14 MARCH
There was a collection of all shades of green shirts, shorts and socks for the Gloucester parkrun last Saturday – an early St Patrick’s Day perhaps?
No – the choice of colour was to celebrate Gloucester’s 250th parkrun (with green being the parkrun’s 250 milestone colour).
People had obviously trawled through their cupboards to find something green, with some shirts telling a story about their owner’s past running events or long forgotten jobs.
The 62 finishers included visitors from Maitland and Sydney, joining a throng of locals. Some had been at the very first Gloucester parkrun including Di Mansfield, and Elaine, Bill and Chris Murray – while Steve Robinson was marking his 150th run at Gloucester.
The cooler conditions saw jumpers being worn for the first time in a while (although quickly discarded as people warmed up) and a number of personal best times being set. It was on for the young and those with more years/mileage in their legs – with personal best times by Zara Turner, Eli Soupidis, Josh Westley (must have been his green socks), Dallas Hennessey, Phoebe Thomas, Donna Sweeney, Katrina Morris and Betty Bherens.
Some used incentives for a bit of fun – whether it was the toys promised to one youngster if she achieved a PB (which she did) or the personal goal of passing the person just ahead of you as the finish flags came into sight.
The first male finisher was visitor Guy Higgins (who is close to reaching his own 250th milestone), with Darcy Thomas almost catching him on the home stretch. The first two female finishers were Jamie Sutton and Charlotte Marsden – running in sync around the course.
As usual, the event was delivered by a band of volunteers (also dressed in green), with Trudie Murray as the experienced timekeeper and husband Chris as scanner. Rod Eckels was handing out finish tokens after helping to set up the event earlier. Jenny Lindsay was again in the role of tailwalker, guiding the group from behind and getting some extra strength exercises in by carrying home the large cones used for marking the course. Visitor Michelle Higgins took some great photos to capture the occasion, as she made her way around the course.
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
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