18/08/2026
This week's event report was written for us by parkrun tourist Jennifer Hamilton. Thanks for volunteering Jennifer, glad to hear you enjoyed our parkrun and some good old Pontefract hospitality.
Run Report Pontefract parkrun
Event Number 719 - 15th August 2026
When travelling to parkruns across the country, few have been so enticing as Pontefract. The home of Haribo, the home of a quarter of the 'Fully Ponty' challenge and a lovely course nestled somewhere between a racecourse, a ski slope at Xscape and the M62 - all with the distant smell of Haribo in the background - I am a fan of a Pontefract Cake! There were plenty of other tourists at the event with people travelling from Hambleton - Selby, Dunfermline - Scotland, York, Halifax, Takeley, Essex, Whitley Bay, Poole- Dorset, Leeds, Harpenden, Mansfield, Nottingham and Whitley.
Pontefract parkrun is a lovely one lap (with two laps of the lake at the beginning and end) mixed terrain route that starts going round the racecourse on a downhill loop and finishes going back up it on the other side. There is plenty of free parking and the car park marshals did a sterling job of directing parkrun folk this week even with changes to the usual car park. The route is suitable for buggies and has plenty of places nearby either as a walk or a short drive away to grab your coffee and breakfast fix after. I broke rule four of the Pontefract parkrun non-negotiables and decided to take a tumble on a recovering ankle injury about two kilometres in and was just amazed at the friendliness and helpfulness of the people around me - thank you all - particularly to Jo who then walked the rest of the route with me.
This week 347 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 73 were first timers and 51 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 42 different clubs took part. The first finisher this week was Tom Davey with a truly incredible time of 17:01 and an age graded result of exactly 76%. The first female finisher was Treena Johnson with a satisfyingly similar time of 20:20 and an age graded result of 99.67%. Unsurprisingly - this was also the highest age-graded result of this week's parkrun - what an incredible feat and an enormous congratulations!
We know that without our pink high-vis heroes, our parkrun events could not go ahead so to them we are truly thankful. This week's merry band of 22 volunteers were;
Sheleen LAWLER • Andrew DONNELLY • Lesley JONES • Ian WILKS • Andy JACKSON • Merv DAVISON • Pam GREEN • Chris SMITH • Peter COLLIER • Chris COUPE • Varrie WARDROPE • Frank SHEARD • Jane WILLIAMS • Craig BRIGGS • Neal MAY • Andy HORNE • Jennifer HAMILTON • Anne BANNISTER • Ruby COUPE • Ann SOWDEN • Josie-Anne FREEMAN • Amy PEARCE
Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Pontefract parkrun Results Page.
Pontefract parkrun started on 7th May 2011. Since then 25,117 participants have completed 182,629 parkruns covering a total distance of 913,145 km, including 27,098 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,631 individuals have volunteered 12,932 times.
To sum up Pontefract parkrun in a few words - pretty perfect with an incredibly friendly, helpful and caring core team. Thank you!
