💚🖤💦 Once again Vegan Runners faced incredibly difficult conditions for the most part with rain lashing down heavily across the UK. 641 VRs still managed to attend 306 different events, 575 completed the predominantly waterlogged 5 km courses and over 66 VRs supported parkrun by volunteering. Many meetups were scuppered by last minute cancellations but 396 of you repped with VR company this week, the largest meetups occurring at:

19 Brierley Forest parkrun
17 Newbury parkrun
11 Blaise Castle parkrun
7 Woodbank parkrun
5 Albert parkrun, Middlesbrough
5 Hull parkrun
5 Ally Pally parkrun
5 Margate parkrun
5 Preston Park parkrun, Brighton
5 Exeter Riverside parkrun
5 Lee-on-the-Solent parkrun
5 Oaklands parkrun
5 Five Arches parkrun

There were also nineteen groups of four, thirty-one trios, sixty-four double acts and 179 solo reppers. Credit to Holly McCain for this week’s wonderfully wet woodland photo from the Brierley Forest parkrun meetup featuring a vegan elf spreading a bit of elf and ‘appiness🧝

The average time for all VRs to complete their soggy parkrun this week was again just slightly shy of a sub30 at 30:05! SO close.

Nineteen VRs finished first in their gender position this week, all hail these fantastically fast runners:

🏆 17:07 Harry Pannell
🏆 17:31 Philip Nind
🏆 18:13 Tom Carpenter
🏆 18:40 Daniel Borrett
🏆 18:45 Jake Stephens
🏆 19:11 James Withams
🏆 19:14 Jamie Kinghorn
🏆 19:20 Matthew Rhodes
🏆 19:24 Jon Turtle
🏆 19:43 Andrew Millis
🏆 21:03 Mimi Connolly
🏆 21:55 Catherine Charlton
🏆 22:01 Mary P Scott
🏆 23:21 Hester Hill
🏆 23:43 Lin Lascelles
🏆 23:57 Coral Putman
🏆 24:47 Dawn Williams
🏆 26:23 Susan Waller-Toyne
🏆 28:14 Andi Stacey

Our top five fastest ladies this week were:

🏅20:14 Lesley Connors
🏅21:03 Mimi Connolly
🏅21:12 Katie Louise Wright
🏅21:55 Catherine Charlton
🏅22:01 Mary P Scott

And our top five fastest men:

🏅 17:07 Harry Pannell (one second off his PB!)
🏅 17:25 Gareth Pritchard
🏅 17:27 Geoffrey Gregory
🏅 17:31 Philip Nind
🏅 18:01 Ben Wickham

Excellent running in incredibly inclement conditions 🥦🏃

Brilliant results in the age grading category from Vegan Runners this week, smashing it as we had an outstandingly impressive nine VRs achieving the top age graded performance at their event this week; kudos and prestige to:

🕺 84.28% Andrew Millis
🕺 80.04% Geoffrey Gregory
🕺 79.55% Lin Lascelles
🕺 77.89% Judy Johnson
🕺 76.69% Jamie Kinghorn
🕺 74.88% Philip Nind
🕺 73.83% Tom Carpenter
🕺 73.66% Daniel Borrett
🕺 70.50% Susan Waller-Toyne

And now… for the first time ever, I am proud to announce that I have finally been able to generate a list of Vegan Runners who achieved their Personal Best of 2023 this week! Thank you of course to our amazingly talented magician statistician Gary Sherin who taught me The Way to achieve this. So here we go, let’s congratulate and celebrate fantastic achievements for these VRs who smashed out their 2023 PB in the driving rain! (N.B. these are 1st PBs of 2023 whilst registered as a Vegan Runner with parkrun). Well done to:

🏆🥇28:50 Simon Rose
🏆🥇46:10 Kathy Shaw
🏆🥇32:21 Paresh Patel
🏆🥇38:57 Rebecca Ward
🏆🥇24:41 Sam Lappage
🏆🥇21:50 Joe Burn
🏆🥇22:04 Jeremy Braithwait
🏆🥇36:34 Claire Robinson
🏆🥇33:56 James Anderson
🏆🥇36:12 Stephen Smith
🏆🥇29:20 Alix Wood
🏆🥇18:33 Neil Sexton
🏆🥇30:04 David Clarkson
🏆🥇23:36 Chantelle Cornett
🏆🥇18:21 James Green
🏆🥇24:10 Jamie Collins
🏆🥇37:19 Debbie Gee
🏆🥇22:54 Christopher Lait
🏆🥇28:15 Mollie-May Harrod-Green
🏆🥇22:50 Harvey Williams
🏆🥇28:48 Gina Dearing
🏆🥇27:52 Jon Hall
🏆🥇28:50 Jac Prigmore
🏆🥇24:26 Ieva Jasmontaite
🏆🥇26:04 Layla Whitaker
🏆🥇26:55 David Rudland
🏆🥇24:26 Richard Passe

It’s highly possible that I’ve made errors here so apologies in advance if I’ve made any mistakes.

Marvelous milestones were achieved this week by:

🎊 50 Thomas Preece
🎊 250 Jemma Gibson

A reminder that I can only see milestones by Vegan Runners who have run at more than fifty different parkrun locations.

VRs who earned themselves a barcode with a multiple of 50 get a shoutout of course, Christmas biscuits for:

🍪50 Mo Warrillow
🍪50 Katy Errock
🍪50 Heath Harvey-List
🍪50 David Rudland
🍪100 Sue House
🍪150 Emma Davids
🍪150 Sally Smith
🍪200 Han Whiteoak
🍪200 Jenny Fernandez
🍪250 Rosalie Hoskins
🍪300 Clare Pashby
🍪300 Rosie Northcott

Only four VRs landed on the noughty step this week – most of us are clearly trying to avoid upsetting Santa in the run-up to Christmas!

😈 25:00 Kellie Clark
😈 33:00 Joanne Kitchener
😈 34:00 Ruth Stockley
😈 56:00 Sarah Horrigan-Fullard

Rounding up this week’s water-logged report we have our randomly recognised repdigit reppers, who this week earn themselves a raindrop, let’s hear it for:

💧11 David Murray
💧11 Gavin Oakley
💧11 Joseph Delahunty
💧11 Neil Timms
💧22 Andrew Aldridge
💧22 Annabel Sykes
💧22 Ellenor Millican
💧22 Jenny Katsoni
💧22 Katie Louise Wright
💧22 Phil Davies
💧22 Robert Skedgell
💧22 Sarah Butler
💧22 Sebby Travers
💧33 Andy Begent
💧33 Emma Carpenter
💧44 H Matthew Howarth
💧44 Matthew Shepherd
💧44 Mike Rogers
💧44 Mirek Salmon
💧44 Sheldon Kilroe
💧55 Maya De Thabrew-Hutton
💧55 Michael Drake
💧55 Sarah Benn
💧66 Angelina Farruggia
💧66 Barnaby Norman
💧77 Anthony Holder
💧88 Jim McAlwane
💧88 John Pellegrini
💧99 Angie Ridge
💧99 Becki Clark
💧99 Gareth Lemon
💧99 Gerard Mucci
💧111 Katrina Harling
💧222 Helen Skilton

Well done everyone, great running and great repping in the pouring rain. We have just four more parkruns this year including the extra event on Christmas Day. Many people will be looking to start the New Year with a new commitment to better themselves and what better way to start 2024 than by going vegan. Let’s keep repping! Have a great week. 💚🖤