This morning was week 32 of Newcastle parkrun and we had a record turn out of 113 parkrunners. As Event Director for Newcastle parkrun I am always up and about early on a Saturday to ensure that everything is organised and set to go for the start of the run at 9am.
Today I arrived at the park for 8:20am with all the Km signs and other parkrun kit, and made sure the volunteers were happy with their responsibilities which had been assigned earlier in the week. I did the pre-run briefing talk over the megaphone which involves thanking the volunteers and parkrun sponsors (Nike, Lucozade, Sweatshop, London Marathon), explaining the run route, and making runners aware of any hazards on the course. At 9am the runners are off and I head over to the finish area to wait for the first finishers to come across the line. parkrun is ideal for everybody and we attract a range of runners from those who are really competitive and come over the line in around 16 minutes, through the steady runners and joggers, to those runners who are just starting out and prefer to alternate walking with running for the 5km course.
Today my friend Bex came along and ran Newcastle parkrun for the very first time. She got a time of 23:12 which is really excellent, and something to be proud of. She brought along her boyfriend Matt and baby Finlay to watch and cheer her on. Its great seeing the range of people that parkrun attracts, and seeing everybody enjoy soaking up the atmosphere is really uplifting.
BBC Look North are running a feature on Newcastle parkrun during next week, and I was interviewed for it this morning. The feature will be part of a TV news mini series that looks at how to improve fitness in the build up to the Great North Run. Its excellent to be able to get some media attention for Newcastle parkrun, and hopefully the number of parkrunners will continue to increase as a result!
In terms of my fundraising for the Great North Bike Ride and Great North Run, I have received some generous sponsorship from the members of the gym I work at, for which I am very grateful. I also cycled over to The Princes Trust North East office yesterday to pick up a collection tin so any loose change that anybody has can go to a worthy cause. Whilst I am on my way to reaching my target fundraising amount, I still have a long way to go! If you would like to sponsor me, please visit www.justgiving.co.uk/niycpidge and donate online. Thank you!
Today I will be doing a 3 mile bike ride and also a 6-8 mile run and then enjoying some well earned rest!
Niyc xx
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