We often have people taking part at Valentines parkrun who usually run at other parkrun events around the UK. Lizzie Wilkinson was one of our visitors this week, and she's very kindly written a run report for us! We hope you enjoy reading about our event, as seen through the eyes of a "parkrun tourist".

Valentines parkrun definitely has to have one of the most romantic names of all the parkruns held in the UK. It is also pretty unique in that the parkrun was named after the park rather than the nearest town. At the time it was set up, it was more common to name the parkrun after the closest town or borough so that runners would know where the parkrun was located. However given the choice of Ilford, Redbridge or Valentines, I am not surprised the decision was to go for Valentines.

 

Valentines park is at 52 hectares (130 acres), the largest green space in the London Borough of Redbridge, between Ilford and Gants Hill. The park was once the grounds of Valentines Mansion, a gentleman's residence built in 1696. The landscape reflects the changing tastes of the last three hundred years and the main elements surviving today relate to the changes made to the Mansion itself in the 1720s, the 1810s and the 1870s. During all these periods, the house was in private ownership. The greatest change was from 1912 when the whole estate became a public park and began to be used by greater numbers of people than ever before.

 

Valentines Park, along with five other green spaces within Redbridge, has been successful in retaining its Green Flag Status for 2015/16 from Keep Britain Tidy. This national standard for parks and open spaces in England and Wales recognises and rewards the best green spaces in the country with Green Flag Status. It also celebrates and promotes a weekly 5k run held every Saturday morning on its website: parkrun and the local community in a true partnership.

 

Valentines parkrun has been going since 19th February 2011 and as regular runners will know has recently celebrated its 5th birthday. Back then at the first run there was a grand total of 26 runners – at today’s there was 205 – a bit of a difference in attendance figures.

 

This was our (mine and my husband Kevan's) first run at Valentines. It is very exciting checking out new parkruns to see how it compares with others in the area. What were the toilets like; how was the car parking; was there a café and if yes did they serve a decent cup of tea; and what were the fellow parkrunners like? Would there be any familiar faces or would they all be new to us? And of course all importantly – what would the course be like. Was it flat and fast, or was it hilly; what sort of terrain: gravel or grass; mud or tarmac; would I get below (for me) the "magic" 30 minutes. For me and my husband, these questions were about to be answered.

 

The course is two anticlockwise laps of the park – two laps meant I was optimistic that I wouldn't get lapped. It goes around a boating lake so in the summer there is the option of doing parkrun followed by a session on a boat for those that are mega keen.

 

Every parkrun is unique but all have a single commonality – volunteers – without which there would be no parkrun. There are so many opportunities to get involved and it is well worthwhile. You don’t really need to have a reward as the feeling you get from seeing others having a great time is reward enough. A big thank you to today's parkrun volunteers who were standing out in the cold: Harneet BASSI • Karen ST.JEAN-KUFUOR • Lana MAWLOOD • Manji GAMI • Mary Frances O'BRIEN • Nils HOLLMANN • Richard ASH • Saarah TAILOR • Sheila SINCLAIR • Sonu THETHY • Tony Ross COLLINS and run director Vicki Groves.

 

We had slightly miscalculated how long it would take to drive over from South London and parked in the Cranbrook Road carpark at 8 am. That gave us plenty of time to do the essentials (toilets) and have a short run around the park along with many others out taking the opportunity to keep fit on the outdoor gym and tennis courts. Then back to the car to keep out of the chilly wind, the day before had been really warm and we hadn't really accounted for the sudden change in temperature. We then headed back towards the gathering parkrunners assembling at the start, passing an old guy on a bench who had caught the attention of a passing runner and pointing to the start asked if he was going to do that? The runner said yes and was then offered some very friendly advice on how he would need lots of energy and produced a tub of chocolate drink offering it to the runner with the suggestion that he needs to drink at least a cup a day.

 

Meanwhile we were still trying to adjust to the weather and as we huddled at the start line met and got talking with Caroline Frith: Caroline did her first parkrun at Valentines back in July 2011 and last week was her 50th parkrun. A target which she admitted had taken her a while to achieve but she was really pleased to have finally got there. Well done Caroline.

 

The run introduction was done by Andrew Gwilliam. He explained the course: The course starts near the Valentines Park Café, and continues south-west along the main path to the far end of the boating lake. After two anti-clockwise laps of the park, the course then returns along the north side of the boating lake, where it finishes at the same place as the start. I have to admit I was a bit uncertain about how exactly the route would return to the finish, I have been known to take the wrong path and extended a parkrun or two, but as I would be in the middle of the pack I didn't think I would have any problems in being able to find the way – just follow the person in front!

 

As the run started, I noticed a very young boy dressed in red shoot off at the start, closely followed by his mum. He was going fast! I wasn’t surprised to hear him proudly say at the finish how he had managed to get a PB: a very impressive 23:52 – oh how I wish I could do that sort of time. While his mum warned that he wouldn't stop letting everyone know about it for a week.

