Desert Warrior Challenge

[Brian]

Ourthanks once again to the Nidd Valley Road Runners and the fantastic team of volunteers and pacers for adopting Harrogate parkrun #68. A big thank you to Sheena and the team for making some fabulous finish line fodder - absolutely delicious. And just to remind everyone Nidd Valley are launching a Juniors section so anyone interested should contact Amanda Metcalfe at the Club to find out more.

- approximately the same number of people ran a parkrun last week as completed the Virgin London Marathon

- the 500,000th parkrunner registered online this week. Wow.

- there are now 192 parkruns in the UK alone

- last week saw record attendances at nearly every parkrun in the UK, except Harrogate....

So lets just look at that last statistic for a minute and ask a question - so what happened? Well our dear friend & parkrunner Ian Bush put on the most amazing Yorkshire Warrior which attracted some 1,200 people....brilliant event Ian.

So this week it is time to make amends. We are looking for a monster turnout, record numbers in support of the superstar Nidd Valley Road Runners adopt a parkrun. The weather forecast is currently a bit of everything - probably breezy and cloudy, maybe sunshine maybe rain. It will be what it will be:

Next week we welcome back the super fantastic Nidd Valley Road Runners who will be adopting Harrogate parkrun once again. Anyone interested in taking a closer look at a local running club should make this a must do parkrun saturday. As always Nidd Valley will be providing a host of pacers and we look forward to a brilliant morning. One of these days we will crack 300 runners - maybe, just maybe, this is the week.

On a final note massive congratulations go out to everyone who completed the Yorkshire Warrior yesterday [rather you than me] - it sounded a cracking event, and of course to the many Harrogate parkrunners that took part in the Virgin London Marathon today - simply epic.

I didn't get a chance to check over the course today unfortunately... but it looked really great yesterday before the rain.... but who cares! ... for tomorrow heralds another super Saturday on the Stray for fantastic Harrogate parkrun #67!

The weather web assures me that we have mostly sunshine, 7-9 degC, 7-13mph wind and no rain to look forward to. We also have a highly trained and motivated team of volunteering superstars on standby raring to go... a huge thank you to you guys for jumping in to help make this week's event happen.

Final 'Good Lucks' to all those taking part in the London Marathon ... we'll be looking out for you on the telly... and to all those taking on the Yorkshire Warrior assault course... isn't the long slow hill from corner 1 to 2 challenging enough for you?

This month we celebrate the magnificent contribution of Alex Fawcett - well deserved recognition for his role as Harrogate parkrun advocate, evangelist, volunteer, and regular runner. All this and he travels a fair distance to be with us each week too. Alex, your support and enthusiasm for all things Harrogate parkrun over the past 66+ weeks has been immense and we all thank you and celebrate in your success.

For those of you who came close and for all other parkrunners; thank you again for your brilliant support, congratulations on your efforts in surpassing your personal milestones and good luck for the rest of 2013.

As we head towards Saturday morning and parkrun #67 its not easy to find the right words to sum up thoughts from this week. These ones struck a chord with me: "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you." Running is all about our human spirit... and we do not give that spirit up easily or for anything.

Last week, we promised that parkrun #66 would be stunning and indeed it was... this week's forecast looks good again ... dry, sunny, 7 degrees Celsius but perhaps windier than we'd like at around 6-12 mph.

If you're needing additional inspiration to join us on Saturday... we have a number of our Harrogate parkrunners taking part in the spectacular London Marathon and the extreme Yorkshire Warrior Challenge this weekend... their strength and courage to compete having been honed to athletic perfection circling the Stray 3 times each week! Good luck to all those taking part... please let us know how you get on.

I just wanted to say a quick public thank you to everyone that gave me such tremendous support last week whilst I was away at the Marathon des Sables. Receiving messages from friends and complete strangers whilst out in the desert was an incredibly humbling, touching yet lifting experience and one which provide immense encouragement and motivation throughout my [frankly horrendous] journey. They never said it was easy....

I am conscious my race / challenge was one of so very many that is going on every weekend and so for for those of you that might have competed in Paris, Brighton, or are due to compete at the VLM this weekend, Manchester or at the Leeds Half or wherever, may I wish you all the best and hope that your day exceeded or does exceed your most fantastic of dreams.

Of course life has a habit of moving on very quickly, and I had been at home less than one hour last night when the horrific events at the finish line of the Boston Marathon unfolded. So like many in our community, my thoughts go out to those in Boston caught up in the carnage at the end of the greatest of days. I have run Boston, it's an amazing day in a wonderful city and I just don't get this at all; it's just awful. So if you have any friends or family out there our thoughts are entirely with them.

Thank you again.

Adam

What a stunning morning on the Stray yesterday... bright and warm with the crocuses in full bloom. So many smiling faces... either running 3 laps or volunteering to make the event run superbly. Huge thanks to Bob Smith for capturing the essence of yesterday on our Flickr pages.

Our parkrun could not happen without our brilliant volunteers and yesterday's team were an amazing dream team who made my role as Run Director very very easy and an absolute joy. Thank you! Thanks also to those who have joined our volunteer team on the back of yesterday's successful event... volunteering 3 times a year is all we ask and for this, you get back so much more.

Next Sunday is the 2013 Virgin London Marathon and many of our parkrunners will be taking part... I'm sure that regular parkrunning will have kept you in tip top shape and we wish you all the very best of luck with your final week's preparations!

Get ready for fantastic Harrogate parkrun #66. I walked the course a few hours ago and it looked superb... dry, fast, crocus friendly and no changes required to corner 3. However, it is currently raining so we'll see how things look in the morning. The forecast still indicates dry, 7+ degC , little wind and a beaming sun... so who knows!

We have a full team of volunteering heroes for tomorrow - thank you very much. However we still need to rally ourselves to ensure that next week's parkrun #67 is successful, as its looking a bit light at the moment.

3a8082e126