St Albans Striders parkrun takeover

On Saturday 13th April, volunteers from St Albans Striders swapped their trainers for high vis vests as they took over the volunteer roster for our local parkrun.

Parkrun, which is an international charitable initiative, invites everyone of any ability to take part in a free timed 5k every Saturday. St Albans parkrun has held a total of 537 events.

Completely run by volunteers, each week requires local people to give up time on their Saturday morning to help facilitate the event. With St Albans parkrun welcoming up to 600 people each Saturday, excellent organisation is key to the event’s success.

Last weekend, volunteers from St Albans Striders took to marshalling, cheer duties, setting up, timing, scanning and counting tokens. With many Striders taking top spots each week in the parkrun results, volunteering was a different type of reward!

Richard Sved, Strider and Co-Event Director for St Albans parkrun said: “We are always looking for volunteers to help our event run smoothly and to craft the best experience for all those taking part. Having so many St Albans Striders at the helm last week was a great help and created a real buzzing atmosphere!

“It’s so important that each St Albans parkrun participant feels welcomed and appreciated and having a selection of very keen runners to help support them was greatly appreciated.”

With marathon season now officially in full swing, several hours up north, ten St Albans Striders took on the Manchester Marathon on Sunday 14th April. Three members came in under three hours including George Booth (02:51), Chris Dennell (2:53) and Carl Stevenson (02:58). These results also qualified them for the highly prestigious Boston Marathon. Gwynfor Tyley (3:20) and Eleanor Lambert (3:25) also ran Boston Qualifying times. Ian Brook smashed his marathon PB with a time of 03:37, Karl Tull came in at 03:35, Phil Buller in 03:35, Martyn Styles in 04:33 and Johanna Houlahan in 4:51.

Across the Atlantic and in much sunnier climes, Patrick Hayes came first in his age category (MV40) in the San Diego Beach Half Marathon. This won him 16th place overall.

(Parkrun image credit to Graham Smith)