 

We ran up to the end of the central path and then turned left. There was a direction sign at the next corner that made me smile as it just said "run" – so very apt. What was very pleasant about Valentines parkrun was the amount of space. There was no sense of getting under people's feet or nearly tripping up due to the numbers of people that you can get at other parkruns. There was another turning and we were back at the café where we turned right. Aha – so this would be a mixed direction route – I would have to concentrate! Now as I mentioned before I am often guilty of not paying attention when running and assume that if you have to turn a corner they should all be left hand ones as is the case of my home parkrun (Bexley)... this assumption has caused me a couple of problems in the past. I took a wrong turn at Dartford's first parkrun, despite there being a great big sign saying "turn right". Fortunately I had been able to double back on myself and do part of the course again, so doing a much longer course and a longer time – but at least it guaranteed me a course PB the next time I went back there.

 

It was good to see that there were a number of marshals out on the course. The plea on facebook the night before for additional marshals had obviously worked. It was also pleasing to hear the number of runners taking the time to say thank you to them as they ran past.

 

There had also been a facebook post from Ivan Braham who had boldly stated that he would be going for a PB at today's parkrun. I have to admit I admire such determination when people confidently say they will go for a PB – would that confidence be justified though. I never know until I actually start running what my legs will actually do and even then when I think I am doing really well I have a habit of gradually slowing down – much to my husband's frustration. Today my legs started off well but having beaten my half marathon PB time the week before and not been able to run all week they faded very soon. It was nice though as people ran past, several commented on my 250th parkrun t-shirt – a recent acquisition that I am very proud of. Whilst I ran I got to admire the park. Valentines is a very scenic park and I liked the variety – boating lake; mansion house; children's playground; outdoor gym; along the side of the two carparks – plus it also has some very noisy ducks and geese! They were obviously trying to encourage the runners along. I am not sure I would be able to work out the route on my own but was very happy to just follow the runners in front. What is unusual about this parkrun is that despite being a two lap course – you don't go past the start/finish area again until you actually finish so, you don’t have the frustration of passing the line but have to carry on for another lap or run past those who might already have finished.

 

My legs were definitely feeling like they didn't want to run fast today and I was quite relieved to reach the finish line in sub 29 – just outside the first 100 to finish. A little girl came over to offer some sweets – a very nice touch!

 

There were 23 runners who took their first parkrun steps today - we hope you enjoyed your experience and will be back for more! Welcome to Mungo Prior; Adam Lewis; Euan Johnstone; Sundaresan Ramesh; Adrian Buckley; Hardeep Kaur; Vikesh Kaushal; Andrew Clinch; Peter Clinch; Diane Deacon; Katie Deacon; Hannah Moss; Aran Patel; Ravinder Bassi; Aaron Dale; Jacqueline Jaffa; Rosie Revan; Toni Revan; Shorna Dale; Glenn Dale; Tanvir Taher; Sweta Manapuram; Diane Hammond.

 

The applause for today's most experienced parkrunner goes to Mark Colby. This was Mark's second run at Valentines and he has completed 278 runs at over 80 different parkruns including several overseas. Amongst those visiting from other events were Hugh and Caroline Manning (Hilly Fields), Colin Read (Walthamstow), Julie Jacobs (Andover), Bhupendra Patel (Brueton).

 

There were also 24 PBs including Ryder Islam (the little boy in the red t-shirt who knocked off 50 seconds from his previous PB. If he carries on at this rate his mum will have to start beating her own PB too); Sarah Cull; Julian Moore; Ed Hooke; Nicholas Voo; Sue Tan; Daniel Stewart; Jacqueline Holloway; Manpreet Johal; Lewis Tullett; Louise Szlezinger; Charlotte Banks; James Clarke; Suzanne Cubitt; Joshua Samuel; Neil Davies; Jasmine Mondesir; Aran May; Kathy Butcher; Jay Bassi; Abul Gurung; Bradley Deacon; Jordon Hinds and finally Ivan Braham who was correct in his prediction that he would get a PB – well done all – we hope you are enjoying that glow of PB success.

 

There were also several parkrunners celebrating their milestone events and will hopefully be sporting new t-shirts soon: congratulations go to Janaki Raneshi (Junior – 10th parkrun); Matthew Crane (50th parkrun); Sab Saini and Stuart Brown who were both running their 100th parkruns. Sab was also completing his 100th parkrun at Valentines; whereas Stuart was doing his 99th.

 

Finally the following aesthetically pleasing times of the week were achieved by:
Deidre Moss: 26.26; Bhupendra Patel: 30.30; Sounez Charles: 35.35 and Monica Freeman: 50.50.

 

We really enjoyed our visit to Valentines parkrun. The friendliness of fellow parkrunners was summed up by getting a pat on the back from Caroline Frith as she headed home on her bike and asked how we had found the run. A small but pleasant gesture. We also definitely recommend the café where we had a very nice cup of tea and very quick service! Such an important factor after a parkrun!

Valentines Park is a beautiful place to be pretty much any time of year, but we reckon it looks its best at 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning. What you couldn't see today though was the humidity, which always adds an extra challenge to running, whether your aim is to belt round 5K in a time that might win you a prize at a local race, or if your target is to improve upon your personal best, or indeed if you're new to running and can justifiably feel proud in completing the distance... 5K is quite a long way if you're not used to it!

We had a number of first-timers today, so well done to each of you; we hope you enjoyed your time with us, and we hope you'll be joining us again in the weeks to come.

