Stretford parkrun

Well..... That was exciting! Last night, Dame Kelly Holmes Official popped a message on her socials - need a flat parkrun in Manchester - where am I heading....? Lots of you suggested Stretford parkrun especially as we start and finish on the track. I think 4 parkruns sat waiting this morning - would it be us? And at 8:40am, Kelly comes walking into the stadium - yay!

We've had some amazing events at Stretford over the last 11 years, but today was one of the best. The excitement on everyone's faces, and almost noone caring about their own run.

I think we can all say the passion we saw this morning sums up what the community side of parkrun UK is all about. Every volunteer, every runner and walker excited to be a part. And our huge thanks to Kelly for staying for 40 mins chatting to everyone, loads of photos, what a superstar. We'll never forget today. Thank you.

And if anyone's interested, 523 of you ran or walked today, 82 first timers of which 20 of you did your first ever parkrun. I'm sorry, we don't have a famous Olympian every week. 52 of you got PBs despite the heat.
Plus let's not forget our 35 volunteers putting on the event, including Bernard who was by the scout hut marshalling, and Anthony doing token sorting completing their 50th volunteer stints - thank you both.

Hope you all had the best morning, good luck if any of you are racing Wilmslow 10k tomorrow, and have fabulous weekends.

Few volunteers still required for Saturday! Roger and Joe are your Run Directors this week, but still need some helpers. We need :

1 x Finish tokens support
1 x Number checker
2 - 3 x Barcode scanners
1 marshall
People to sort tokens after your run

If you can help, Claire would love to hear from you at [email protected] giving your parkrun number and role you want to do.

Many thanks

Happy Monday Stretfans! Did you join us on Saturday for event #460? Here's our guest report sent in by Fiona, visiting us from Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Wow, this was certainly one of the biggest runs I have done, excepting Bushy Park. I had travelled the day before from mid Wales and stayed locally, but was still a couple of miles from Longford Park, so had a slow jog to warm up. Thankfully the weather was cooler and cloudier which made for more pleasant running conditions and the oppressive humidity had gone too. The park was soon filling up but I was by no means the person who had travelled the furthest as there were visitors from Portugal. The first timer’s briefing was given by Alex Marczak who succinctly explained the course. Once around the running track and then out into the park for 2 laps before finishing with a final circuit of the track to the finish. I was one of the 89 participants visiting for the first time, of which 22 were running their inaugural parkrun event. A warm welcome to them and the parkrun community.

We were set off by James Moles, the RD for the day. The start was staggered which although it was briefly slow, as the faster runners sped off we were left with more room. The only other pinch point was the switch back out in the park. The path was split into two halves but due to the volume of participants going in both directions, this meant there was little opportunity for overtaking. No course records were broken but the first male to finish was Ismail Hassan in 15.25; the first female was Tess Pearce in 19.40 and the best age grade percentage was an impressive 87.19% by Peter Wood running in the VM 65-69 category. There were 82 PBs so well done to them and everyone else who ran, jogged or walked today. Congratulations to Gail M, Olivia F, Daniel Y and Clare L for achieving their 100th run and to Andrew M, Fred D, Kirsty B, Cait O R, Liz O, James S, Tom K, Joshua M and Chloe J for their 25th.

Despite the huge number - 627, the event ran smoothly thanks to the 35 volunteers who ensured that today’s event went off without a glitch. Without them parkrun simply would not happen. Dave Pickering was celebrating his 25th volunteer and the person with the most volunteer credits today was Paul Rushby with 320. As we say in Wales, diolch yn fawr iawn i pawb, thanks very much to everybody.

Fiona, a Welsh tourist 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

🚨 A FEW MORE VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED THIS SATURDAY 🚨
Hi Stretfans, it's only 2 more sleeps till parkrun but we are still unfortunately needing a few more volunteers in order to go ahead. We need:
🎟️ Someone on our token team
🦺 One more marshal out in the park
🚗 Someone to help marshal the car park as people arrive - you can still run after doing this.

We also need some help to sort the tokens out to be ready for next week, but we need to fill the other roles as a priority, without them we cannot go ahead.

If you can help, please email [email protected] with your barcode number. Thanks in advance!

Kane you help us out on Saturday? We're still looking for a few superstar volunteers to fill up the rest of the roster, mainly:
🎟️ Tokens team
⏱️ Another timekeeper
🦺 A couple more marshals
🚧 A couple more people for our finish funnel team
📲 Another barcode scanner
If you can help us put please email [email protected] with your barcode number. See you Saturday!

