Parkrun Reports – Saturday 27th April 2013

Ashton Court Parkrun 27^th April 2013

Saturday was Ashton Court’s second anniversary and also parkrun No. 101. This meant that all the points competitions scores have been wiped clean and everyone starts again from zero. Emma Withers received her prize for winning the ladies’ points competition and also was crowned (literally), courtesy of some nifty and artistic handiwork by runner-up Alison Engledew.

The run concluded with a multi-calorie celebratory party in the stable yard.

Anyway, back to the serious business. Runners woke up to a breezy and fairly chilly morning, with a north-easterly crosswind on the plateau. Here, runners were greeted by Keith Brackstone bounding down the hill and shouting well received encouragement to all and sundry.

There were a total of 239 runners at Ashton Court, of which twenty-five were from Bristol & West. This overall attendance was second only to last week’s record. It must have been the cooler weather.

Scott Watkins was the first overall on his fourth appearance at Ashton Court. On his three previous runs he has finished second, third and fourth.

There were three PBs, from Stuart O’Connell, Fay Sizer and Lizzi Elton- Walters. Fay has now had two PBs from three runs. Lizzi celebrated wearing her red 50 tee-shirt for the first time with her second run under the thirty minute mark, but Stuart wins the Performance of the Week with a second successive PB.

The club had successes in a number of the veteran age categories, with the first three at VW45-49 and the first two at VW50-54 and VM60-64. This is further evidence of the success of the Whitehall runners and the influence of Chris Elson and Keith Brackstone.

Meanwhile at Little Stoke, there were three PBs and three age grade category best performances from the four runners who headed north. There was another outstanding performance from Phil Parry who broke his own course record and also the course age grade record.

Roger Brocklesby Reports. There are also some great photos on the Club Facebook Page courtesy of Andy Butterly.