A different sort of congratulations goes to Stephanie Daley, who chose our event as the place to notch up her 100th parkrun, together with friends and family. Coming from various different other parkrun events, they all seemed to enjoy their visit to Valentines. Best of all, Stephanie has now earned herself a free* parkrun "100" t-shirt, which can't be bought in shops!

If you're new to parkrun, you've probably seen some of our runners or volunteers wearing a parkrun-branded t-shirt, and wondered about them. The "milestone" t-shirts are provided by parkrun sponsor Tribesports, and are as follows:

• the white "10" t-shirt for junior runners who've completed 10 parkruns;
• the red "50" t-shirt for all runners who've completed 50 parkruns;
• the black "100" t-shirt for all runners who've completed 100 parkruns;
• the green "250" t-shirt for all runners who've completed 250 parkruns;
• the very, very rare "500" t-shirt for all runners who've completed 500 parkruns; and
• the purple "25" t-shirt for anyone who's volunteered on 25 separate occasions at a parkrun or junior parkrun.

Tribesports have also now introduced a range of parkrun-branded vests, short-sleeved t-shirts, and long-sleeved t-shirts. These can only be purchased directly from Tribesports. You can also show your love for all things parkrun by purchasing a hoody, cotton t-shirts, books, and other items from Wiggle's parkrun shop. All profits go to parkrun.

Also clocking up a big number of parkruns today were Vennisa Chowdhury (150), Kresh Veerasamy (150), and Sam Veerasamy (200). Well done, all!

Last, but by no means least, a word about our volunteers. Valentines parkrun is organised entirely by volunteers from the local community.

Today's volunteers were: Alan Imber, Andrew Gwilliam, Hannah Sheikh, Karen St Jean-Kufuor, Mary Frances O'Brien, Matthew Wood, Paul Dawes, Rabia Piperdy-Alloo, Sam Veerasamy, Stephen Gilson, and Trevor Wood. We've heard that Sam was also helped out by another couple of parkrunners in putting out the directional arrows around our course; we don't know their names, so if you're one of our unsung heroes, please do get in touch so we can credit you!

No experience or prior expertise is needed to be a volunteer; in fact, you don't even need to be one of our runners (or walkers)! If you or someone you know would like to help out, or have any questions about how you might be able to help, please do get in touch by e-mailing us (our address is valentinesoffice@parkrun.com). Not only do our volunteers enable Valentines parkrun to happen each week, we find that they get to enjoy parkrun from a different perspective... and it looks good on their CV, too! Even if parkrun is your only or main opportunity to run each week, you may still be able to help out in other ways; for example, if you fancy writing a run report, we'd be happy to hear from you.

We hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend, and look forward to seeing you once again next Saturday!

* All parkrun "milestone" t-shirts are free, but there is a small charge for packaging and postage, unless combined with a purchase from Wiggle (see their website for further details).

We still don't have enough volunteers yet for this weekend's parkrun to go ahead. Can you help?

We currently need:

* someone to put out the directional arrows
* a tail runner
* a timekeeper
* a backup timekeeper
* someone to hand out the position tokens
* a second barcode scanner

If you're able to help with any of these, please do let us know! We'd also like to hear from you if you're willing to volunteer over the next few weeks. Simply drop us a line via valentineshelpers@parkrun.com... thanks!

Saturday, 24th December (Christmas Eve)
Valentines parkrun will be operating as normal. We're likely to be short of volunteers, though, so please do consider helping out!

Sunday, 25th December (Christmas Day)
Barking parkrun will be holding an additional event at 9 o'clock. Please note that none of the junior parkruns in east London will be going ahead.

Saturday, 31st December (New Year's Eve)
Valentines parkrun will be operating as normal.

Sunday, 1st January (New Year's Day)
The first day of 2017 offers a once-a-year opportunity for you to take part at two different parkruns on the same day! Wanstead Flats will start at 9 o'clock, and Valentines will be holding a special event starting at 10 o'clock. If you do want to take part at both events, please make sure that you will have sufficient time to travel safely between the two venues. #doublethefun

As with all other parkrun events throughout the world, Valentines parkrun is free to all participants, and always will be. However, it's sometimes the case that we would like to purchase new equipment, to make our event a little bit better, so we have a donations fund that allows people to make a financial contribution. As an example, the past generosity of our parkrunners enabled us to pay for our current finish funnel posts, as well as the wheeled bin we use to transport them.

The health benefits of parkrun will be obvious to all our runners and walkers, but there is always a risk, no matter how small, that someone taking part at Valentines parkrun will suffer a cardiac incident requiring urgent medical attention. Sadly, such incidents, although rare, have occurred at other parkrun events. However, the advice we've received is that the use of an automatic external defibrillator (AED) can make a profound difference to the chances of survival in such cases, especially in the critical minutes before the emergency services are on the scene. We would therefore like to purchase an AED for our event.

The particular model we'd like to purchase costs £816. We're delighted to say that we've already been offered funding for a large part of the cost, but we are still £231.42 short of what we need. If you're willing to help us reach our target, all you need to do is:

1. Go to this web page:

   http://www.parkrun.org.uk/valentines/aboutus/

2. Click on the "Donate to parkrun" banner, and follow the instructions.

NOTE:
Some of you will be aware that when donations are usually made to our event, 15% is deducted by parkrun HQ as a contribution to the fund for setting up new events. However, despite what your confirmation e-mail and the parkrun website may show, 100% of your donation will go into the pot towards our fundraising target.

