THE sun was shining and Easter visitors were in town – to make a bumper crowd of 144 finishers (plus a few more who opted out before the finish line) at Gloucester parkrun 202 on Easter Saturday.
The large crowd meant there was a steady stream of walkers and runners along the path in Gloucester District Park, next to the rapidly flowing Gloucester River.
The first male finisher was Harlon Taylor in a personal best time of 18.49. There were another 33 finishers who completed personal times, including the first female home – Ebony Taylor in a time of 24.02.
The event was the first ever parkrun for 16 finishers – some even registering on the day – welcome to parkrun! Another 18 were enjoying their first time at Gloucester parkrun including David Salmon from Canberra, who had already done 273 parkruns before deciding to visit Gloucester parkrun.
Local Don Richardson had reached his 100th milestone run, so quietly that he missed out on the Gloucester parkrun tradition of a cake to celebrate the milestone.
As usual there was a team of volunteers for this community event. Garry Lyford as scanner and Trudie Murray on finish tokens had both put up their hands to volunteer, even knowing it was likely to be a busy event. Rod Eckels was the steady hand of the timekeeper – regularly checking in with Trudie that they were in sync with the numbers. Pat Burrows was the tailwalker, guiding the group from behind, as well as picking up cones on the return loop. Elaine Murray jumped in after completing her run to help sort out the tokens, which were quickly piling up after being scanned.
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).
By Carolyn DAVIES
