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This week’s stories from across parkrun USA include birthdays, milestones, volunteer superheroes … and alligators.
At Livonia parkrun the entire field waited to cheer Jim Ingles, their first ever male finisher in the 80+ age-category.
Crissy Field parkrun #157 was also their 3rd birthday. So the finish tokens were not the only stripy things for finishers to look forward to.
At College Park parkrun they had a special sendoff event for the team of CP regulars that is about to start nearby Kensington parkrun.
How did the Kensington team mark the occasion? By providing the Run Director and half of the volunteers. And they can also take the blame for the mild weather that brought out 139 parkrunners to wish them luck. Weekly trial runs start Feb 3rd, official launch is March 24th.
Pre-run at College Park parkrun: “Hey Nina, if you finish 50th today, you’ll be the 5,000th finisher at College Park parkrun.”
She did it! By accident.
It is fitting for Nina to be the one to reach this milestone for the event. She is part of the group that started College Park parkrun from scratch, running in many of the 33 trial events before the official launch.
Tim Keer, a regular at Livonia parkrun, got up at “silly o’clock” to make the 3-hour drive from Detroit to Mansfield OH parkrun, to celebrate his 1st parkrunniversary.
The results show that he also got his first ever first finish. What they don’t show is how it happened.
“After about a mile, Jon asked if I had ever finished first at a parkrun. I told him I had not. “Today, you will”.
“As we approached the finish, Jon stopped and waved me through. So I stopped too, refusing to cross the line. We had a 20-second stand-off, much to the amusement of the volunteers. But then the third runner appeared, and I thought… this could get complicated. So I crossed the line.”
When your friend finishes Crissy Field parkrun, you want to capture it for posterity.
At Renton parkrun, Kyle and Lydia Carrick achieved a notable double. Both set overall course records on the same day.
Lisa and Naomi pushed to the finish, literally, at Crissy Field parkrun.
After some cancellations due to unsafe conditions, it was a great morning to be back running or walking with friends at Deep Run parkrun in Richmond, VA.
A good crowd enjoyed running shortly after sunrise at Durham, NC parkrun.
In the middle of Washington DC, the crew at Roosevelt Island parkrun sent parkrun greetings to friends at Moberly parkrun in a small town in Missouri.
“This will sound strange coming from as introverted a person as I am, but I enjoy the social aspect of parkrun. It’s nice to have people recognize you, call you by name, and let you know that they expect to see you next week. That keeps me coming back week after week.”
Congrats to Ed Anderson, parkrunner of the Month at Eagan parkrun, where he is a regular runner and volunteer.
Kirsty and her son Hugh had you covered at the turnaround this week at Fletcher’s Cove parkrun.
At Leakin Park parkrun Run Director Genevieve Hornik handled the record crowd with ease. Luckily, she had Hayagreev on hand to offer words of advice.
You’ll sometimes hear us describe parkrun volunteers as “hi-viz heroes”. So when they reach the 25-time volunteering milestone, they must be hi-viz superheroes. Time for a fluorescent cape, obviously.
Congratulations to Dominic at Roosevelt Island parkrun. A free purple volunteer milestone shirt will be on its way to you in the not-too-distant future.
Just a couple of weeks to go before the first trial parkruns at the first US parkrun in the Mountain Time Zone. So they were starting to test out the gear at South Boulder Creek parkrun. Trial events Feb 10 and 17. Official launch on Feb 24th.
Meanwhile, in Boston they’re loving the weekly trial parkruns at Jamaica Pond, and can’t wait to get the event launched officially.
Teams are working on creating free, weekly parkrun events in locations across the country.
Different venues present different challenges.
If you would like to have a parkrun in your community, and would like to be part of a team that makes it happen, drop us a line. usa@parkrun.com.
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With another circle around the sun complete we are this week celebrating the first birthday of Renton parkrun. Renton, a town on the south side of Seattle, was the first parkrun event in the Pacific Northwest, but the warm community that quickly formed already inspired a second parkrun in nearby Des Moines, with more on…