With thanks from the Valentines parkrun event team. If you have any questions, just send us an e-mail to this address:
valentinesoffice@parkrun.com

Less than ten days ago we announced a fundraising appeal for an AED (automatic external defibrillator). We're happy to announce that, thanks to the generosity of our parkrunners, we've already reached our target. Woohoo!

The next step is placing the order. Hopefully it won't be too long before we have our very own AED!

Valentines parkrun is looking for additional Run Directors to help organise our event. The Run Director is the volunteer you see wearing the blue and white hi-viz each Saturday, and is in charge of the event on the day. If you're interested in joining the team, just send us an e-mail (valentinesoffice@parkrun.com) or chat to us on Saturday morning.

A number of local running clubs in the area organise inexpensive races each summer that are ideal for anyone who's never taken part in an organised race before. Each of these races should be manageable by anyone who's taken part in a parkrun. Lots of your fellow parkrunners will be taking part, so why not give one of them a go?

If you'd like to know more about the races, just follow the links below:

Wednesday, 17th May 2017, 7:30 pm
Organised by Dagenham 88 Runners, this race is approximately 5 miles on trails at Eastbrookend Country Park, Dagenham. This race is also the first of the 2017 "ELVIS" races.
https://www.entrycentral.com/Dagenham88Runners

Saturday, 3rd June 2017, 10 am
Organised by Orion Harriers, the Forest Five series is made up of three races, taking place on the first Saturday of June, July, and August. You can enter any of the races individually, or sign up for all three at a discount. Each race uses the same course, following five miles of trails around Epping Forest, near Chingford.
https://www.orionharriers.com/races/forest-five/

Tuesday, 6th June 2017, 7:30 pm
Havering 90 Joggers' "Midweek 5" is a five-mile race that takes place on a mixture of surfaces in and around Raphael Park, Romford. This race is the second of the 2017 "ELVIS" races.
https://www.entrycentral.com/event/106675

Sunday, 21st June 2017, 7:30 pm
East End Road Runners' Olympic Park 5K takes place at the iconic Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, and is also the third of the "ELVIS" races.
https://www.entrycentral.com/event/105209

Saturday, 1st July 2017, 10 am
The second race of the Forest Five series.
https://www.orionharriers.com/races/forest-five/

Wednesday, 12th July 2017, 7:30pm
Ilford Athletic Club's "Newman Hilly" is held at Hainault Forest, mostly on trails. As the name suggests, this one's not flat! The races is the fourth of the 2017 "ELVIS" season.
https://www.entrycentral.com/newmanhilly5

Saturday, 5th August 2017, 10 am
The third of the Forest Five series, and also an "ELVIS" race.
https://www.orionharriers.com/races/forest-five/

Bank Holiday Monday, 28th August 2017, 10:30 am
Barking Road Runners' Bank Holiday 5K takes place at Barking Park, and uses an identical course to that used by Barking parkrun. This is the penultimate ELVIS race, and has a fairly fast course, entirely on asphalt.
https://www.entrycentral.com/bh5k

Sunday, 24th September 2017, 10:30 am
East London Runners' Valentines Park 5K takes place at the home of Valentines parkrun! The course is not the same as the parkrun course, but you'll certainly see lots of Valentines parkrunners taking part or supporting at this, the final ELVIS race of the year!
Entries are not yet open for this race.

The "ELVIS" series also has a website, with information about the series as a whole:
http://www.elvisraces.club/

If you are unable to propel yourself independently, due to a long-term or permanent condition, you are still welcome to register as a parkrunner and be pushed around the course (or use a motorised chair) and receive a time. This does not extend to short-term conditions or injured able-bodied runners.

Wheelchair participants can contact parkrun's Head Office if they wish to have their parkrun profile marked accordingly, and would thereafter appear as a wheelchair athlete (MWC or WWC) in the results.

https://support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

For anyone who travels to Valentines Park by car, please note that the Perth Road car park is closed until further notice.

The Perth Road car park has re-opened again.

Saturday 7th October 2017 was "International parkrun Day", the anniversary of the very first parkrun that took place at Bushy Park, south-west London, thirteen years ago. On that grey morning, thirteen runners and a handful of volunteers took part in the "Bushy Park Time Trial" at the initiative of Paul Sinton-Hewitt. Since then, parkrun has grown not just in the UK but abroad: your barcode is now valid in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States. More countries are in the pipeline!

Valentines parkrun has been in existence since February 2011, and we've grown too. We started out with just 26 runners, and a few weeks ago reached a new attendance record of 283. Hopefully it will be at least another six-and-a-half years though before our runners find themselves being startled again by an overly excited large dog that its owner has lost control of...

One of the great things about parkrun is that it enables our participants to achieve their own goals and milestones. Valentines regular Rakesh Sandhu did just that on Saturday, completing his 250th parkrun, which earns him a free "250" parkrun t-shirt that money can't buy. As he ran his 250th parkrun backwards, he presumably has to wear his t-shirt backwards as well when he gets it?

We tend to get a handful of "tourists" each week, but two special visitors were Fernando Fuente and Christine Sutherland. One-time regulars, they moved to Spain a few years ago, but when they visit the UK they like to include a trip to Valentines in their itinerary!

