After a week of turmoil and a late bid by Liz Truss to be Race Director, Brian Jones clung on to power after a midnight meeting with the Kingsbury Park Run 0900 Committee. In a tense meeting Steven Gerard put himself forward as Funnel Manager. At first glance his credentials looked impressive but Lil Souter saw through the façade which quickly crumbled under close scrutiny. With funnel management remaining safely in the hands of Ben Lucas, Wendy Bowyer drew up a hastily prepared statement distancing KWP Parkrun from the raging turmoil that follows in the wake of Truss and Gerard. Steve Perry was on the course through the night with his trundle wheel, 30cm shatterproof ruler and strong yard stride - the 3 methods of distance measurement accepted by the Independent Dept of Inaccurate Ordinance Telemetry. Anxious to avoid an Eilish McColgan, Steve has painstakingly ensured a bang on collection of 5000 individual metres for your course enjoyment.
Disclaimer: KWP Parkrun are unable to accept any liability for the vagaries of GPS connection, Strava, Run Keeper, Garmin, Mapmyrun, Fitbit, forgetting to un-pause, unable to find signal, or any other course measurement system issue.
Course ready, volunteer slots filled, placards polished, rain disappeared and the sun came out to burn away the lake mists in time for the geese to give us a pre race fly over and park themselves in the water on the back straight.
The run itself? Charlie Smith blew away the competition to lead from the start and his 18:17 finish enough to stay ahead of hard chasing Thomas and Sam. Unless my eyes were deceiving me, whilst Meg Griffiths has taken the spoils as fastest woman today, there is a VAR review in progress to clarify if 'unknown' finisher 33 who came in around the 23:20 mark, was in fact the first woman over the line? Problem is, of course, if you haven't got your barcode you can't share the spoils. That means Rachel and Jo are confirmed as 2nd and 3rd female finishers.
Out of today's 213 runners 32 were new to KWP, 1 dipped their toe in the world of Parkrun for the very first time. Only 1 unknown finisher and 11 of you struck PB Gold. Today's average age was 44. 27 clubs were represented and 29 volunteers made it possible for you to get a free timed run this morning.
I see KWP and other local parkruns increasingly having to appeal for volunteers to ensure the runs can go ahead. This shouldn't be the case. If you enjoy running parkrun, which judging by the smiles and Big Thumbs on show today you do, consider volunteering.
Personally, it was a joy to cheer you all through and I hope white t shirt lad got his breath back, gall bladder lady survived another week and Rachel twisty ankle has not suffered anything too serious (consider walking it in next time!).
I tip my cap to Emma and David who's determination saw them get it done just ahead of Amanda and Noel who ensured everyone got round safely and the milometer ticked up to 395,186.45121193 exactly for miles covered at KWP since its inception on 20th July 2013.
You're all awesome and (apart from Neil) gorgeous too.
Big Thumbs
Sid
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