Ashton Court Parkrun – Saturday 20th April 2013

Saturday’s Ashton Court parkrun was dedicated to the innocent victims of this week’s tragic events in Boston. Race Director Geoff Keogh gave a short address before the start which was followed by a respectful applause from those present.

This was parkrun No 100 at Ashton Court (that is #100 in computer speak) and is another milestone in the development of this splendid event. 

The century was marked by a record attendance of 268, beating the previous record of 237 set in September 2012.  Thirty-four were Bristol and West runners. In addition there were four volunteers from the club.

As next week is the event’s second anniversary, this was the final week for points scoring in the men’s and women’s points competitions.

In the men’s event Pete Mountain was second, Andrew Malloy third and Paul Jefferson fifth. The women’s event was finally won by Emma Withers by a margin of only six points over Alison Engledew (3946 points to 3940). Well done to all the above on their efforts over the last year. If anyone is interested in making a challenge for honours in next year’s competitions, they will need to run over forty times and volunteer at least three times – not many Saturday lie ins to look forward to.

Bristol and West dominated the various age categories, with club runners taking first place in a total of ten categories. In addition they took the first three places in the VW45-49 category and the first four in the VW50-54. Special mention goes not Otto Kingston who was first in the JM14 category and with a PB; not bad for a nine year old. Otto appeared to have dispensed with the services of mother Emma Withers for pacing purposes and was this week accompanied by Sarah Everitt.

There were also a few PBs.  Nicola Dutton and Sarah Arts made the biggest improvements by eighty -two and sixty-two seconds respectively. Barry Mills achieved a PB for the seventh successive time and Emma Withers improved for the third time in three weeks. Stewart O’Connell was successful in getting a PB on the day he earned his 10 club vest; and towards the front of the field Scott Watkins improved by eight seconds.  Anne Fletcher completed a successful week by following up a PB at the Weston Prom Run, over five miles, with another, over this shorter distance, less than forty-eight hours later. The Performance of the Week goes to Ashton Court regular Paul Jefferson, who not only got a PB, but predicted that we would beforehand. That’s class.

An honourable mention goes to another regular, Rikki Porter who equalled his PB of 21:14 set in January.

Roger Brocklesby reports (as ever – where would we be without him?).