A couple of our visitors were using racing wheelchairs, but one of them (Gary Donald) started out at Valentines using an ordinary everyday wheelchair. If you know of someone who uses a wheelchair to get themselves around, why not invite them along to our event? They don't need to be speedy, and just like some of our runners have done, they're welcome to do just a single lap (as long as they don't go through the finish funnel!) if they want to try us out.

Many thanks of course to our volunteers, who help the magic happen. Everyone involved in organising Valentines parkrun is a volunteer. Our team on Saturday included Andrew Gwilliam (carrying out the role of Run Director for the 50th time at Valentines), Phil Butcher (our impromptu dog wrangler), Ronnie Waller (a first-timer), several teenagers, and others (all the names are credited at the foot of the weekly results page). Just like running with us, there's no minimum commitment as a volunteer, so if you'd like to give it a go, just drop us a line (valentinesoffice@parkrun.com)!

Oh, and Saturday was also Valentines parkrun's 350th event.

One of our runners has kindly sent us this run report for last Saturday:

Good day Valentines parkrun participants, well today at Valentines it was still a bit chilly in the air being around the 5 degree mark at 9.00 am of course the hardy bunch including myself still wearing shorts... oh wait, did I say hardy? I meant to say something far more derogatory.

Paths were a little damp in places, but now lots of trees have shed their leaves, and the park is as always looked after very well, so it did mean hardly any standing leaves to slip and slide on, which is always a positive.

So first and foremost, huge massive round of applause for the super work that the great team of volunteers carry out week in, week out, especially today when numbers were a little short during the run director's briefing, to which a number of people who were there to run/jog/walk raised their hands and stepped up to become volunteers for the morning. That to me is a perfect way to show what parkrun means: it’s about I'll help you, then you help me... amazing!!! So please always try if you can to say thanks.

So biggest applause and cheers plus huge and massive thanks this week goes to:-
Chris GROVES • Ed HOOKE • Emil C. • Gaynor WHITE • Ibrahim YOUNIS • Kiran LALLI • Paul MATTHEWS • Qasim SHEIKH • Richard ASH • Robin BOOPUTH • Sonu THETHY • Tanya DU PLESSIS • Vicki GROVES.

Valentines had 170 participants who braved the chill in the air, numbers a little down on normal, but Christmas shopping needs to be done!

From the listed numbers above an amazing 31 people achieved a PB. Woohoooo! Massive congrats to all. We had 7 first timers at Valentines, be it a little tourism or brand new parkrunners; of course, everyone is more than welcome.

First timers at Valentines:
Darren CREW, John O'SULLIVAN, Jody STOAKES, Ihsan ISLAM, Niki FELTON, Damo O'CONNOR, Sarah LUSCOMBE

Top 3 finishers male and female as listed:

Ladies:
Sameena AHMED (22:30)
Rabia PIPERDY-ALLOO (22:46)
Carol BROOME (24:10)

Gentlemen:
Simon THOMAS (18:29)
Diarmuid MAC DONNELL (19.34)
Darren CREW (19.58)

Now onto the fanfare section of this cobbled-together effort of a run report!

Milestones achieved:
Carol BROOME: massive congrats on reaching 50 parkruns!!!!!!!

Just as big of a fanfare as above just slightly shorter maybe with one less trumpet as they get the big fanfare very soon!! Milestones coming soon:
Trevor WOOD: almost there 49 parkruns done!!!
Sarah LUSCOMBE: almost there 48 parkruns in the bag!!!
Marilyn HENDLEMAN: oh yes, it's almost time... 49 parkruns done and dusted!!

Now we are getting serious please be upstanding for the awesome:
Martina DALGLEISH: wait for it... 99 parkruns done. Awesome awesome awesome stuff!!!

And I hear you cry “there’s more”! Oh yes, you bet your bottom dollar!!!!! Please give a huge hand for the following two epic people (and they said Star Wars was a blockbuster):
Sharon DAUGHTERS: 247 parkruns done! Did you know that is 1235 km or approx. 7 trips to Great Yarmouth (and back of course, you have to come back...)
Charlotte NIELSEN: 242 parkruns in the back pocket, so Charlotte would have to stop just outside Great Yarmouth. Maybe a nice caravan park somewhere?
An awesome effort from both of these awesome parkrunners.

If you know any of these people listed above please shake their hand as milestones are great achievements; but most of all, make sure you shake the hand of the person doing their very 1st parkrun, as that's a HUGE milestone!

Now to wrap this up, a list of names who through no mean feat of pure energy (and sometimes a tail wind!) went faster today than ever before. It's the Personal Best roll call!!!!!!
Paul MARSHALL, Chris GREEN, Ryder ISLAM, Sameena AHMED, Emran HUSSAIN, Rodney MARTINS, Tarry ANDREWS, Sean DEMPSEY, Danveer LOYAL, Andy WATSON, Hardeep KAUR, Anthony SMITH, Karan GADHIA, Narinder SINGH, Zen SINGH, Bernhard TRUMMER, Anjulie BABBEA, Ann SELBY, Tony WHITE, Andrew CRANE, Sandra FARINHA, Gyan Singh BASSI, Alison EVANS, Angela AMA, Usha MODI, Shorful ISLAM, Amy LECKERMAN.

