?? On this last parkrun of March 2024, a marvellous 958 VRs managed to attend 420 different parkrun events. 891 of us gained a finish token and we had over 67 wonderful volunteers. 228 Vegan Runners succeeded in setting a new Personal Best for 2024! ??
It’s so exciting to watch our new parkrun facebook community grow and flourish, photos of your adventures and achievements bring the group to life in such a positive and inspirational way. Congrats to La Rubina for first pre parkrun photo & to Linda Jesson for posting the first actual photo of herself repping our lovely club at parkrun! ???
Lots of lovely meetups took place of course – thank you to Fraser Murray for this week’s high energy photo from the Edinburgh (Camper) meetup!
The most popular meetups this week were held at:
23 Eastville parkrun
20 Moors Valley parkrun
16 Queen Elizabeth parkrun
15 Edinburgh parkrun
11 Irchester Country parkrun
10 Preston Park parkrun, Brighton
9 Southwark parkrun
7 Eastbourne parkrun
7 York parkrun
7 Burgess parkrun
7 Centre Vale parkrun
6 Colwick parkrun
6 Southampton parkrun
6 Worcester parkrun
6 Hastings parkrun
6 Swansea Bay parkrun
6 Worthing parkrun
5 Oxford parkrun
5 Rothwell parkrun
5 Eden Project parkrun
5 Ferry Meadows parkrun
5 Dulwich parkrun
5 Great Denham parkrun
5 Alvaston parkrun
5 Berkeley Green parkrun
5 Sandringham parkrun
There were also twenty-six parkruns with four VRs, forty-eight with a trio repping the green and black, one hundred and ten parkruns with two VRs and two hundred and ten VRs solo repping. Well done, everyone! ??
Vegan Runners participate in parkruns all over the world – here are the number of events per country with VRs in the results this week:
?? 5 Germany
?? 3 Australia
?? 2 Poland
?? 2 New Zealand
?? 2 Austria
?? 1 United States
?? 1 Sweden
?? 1 Norway
?? 1 Netherlands
?? 1 Japan
?? 1 Ireland
?? 1 Denmark
Congratulations to our top ten fastest men this week, who are:
?16:09 Jasper McDowell
?16:42 Philip Nind
?16:59 Elliot Collins New PB!
?17:18 Alastair Stables
?17:23 Andy Gardiner
?17:40 Daniel Borrett
?17:42 Bill Hill New PB!
?17:50 Dan Stent
?17:53 Tom Carpenter
?17:58 Jake Stephens
Amazing achievements also by this week’s top ten fastest women:
?18:51 Naomi Sutton New PB!
?20:00 Lesley Connors
?20:15 Fiona Newman New PB!
?20:32 Mary P Scott
?20:43 Laura Seaman New PB!
?21:01 Elly Maggs
?21:04 Clare Meraz
?21:07 Julie Oswald
?21:14 Catherine Charlton
?21:25 Kamile Stanelyte New PB!
Absolutely incredible times, with less than a minute between genders this week!
Talking of gender, these VRs came first in their gender position at their parkrun:
?16:42 Philip Nind
?17:18 Alastair Stables
?17:50 Dan Stent
?17:53 Tom Carpenter
?17:58 Jake Stephens
?20:00 Lesley Connors
?21:01 Elly Maggs
?21:14 Catherine Charlton
?22:10 Tracy Moroz
?22:42 Carla Brain
?22:44 Kira Rehfeld
?22:51 Geraldine Larham
?23:01 Jen Conway
Brilliant achievements, proving the power of plant protein for performance. ??
The average time for all Vegan Runners to complete their parkrun this week was an astounding 29:54 ???
Shoutouts to the lucky thirteen Vegan Runners who finished their parkrun in a multiple of fifty position:
?50 27:58 Lucy Swarbrick
?50 26:40 Stuart Morton
?50 22:42 Alan Spacagna
?100 24:25 Chrissie Buckledee
?100 26:15 Stephanie Hughes
?100 24:18 Jen Haywood
?100 30:27 Neil Kirsh
?150 29:56 Shireen Kassam
?150 24:44 Rob Petch
?200 33:57 Ruth Mountstevens
?350 36:26 H Matthew Howarth
?400 41:16 Jayne Eaton
?450 32:06 Tamsin Mockford
A simultaneously lucky and unlucky thirteen again landed directly on the noughty step! Castigations, Easter carrots and chastisements for:
??19:00 Matthew Rhodes
??20:00 Lesley Connors
??23:00 Jamie Kinghorn
??23:00 Peter Taylor
??24:00 Jamie Wieland
??25:00 Lee Tooey
??25:00 Alison Sanderson
??26:00 Andy Begent
??28:00 Sophie Higham
??28:00 Rebecca Nisbet
??31:00 Vanessa Buckler
??32:00 Julie Oxenforth
??45:00 Sara Leudar
And last but by no means least, let’s hear it for our repdigit reppers, gosh and goodness you’re the best. Bunnies and bouquets for:
?? 11 Alastair Penman
?? 11 Bill Hill
?? 11 Dave Colwell
?? 11 David Ainsley
?? 11 James Withams
?? 11 Keith Rochester
?? 11 Mark Revell-Wright
?? 11 Scott Bates
?? 11 Stephen Reeve
?? 22 Callum Harling
?? 22 Gregory Richards
?? 22 Rachel Burgess
?? 33 Debbie Kessell
?? 33 Nigel Howard
?? 33 Rob Werran
?? 44 Jennifer Whittle
?? 44 Matt Walker
?? 55 Angelina Farruggia
?? 55 Brian Saxby
?? 55 Jane Stubbington
?? 55 Kathryn Mcguinness
?? 55 Nadiah Jamaa
?? 66 Alice Wood
?? 66 Emily Curnick
?? 66 Hannah Ford
?? 66 Jacob Butler
?? 66 Matthew Sweed
?? 66 Steve Proudley
?? 66 Todd Haufek
?? 77 Charlotte Swope
?? 77 Daniel Perlaki
?? 77 Gareth Snaith
?? 77 Koby Crumpler
?? 77 Thomas Giles
?? 88 Jane Forbes
?? 99 Corrina Barton
?? 99 Kevin Boina M’Koubou Dupé
?? 111 Amy Withnall
?? 111 Jatin Shamji
?? 111 Judy Johnson
?? 222 Anna Duggal
?? 222 Jasmine Rawlinson
?? 222 Karen Louise Watson
?? 222 Roxane Pratt
?? 333 Alice Connor
?? 333 Catherine Midgley
?? 333 Katy Murrell
Well done everyone, great running and repping as always. During my parkrun on Saturday, I was overtaken by a lady around twenty years younger than me, who said, “I can’t be beaten by a vegan!”. I overtook her about ten minutes later replying, “Maybe you should change to a plant-based diet?” We ran together for a while, she told me that she was a vegan during her student days, but her father had chastised her and insisted that she included meat in her diet. She ran off, waving a cheery goodbye. Ten minutes later, I overtook her again and ended up beating her parkrun time by five minutes. Of course I waited for her at the end! We had a good chat and she told me she would give the plant-based diet another try. I personally dislike and actively avoid confrontation but find wearing my Vegan Runners top empowers me to have positive conversations in a non-confrontational way. And even on the weeks no-one comments, we are still actively promoting veganism just by wearing our Vegan Runners logo.
To conclude, here is an Easter treat! A BBC World Service feature on the rise of Vegan Runners at parkrun, reported by Shiroma Silva and aired today (31.03.24), heard by approximately 313 million listeners early this morning. Here’s a link to the report which starts at 14:33. Enjoy! ?????