Newark Parkrun attracts 225 on New Years Eve
Radio Newark's very own Vicky Cozens created a new personal best time as she returned to the Newark Parkrun.
It was hard to know how many runners would turn up for event 185 on New Year’s Eve. Would attendance be low due to other celebrations taking place, or would it be high, with people starting their New Year’s resolutions a day early? Clearly parkrun is at the top of people’s list of December 31st priorities, as 225 runners came out to complete the course (not including the numerous children in buggies and dogs that did their 3 laps), and there were a lot of non-running families and friends supporting too. We welcomed several first-timers to the parkrun family, and a number of tourists, including runners from Forest Rec, Guildford, Cambridge, Barnsley, Whitley Bay and more! Thank you all for coming – we hope you liked our event!
For four of our runners, the New Year’s Eve outing proved to be particularly successful. Naomi Collier, running in the SW20-24 age smashed the women’s overall course record (which she had set herself!), completing the course in an incredible time of 18.30, and coming third overall. Meanwhile Joseph Monk was not far behind and set a new JM10 course record of 20.57, again breaking a record that he had held previously. In the VM40-44 age group, Jan Bailey set a new course record of 17.55, and in the VM80-84 age group, Neil Hamilton lowered the course record to 35.18. Whether these course records were fuelled by Christmas pudding, mince pies or some other festive treats, we don’t know, but well done to Naomi, Joseph, Jan and Neil for their amazing runs today. In total, 42 people ran a PB time today; well done to you all!
Jan Bailey (17.55) was first over the line, closely followed by Tom Marshall in 18.02 – this was a PB for Tom, although not quite the time he wanted. Naomi Collier was third to finish (18.30). Second woman was Laura Bates in 21.14, followed by Holly Haywood in 21.56.