💚🖤 There was plenty to celebrate this Mothers’ Day weekend with incredible attendance numbers – we’ll soon hit that thousand mark! We had 919 VRs attending 371 different parkrun events. 855 were awarded a finish token and we had over 64 wonderful volunteers. 🖤💚  

Here’s a break-down of the number of parkrun locations outside the UK with VRs in the results: 

🇩🇪   5 Germany
🇿🇦   4 South Africa
🇦🇹   4 Australia
🇳🇱   2 Netherlands
🇯🇵   2 Japan
🇺🇸  1 United States
🇸🇪   1 Sweden
🇸🇬   1 Singapore
🇮🇪   1 Ireland
🇩🇰   1 Denmark  

Another incredible feature of this week is the number of meetups which took place – thank you to Darren Comeau for this week’s wonderful photo from the Kent monthly meetup at Sittingbourne, where fourteen lovely VRs gathered. Big kudos to our regional reps who are no doubt responsible for organising all these fun and fabulous rendezvous. The biggest meetups were held at:  

24 Chippenham parkrun 
18 Swaffham parkrun 
16 Huddersfield parkrun
13 Portsmouth Lakeside parkrun 
12 Colwick parkrun 
10 Wyre Forest parkrun
10 Alexandra parkrun, Moss Side 
9 Eastville parkrun
9 Great Denham parkrun 
8 Southsea parkrun
8 Swansea Bay parkrun
8 Centre Vale parkrun
7 Hastings parkrun
7 Alvaston parkrun 
6 Hull parkrun
6 Eastbourne parkrun
6 Trelissick parkrun
6 St Albans parkrun
6 Arrow Valley parkrun
6 Preston Park parkrun, Brighton
6 Clumber Park parkrun
6 Exeter Riverside parkrun
6 Folkestone parkrun
6 Lee-on-the-Solent parkrun
6 Worthing parkrun  

We also had groups of five VRs repping at eleven locations, groups of four at twenty-five parkruns, trios of VRs at thirty-five parkruns and duos at eighty-two events. 192 of you solo-repped 🌱.  

Phenomenal times from our fastest runners this week. Medals and applause for our top ten fastest ladies:
🥇19:20 Naomi Sutton
🥇19:43 Catherine Allen
🥇20:09 Clare Meraz
🥇20:18 Fiona Newman
🥇20:25 Lesley Connors
🥇20:43 Mary P Scott
🥇21:09 Jenny McNamara
🥇21:18 Emma Eldridge
🥇21:26 Lin Lascelles
🥇21:48 Annie Hamilton  

And our top ten fastest men:
🥇16:49 Philip Nind
🥇17:32 Jake Stephens
🥇17:36 Dan Stent
🥇17:49 Matt Edmonds
🥇17:55 Carl Whittaker
🥇17:59 Michael Slack
🥇18:13 Matthew Du Cros
🥇18:16 Alastair Stables
🥇18:27 Alex Robertson
🥇18:30 Nehal Lavey-Khan  

Incredible! 🏃🎊  

Nineteen VRs came first in their gender position at their parkrun, felicitations and laudations to:
🏆17:49 Matt Edmonds
🏆17:55 Carl Whittaker
🏆18:27 Alex Robertson
🏆18:34 Bill Hill
🏆19:05 Andrew Millis
🏆19:06 Geoffrey Gregory
🏆19:20 Naomi Sutton
🏆19:43 Catherine Allen
🏆20:03 Khan Nothnagel
🏆20:09 Clare Meraz
🏆20:25 Lesley Connors
🏆21:45 Tom Seller
🏆21:59 Sarah Laws
🏆22:01 Paula Blackledge
🏆23:10 Georgie Ripper
🏆23:34 Julie Oswald
🏆23:36 Jasmine Green
🏆23:39 Agata Chelchowska
🏆24:42 Nina Nickerson  

The average time for all Vegan Runners to complete their parkrun course on this second event of March was an incredible 30:20 🥦🏃195 of us gained a new Personal Best for 2024. 