Huge round of applause for all of the above! Well done and congratulations.

This is my first and maybe my last race report, the choice is yours.

Your anonymous Valentines Reporter in the Field

Here's another run report kindly sent in to us by our anonymous Valentines Reporter in the Field!

Well good day Valentine parkrunners.

First question has to be, have you warmed up yet? Typing this report at 2.00pm on the 9th and I have still not warmed up after the rather chilly Valentines today. My car was reading 1 degree as I stepped out of it at 8.40am and I really do not think it got any warmer. But we did it all 136 of us.

With the above taken into account the following people are absolute legends may I give you our volunteers!!!!!!!!!

Alan BRETT, Mark DURRANT, Wendy EVERINGHAM, Stephen GILSON, Chris GROVES, Vicki GROVES, Ed HOOKE, Kiran LALLI, Gill PRINGLE, Qasim SHEIKH, Ali ULLAH, Tim WOOD, Ibrahim YOUNIS.

Oh please excuse me there is at least one more volunteer that doesn’t get a mention but once I find out the name he/she will get the recognition at least in the run report. Of course this is the Dog who one of our epic volunteers brings along I will admit I do think this dog looks at us like we are a bunch of weirdos running around in the cold when we could be laid in front of the nearest radiator. [Editor's note: the dog's name is Sadie!]

So today we had a turnout of 136 participants which considering the cold is pretty good. Give yourself a clap as you deserve it.

As for the stats they go a little like this :-

14 Personal Bests

9 First timers

Details will be a little later on in the report as we right now need a FANFARE!!

Milestone achieved.

Please take a bow

Martina DALGLEISH 100 parkruns done huge round of applause from all, please ensure you lap up all the congratulations, as next week 101 no one will be that bothered.

Top 3 Ladies and Gentlemen

Men
1 Crispian BLOOMFIELD 16:43
2 Jayesh MISTRY 19:58
3 Ashley FARIA 20:12

Ladies
1 Sameena AHMED 22:37
2 Carol BROOME 25:06
3 Lucie HATLEY 25:27

Very quick time from Crispian Bloomfield, first time runner at Valentines, hope he liked the course. Sameena Ahmed crossed the time keepers’ clock, first of the ladies again, well done, and only 7 seconds of her PB.

First Timers :
Crispian BLOOMFIELD
Iain BARRETT
Katherine JONES
Soukayna OUHAMMOU
Said OUHAMMOU
Safiya OUHAMMOU
Ajit KUMAR
James O'C
Joseph O`C

Many thanks for the Nine above for joining Valentines as either a tourist or a first time parkrunner; hope you liked the course and the experience, and hope to see you all again.

Personal Bests
14 Runners came home faster today than ever before so huge congratulations to all the speedsters who seem to like the cold listed below :-
Mark KENCH 20:55
Emran HUSSAIN 22:26
Bernhard TRUMMER 25:42
Ihsan ISLAM 26:13
Nayim RAHMAN 27:29
Lois MOLLOY 27:58
Tony WHITE 28:20
Suzie KNAPTON 28:43
Mark PETERS 30:37
Ashish RAI 30:56
Usha MODI 34:31
Amy LECKERMAN 34:57
Shahnoor MULLER-CHOUDHURY 35:07
Damo O'CONNOR 37:28

In addition to the above names would like to just call out the following names for getting better showing real commitment and feeling I hope much healthier. By improving their PB at Valentines consecutively as shown WELL DONE
Emran HUSSAIN 5 PB in a row
Bernhard TRUMMER 3 PB in a row
Nayim RAHMAN 3 PB in a row
Usha MODI 3 PB in a row

Almost Milestone Time

Hannah SHEIKH 149
Mary Frances O'BRIEN 149
Sharon DAUGHTERS 248
Sweta MANAPURAM 47
Charlotte NIELSEN 243
Cynthia WOOD 99
Baldev Singh BAINS 194
Mukhtiar KAUR 144

Three lovely people only one away from their milestone Hannah, Mary, and Cynthia. Massive congrats to all listed above very well done. If you know any of these people listed above please a nice pat on the back as milestones are a huge thing to achieve.

I really do hope you enjoyed this week’s Run Report; please feel free to leave any comments on Valentines parkrun's Facebook page. I am off now to go lay in front of anything hot to try and warm my old cold bones!

Happy parkrunning
"Valentines Reporter"

As well as the usual Saturday morning parkruns, there are some additional opportunities for parkrunning in the local area over the festive period!

Saturday 23rd:
It might be Christmas Eve Eve, but this will be a normal Saturday morning for us!

Monday 25th:
Barking parkrun will be hosting an extra parkrun at 9 o'clock on Christmas Day morning! Fancy dress is optional. There will not be an event at Valentines on Christmas Day.

Saturday 30th:
New Year's Eve Eve will be a normal Saturday morning at Valentines.

Monday 1st:
Why not start 2018 with a parkrun? Valentines will be hosting an additional parkrun event at 10 o'clock on New Year's Day!
Even better, Wanstead Flats parkrun will also be going ahead at 9 o'clock, so if you can run 5K in under 30 minutes, it's possible to run, cycle, or drive between the two venues; but please plan your route between the two in advance, to avoid disappointment on the day! If driving to Valentines, be aware that you'll need to park on one of the side streets as the park gates will be shut (but please have consideration for local residents). The café at Valentines will be closed, so instead we'll be popping along to the Great Spoon of Ilford, on Cranbrook Road. They do a good, inexpensive cooked breakfast (vegetarian option available), and children are welcome there.