Happy Friday Stretfans! Just a quick safety notice about tomorrow - as no doubt you've noticed this week it's been very hot. While it's going to cool slightly tomorrow it's still forecast to be over 20°C by 8am so it'll be a hot one. Please:
🌞 Prepare appropriately and bring water for after. The trackside cafe will be open and serving refreshments
🌞 If you are thinking of bring your dog along please take into account the paths will be hot and may be painful for them
🌞 Children are especially vulnerable in the heat - please take extra steps to keep them safe if they will be accompanying you
🌞 Look after yourself - you'll know your own ability but please don't push for a PB! We'll give you free entry to next week's parkrun to have another go 😉
🌞 Say a massive thank you to all our fab volunteers - they are withstanding the heat so that you can take part. The ultimate way to give thanks is to volunteer yourself and allow them to participate - why not sign up for next Saturday now? Email us at [email protected]

See you all tomorrow!

Happy Wednesday Stretfans! We're on the search for some superstar volunteers to help us put on event #459 this Saturday.

🌳 If you've already emailed in to volunteer - you're fantastic!

🌳 If you've been thinking about emailing in - now's the time!

🌳 If you've ever been wondering how great volunteering is - believe us it's SUPER great. Why not email in right now and find out for yourself this Saturday?

Every Stretford parkrun (as well as the 1,000,000+ parkruns that have ever been) is run entirely by volunteers - we only need around 35 people out of our (on average) 700+ participants but please don't scroll past assuming someone else will do it - we've really been struggling the last few weeks. By making sure we can go ahead, every volunteer makes a huge benefit to hundreds of people.

Have a good rest of the week, stay safe in the heat and we'll see you Saturday!

Volunteer spots left to fill for Saturday :
We still need a few people for Saturday :
1st times welcome (you need to know our course well, but can then run).
2-3 marshalls.
Finish token giver out person
People to help resort tokens after your runs

Plus we expect to be busy again this week with Alex park and Heaton park cancelled, so any other offers of help gratefully received such as funnel team and barcode scanners.

If you're free, Claire would love to hear from you at [email protected]. Please include your parkrun ID when you get in touch.

Many thanks

It's rare we get a participant writing a run report, but this week, Paul Asare-Archer has written his experience at Stretford. For info, 911 participants yesterday, our 3rd highest number. Well done 1 and all.

Introduction
I loved Stretford Parkrun today. Thank you! Today’s Stretford parkrun carried a
special personal story — a return to Manchester for the first time in 30 years (having studied here in my younger days!), wrapped around a father–daughter trip to see The Weekend live in concert.

It was a great trip and I arrived at Longford Park this morning after quite a late night at the Etihad! Today was buzzing in classic Stretford fashion. I literally have never seen so many people doing pre parkrun laps in all my life, and in fact at one point I feared that parkruns must start early in Manchester!

Volunteers were in their highvis, runners warming up on the paths, and the track
looked sharp under a bright morning sky. After a superb first timer briefing, we set
off. It was such good fun. Fast, friendly and perfect weather!

A Return Three Decades in the Making
Stretford delivered, for sure. A flat course with a mix of tarmac, park paths, and the
iconic track finish. I loved it. I was also pulled along at the end by a lovely stranger
who kept me going when I was flagging at the end.
Well done to all 911 finishers today. For 21 runners it was their first ever Parkrun. For 174 runners it was their first ever Stretford run. Well done to Steve Rankin for
romping home in a time of 16:26. Congrats also to Rachel Brown for being the first
female.
Finally thank you to the 43 volunteers who made the event happen today. As the
Run Director said, without volunteers parkrun cannot take place so I would
recommend the experience.
It was great to be in Manchester after such a long time. The city has transformed
almost beyond recognition — new skyline, new neighbourhoods – but still the same
warmth. I’m now back home in London after a long drive but arrive home after a
great trip and with some lifelong memories.
Thank you Manchester. You never let me down.

Parkruns have grown enormously in the last 3 years, and participants eagerly await events being on each week and safely. But events don't have a separate pool of people who only volunteer. Our events happen thanks to those running and walking also offering to volunteer.

Our rota filled up really fast this week except for course set up. Without these roles being filled, we can't go ahead. Same goes for Marshalls, timekeepers scanners, tailwalker and so on.

Over the next 10 weeks, Alexandra, Heaton, South Manchester and Wythenshawe all have cancellations as their venues get hired out by the council. That means the rest of us get even busier. We really need your help to make sure we're not panicking on Fridays on whether we also need to cancel.

Most volunteer roles do require you to give up your run that day, we do have vital roles such as set up, tailwalker and token sorting where you can run and volunteer.

Alex park and Heaton park are BOTH cancelled on the 20th June, everyone else will be busy, so if you can help, Claire's eagerly awaiting you to message her. Email [email protected] with your parkrun id and the role you'd like to do. You don't have to have volunteered before, the Run director will give you full instructions.

Look forward to hearing from you.