Shoutouts to these Vegan Runners who finished their parkrun in a multiple of fifty position:
📣50 31:38 Simon Tucker
📣50 23:23 Benjamin Smith
📣100 24:44 Margaret Pritchard
📣100 28:44 Rebecca Sutcliffe
📣100 27:53 Abi Appleby
📣100 34:07 Arvo Stephens-Mikesch
📣100 25:08 Adrian Pope
📣150 35:16 Emma Hunt
📣150 35:57 Ian Thurston
📣250 34:02 Beks Morley
📣350 33:42 Melanie Parry
📣400 30:48 Louise Hey
📣400 36:31 Sophie White
📣400 46:29 Stephen Sellers  

Fourteen VRs landed on the noughty step this week, castigations and time out for this week’s heroes of the zeros:
😈19:00 James Taylor
😈22:00 Gary Godden
😈25:00 Alison Gillies
😈25:00 Callum Harling
😈26:00 Darren Phillips
😈27:00 Steven Quinn
😈27:00 Maria Pali
😈27:00 Abigail Jordan
😈28:00 Estelle Davis
😈39:00 Jennifer Taylor
😈44:00 Colin Smithson
😈49:00 Vicky Sullivan
😈54:00 Alex Downham
😈71:00 Rebecca Kendrick  

And to round up this week’s incredible report let’s finish with a special mention for our forty-eight repdigit reppers. Magic and salads for:
🪄🥗11 Benedict O’Connell
🪄🥗11 Gavin Oakley
🪄🥗11 Jack Gaughan
🪄🥗11 Jamie Heywood
🪄🥗11 Mike Harper
🪄🥗22 Andy Brinkworth
🪄🥗22 Brad Scarborough
🪄🥗22 Dan Coughlan
🪄🥗22 Rachel Marsh
🪄🥗22 Steve Proudley
🪄🥗33 Carl Rabey
🪄🥗33 Colin Armstrong
🪄🥗33 Jasmine Green
🪄🥗33 Peter Wilkin
🪄🥗33 Stuart Chalmers
🪄🥗44 Greg Turner
🪄🥗44 Nial Bullett
🪄🥗55 Buff Forbes Stone
🪄🥗55 Kay Cottrell
🪄🥗55 Matthew Newton
🪄🥗55 Neil Kirsh
🪄🥗55 Nigel Barnes
🪄🥗66 Charles Dean-Orange
🪄🥗66 Darren Chatfield
🪄🥗66 Jiri Kempny
🪄🥗66 Krystal Paterson-Walker
🪄🥗66 Meryl Shirtcliffe
🪄🥗66 Nadiah Jamaa
🪄🥗66 Simon English
🪄🥗77 Heather Wilson
🪄🥗77 Matthew Fordham
🪄🥗77 Nicola Harrison
🪄🥗88 Helen Treadgold
🪄🥗88 Sharon Weinstein
🪄🥗88 Stephen Smith
🪄🥗88 Tony Hardy
🪄🥗99 Bex Jones
🪄🥗99 Michael Stewart
🪄🥗99 Russell Walker
🪄🥗99 Steve Gyles
🪄🥗111 Emily Bruchez
🪄🥗111 Ilze Fridrihsone
🪄🥗111 Jess Hall
🪄🥗111 Katy Wilson
🪄🥗111 Kris Parkinson
🪄🥗111 Patrick Morrello
🪄🥗111 Vicky Sullivan
🪄🥗222 Keri Jackson  

What an incredible week. At a time when Spring is springing and many religions are observing a time of restraint, it’s good to remember we are vegan because we are compassionate human beings capable of exercising restraint in the place of cruelty at all times of the year. To all animals, including humans. Enjoy planning your meetups for next week and I hope to meet many of you at Gunnersbury parkrun on the 23rd March. Happy running and repping! 🖤🐄🐑🐤💚