group travelling to Roberts Park, Saltaire to participate in their inaugural away parkrun.

The initiative begun last spring by Caroline and with help from volunteers has grown from strength to strength and has progressed from run/walking to a 5km parkrun.

It was an early start as Caroline, Ruth, Steph, George and myself caught the train from Ilkley & Burley, arriving in good time for a coffee at the park cafe. The gang were complete when Dewni, Aaron and Finn joined us. Will and Dylan were also taking part. It was a somewhat relaxed start, much chattering about our plans for the rest of the day. Will did his best to encourage us to go for a warm up or get to the start in good time but it was quite difficult to take him seriously as he was resplendent in 70’s fancy dress, complete with a curly wig and Tom Selleck ‘tache! Your guess as to what happened – no warm up and a dash to the start line, with seconds to spare!

There were over 500 runners taking part so it was a steady start picking our way through the crowd as Finn, George and myself ran the first of the two laps. We probably went off a bit too quickly and hats and layers were soon shod and we did jeff a bit too.

The design of the course is such that you can see fellow runners en route so it was good fun waving across to the others as we passed them. And great that Finn’s mum, Carmel, was there to act as team photographer. The support from fellow runners and marshals was fantastic and the team spirit is so strong with Dewni, Aaron and Steph getting a fabulous reception at the finish. It was truly a privilege to be involved today and by far the most fun I have had at a parkrun.

10k next? Who knows – there’s no stopping this super group.