Saturday 6th:
Back to normal! Begin 2018 as you mean to go on, with a Saturday-morning 5K run (or walk) at Valentines parkrun!

With apologies to our anonymous reporter in the field for its late publication, here's their run report for last Saturday's parkrun.

Good day Valentines parkrunners

Well today was interesting wasn’t it? Although it was chilly it didn’t seem that cold as previous weeks but a bit of moisture in the air made the paths in places a bit slippery, but the 183 brave souls who took part did not mind: just be safe, grit your teeth, and plough through. I understand at time of writing that Roding Valley parkrun up in Loughton was cancelled due to a canoe being required for part of the course, so a few hardy souls joined us from there; we hope you liked Valentines.

Sadly, personally for me it just did not happen, as a pain in my calf meant I had to limp out to the utter disgust of one of the swans on the lake that looked at me with total disgust at my lack of gumption and looking like a complete wally. Well it at least felt that way; as for the ducks, they just turned their backs to me and shook a tail feather!!!!!

Going back to the first paragraph 183 is quite a high number (50 more than last week), and the highest number since the end of November, so well done all.

I have almost done it again: more important than all those numbers are the 11 (plus Sadie the dog) brave hardy heroes who don the hi-vis vest, and clap and cheer and are all absolute legends in my honest opinion, so without further delay please be upstanding and raise a glass and cheer the following HVL (hi-vis legends):
Brennie GABBIDON, Chris GROVES, Kiran LALLI, Richard ASH, Robin BOOPUTH, Ronnie WALLER, Sarah THOMAS, Simon THOMAS, Stephen GILSON, Tony Ross COLLINS, Vicki GROVES, and last but not least SADIE the dog!!!
By the way I heard on the grapevine all volunteers like cake

Speaking of numbers, 11 volunteers is the lowest since July. I know it's cold, I know your duvet feels amazing, I know Christmas gifts have to be bought, etc etc etc. but if you're not able to volunteer, maybe convince a friend (or a parent, a lover, or an enemy who likes to see you suffer!) to come down and cheer on and help out. Maybe pull in that favour a pal has said “I owe you one”! A good friend of mine volunteered for the first time a few weeks back and really enjoyed it, and was surprised by how much she actually did.

Onto the run report. As said earlier in this bundle of joy report the course was a little slippery in places but wow, would you believe it, an amazing 14 yes 14 runners broke through their personal best barriers at Valentines once again, so huge massive rounds of applause to each and every one one of the people listed below. Psstt cake all round too.

Personal Bests
Harvi SINGH 21:52 16 seconds quicker
Anthony YOUNG 22:56 76 seconds quicker
Nikhil PATEL 22:58 51 seconds quicker
Kirsty SIMPSON 28:02 37 seconds quicker
*Peter GARGIULO 30:41 26 Seconds quicker
Soukayna OUHAMMOU 32:01 58 Seconds quicker
Safiya OUHAMMOU 32:05 72 Seconds quicker
Said OUHAMMOU 32:05 57 Seconds quicker
Francis AKOR 33:19 188 Seconds quicker
*Amy LECKERMAN 34:52 5 Seconds quicker
*Frances WELLING 36:28 74 Seconds quicker
Wendy EVERINGHAM 36:37 19 Seconds quicker
Carly LEZER 36:56 121 seconds quicker

Just need an additional note to the above by selecting three people from the above PB breakers for the effort they must be putting in.
Frances Welling over the last 7 outings at Valentines since early October has achieved an amazing seven consecutive PBs beaten. Well done Frances... take a bow!!!!!!
Amy Leckerman over the last 6 outings at Valentines has notched up a PB each time. That's an amazing effort Amy, keep going, you should be very proud.
Peter Gargiulo at 19 parkruns (all at Valentines) might not be a veteran of the parkrun clan, but if you take a look at Peter's overall stats you will see there has been steady but sure improvement since September 2017, and now Peter breaks into the 30-minute zone. Well done Peter, bravo! On to the 29-minute bracket!

Visitors and first-timers
So like always a little name in lights for the great parkrunners who chose Valentines today for their parkrun outing for the first time.
Peter FAIRLAMB, Dasos GONNELLA, Andy SAUNDERS, Joe MATTHEWS, Elisabeth RICKARD, Christopher HEALEY, Richard FAIRLAMB, Pezo BENJAMIN, Roisin MATTHEWS, Isla THRELFALL
Massive huge congratulations to the following parkrunners who today took their first steps on the parkrun journey, and thank you for coming and trying out at Valentines, which I really do hope you enjoyed.
Gus MATTHEWS, Andy MATTHEWS, Kevin WRIGHT, Vitor MARTINS, Alfie WELLING-D'ROZARIO, Rubina RAHMAN, Salma RAHMAN, Aneesa RAHMAN, Hero MIAH.

