IT WAS an overcast day, with the ground still damp from the welcome rain during the week, for Gloucester’s 235th parkrun last Saturday.
There was a buzz in the air and not just from the hundreds of flies which were hanging around to see what was happening.
A crowd of 56 finishers had gathered for the double century event – Kim Haschek completing her 100th run while also achieving her 100th volunteer credit (as she guided the pack from behind as tailwalker).
It had taken some planning by Kim to get the two events to coincide.
Kim’s volunteer journey started as a Marshall back in January 2020 (a pandemic and a few floods ago) and has included 57 times as Run Director.
Her first run was also in January 2020, with 91 of her 100 runs at Gloucester parkrun.
She even baked the cake to celebrate her double milestones, with husband Tom and sons Hamish and Spencer there to cheer her on.
The first male finisher was Thomas Coombes in 19.15, with Lauren McRae the first female finisher in 28.54.
Dylan Alima was doing his very first parkrun while a group of enthusiastic visitors were doing their first parkruns at Gloucester including Grace Gadsby, Megan A, Rhys Miers and Matthew Lim – with ‘we love your parkrun’ being the post-run assessment.
Jackelyn Wilkinson was also doing her first parkrun in Gloucester – taking 292 parkruns to get here.
Personal best times were achieved by youngsters Josephine Banyer and the ever-smiling Roy McRae at one end of the age range, with Lyndon Wilkinson at the other end also getting a PB (on his first visit to Gloucester parkrun).
Other finishers had their own personal goals, with Don Richardson happy to finish in less than 40 minutes.
As usual, the event was delivered by a team of smiling volunteers.
Alison Bradley as timekeeper and Pat Burrows as scanner had swapped their roles from the week before.
Brad Moore had swapped his usual pickleball organising duties to hand out finish tokens.
Gloucester parkrun is at 8am every Saturday – so come along and join in the fun of a 5 kilometre walk or run around Gloucester District Park (it’s a free event). T
here will be additional parkruns on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day if you want to get some extra exercise during the festive season.
By Carolyn DAVIES
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