💚🖤 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! 🖤🐄🐑🐤💚