The heavy overnight rain made way for what must have been ideal running conditions – given the 51 runners who managed to run personal bests this week at the Yeovil Montacute parkrun! This week there were 170 runners, of whom 38 were first timers and representatives of 22 different athletics clubs took part – of whom the 18 members of Yeovil Town RRC were the most numerous.
Regular runner Deb Glover commented after the run,”Montacute is now by far my favourite park run. Montacute has a more challenging run and nothing beats that hill at the end. Also I have got to say Montacute park run is a team event and everyone supports one another from the runners to the volunteers, it has such a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. You should all be really proud of what you have set up and achieved this year.”
There was a new Age Graded record this weekend – with Lesley Nesbitt’s time of 25m18 (whilst not a PB) enough for a age graded mark of 80.11% of the age group world record – well done!! The run was lucky to have the numbers of runners swelled by parkrun tourists from all over the country and they did really well – in fact the first three runners had all come from afar, with first placed Neil Martin of Overton Harriers & AC, who finished in 18m40, completing his 93rd parkrun with his first appearance at Montacute (he normally runs in Basingstoke), ahead of Joe Stuttard down from his Nottingham based Rushcliffe parkrun base to finish in second place in 18:41.
Third place was Ben Mahoney of Sheffield Running Club, crossing the line in 19m12 – he commented that our course is scenic but hilly! In addition, in 4th and 5th place were the first two members of the 5 Mitchells who travelled down from Harrogate to see their Auntie – Tom and Sam finishing in 19m57 and 20m29 respectively (Jack, Isaac and Seb Mitchell also finished!), ahead of the first of “our” local runners Jan den Hartog, who finished 6th in 20m37, just holding off the tattooist’s friend Rob Gundry who ran a second PB in two weeks, 20m47 this time!
There was a Personal Best too for Steve Wakeman, a storming time of 22m05 on his 32nd run at the Yeovil Montacute parkrun – we’ll be announcing the winners of the Annual Points competition at our Birthday run on 13th September and Steve is currently out in front with 2814, but with second placed Craig Purchase just 39 points behind. In the Ladies run Julia Graham-Maw of British Military Fitness, was first (39th overall) over the line in 23m55 on her first appearance, just holding off the challenge of Abby Graham-Maw of City of London Freemens School, was second (42nd overall) over the line in 24m26 – now that’s either mother and daughter or an extraordinary coincidence in names!! (on the same assumption that was Dad John Graham-Maw back down the field in 28m10 – they had come over from Norwich so the final Hill may have come as a bit of a shock!). Third lady on Saturday was local legend Rose Appleby (24m58).
Amongst the parkrun tourists to Montacute Barnet Healey was on his 202nd parkrun, most of which have been at “HQ” of Bushy Park, Helen Walden was on her way from Tilgate in Sussex to Cornwall and stopped en route and Nik Golding was down from Newbury in Berkshire. Jake Cooper and Timothy & Matthew Jacobs were also heading for Cornwall, taking in Montacute House on route to St Ives, Paul and Beverley Eagles came to us from Valentines parkrun in Ilford and Mark Atkins from Peterborough’s comment on our run was “brilliant”! Ian, Paula and Nick Chapman were over from Bromley as they were visiting relatives nearby and thought this was a “great rustic run”, Jacqui Howell from Hayes was way out of her comfort zone as she enjoyed her run.
In Steve and Julie Ball we had runners not only from a different place (Northampton) but also seemingly a different time as they interrupted battling for Parliament at the Siege of Sherborne Castle. Full results and a complete event history can be found on the Yeovil Montacute parkrun Results Page: www.parkrun.org.uk/yeovilmontacute/results/latestresults/
The Yeovil Montacute parkrun held its inaugural run on Saturday 7th September – so will be having its Birthday celebrations on the next Saturday after the anniversary, so, 13th September; after all, it will be properly 1 year old by then!! Please seewww.parkrun.org.uk/yeovilmontacute/news/ for further details nearer the day.