Milestones
David TAYLOR hits the 100 parkrun finish line; well done sir.
David William THOMAS returned to Valentines for the big 250, a superb effort.
Zen SINGH hits the 10 barrier for a junior. Well done.
Cynthia WOOD charges into the 100 club; huge congratulations.
Marilyn HENDLEMAN enters the 50 parkrun club. Well done!

Upcoming milestones:
Luke MATHER is 2 away from the 50 club
Andy SAUNDERS is another 2 away from the 50 club
Sharon DAUGHTERS is now 1 away from the 250!!! club

As a guideline to what a great achievement these milestones are, Sharon Daughters has run almost 1250 km or 777 miles to get to the 250 milestone. If she wants to run 777 miles from Valentines Park that would get her to just outside Madrid, Spain (although of course I would suggest a plane).

Fastest 3 men
1 Stephen PHILCOX 18:16
2 Neil MCGOUN 18:28
3 Peter FAIRLAMB 18:57
Stephen was first to finish in a rather quick time, considering the paths being of a slippery nature in places. Well done to all three.

Fastest 3 women
1 Sameena AHMED 23:03
2 Carol BROOME 24:21
3 Hannah SHEIKH 24:22

As you can see, very close between Hannah and Carol (only 1 second in it). Sameena now make it 3 first finishes in a row. Well done all 3 ladies.

As always anyone you know named on these run reports please be sure to shake their hand or pat on the back especially the volunteers.

I do hope you enjoyed today's run report; please feel free to share, and don’t forget to come next week as it's almost Christmas!!!!!

Happy parkrunning
"Valentines Reporter"
.

Here's the latest run report from our anonymous reporter in the field!

Greetings and welcome to one and all Valentines parkrun participants, and anyone else who wants to read our report for run number #361 23rd December 2017.

Well it was quite nice Saturday morning wasn’t it? A little bit of sunshine, quite warm for December, around the 10 degree mark... not very festive weather to be honest, but I think we have had a fair share of that over the previous few weeks!!!!!

Lovely to see a few Christmas outfits, be it just hats or full attire, being as this was the last run/walk/jog before the 25th. Quite a nice turnout with 206 participants getting out of their beds on a Saturday morning to have a quick or not so quick 5km (I put myself in the latter category) tour of Valentines Park.

Before anything else as I write these reports I always want to say about the volunteers first of all, as without them nothing would happen, so as always a big round of applause goes to the following 14 (oh yes fourteen) Hi-Viz Legends:
Sathanandasundaram ALAGANANDASUNDARAM, Robin BOOPUTH, Dennis BRIGGS, Phil BUTCHER, Emil C., Brennie GABBIDON, Ed HOOKE, Kiran LALLI, Pathrose LOUIS, Uzayer MAQSOOD, Qasim SHEIKH, Narinder SINGH, Gaye VAN DER VYVER, Ibrahim YOUNIS

Please try (as I am sure most of you already do) and make sure you say thank you when you can to the volunteers, even if it is a rather breathy thannnn(cough)kkkss as you’re struggling to breathe as you trudge around the course.

Onto the report; I think this week we should start with Milestones.

Milestones
Jacob STEVENS 50
Maran RAJU 50
Trevor WOOD 50
Sharon DAUGHTERS 250

So huge congratulations to Jacob, Trevor, and Maran for getting to 50 parkruns, and of course thank you for making this milestone at Valentines. Massive applause for your efforts.

Oh but then we have an even bigger milestone as you can see above: Sharon Daughters has hit the 250 milestone, which is a huge achievement, and I believe all at Valentines!!! Checking on parkrun's main website, Sharon is now one of the 2095 people who have made it to this superb milestone, which sounds a lot, but in comparison to the amount of people taking part at parkrun is tiny. So Sharon if you do read this, bask in the glory, and accept the applause, as the next milestone as I am sure you are aware is 500!!!! That may take some time.

First-time parkrunners
As well as the likes of Trevor, Sharon, Jacob, and Maran who have hit milestones, just as important are the brave souls who have just started their parkrun journeys, so well done to the following people, and we hope you enjoyed parkrun as much as many do, and hope you enjoyed doing it at Valentines... and most of all, see you again next week? Oh and by the way it does get easier and that is a promise!

Annie WRIGHT
Mo JAMMY
Mai AN
Noorjahan BEGUM
Eleanor HOWAT
Adam ELIAS
Oliver CLIFTON
Holly WOOD

First time at Valentines ("tourists")
Now a small list of the nice people who came to visit us at Valentines for the first time. We hope you liked our course and the views, and maybe the lovely café? Please come back anytime, and thank you.
Shaun DESENA, Julia FARMAN, Cathy OWEN, Barry O'DRISCOLL, Stuart WILLIAMS, Lucy HUMPHREYS, Claire SPLARN, Michael SPLARN, Benjamin SPLARN, Ryan SPLARN, Tony MACDOWALL.

Valentines PBs
parkrun as I am sure we are all aware is not a race, it is about you, and you alone, so when beating a previous personal best the feeling is great (may I even say euphoric), so with that said please see below a list of the awesome people who have gone faster than they have ever gone before around the great course at Valentines.
Frances WELLING 36:12 Improves PB by 16 Seconds
Wendy EVERINGHAM 35:24 Improves PB by 73 Seconds
Jo FINNEY 35:01 Improves PB by 59 Seconds
Usha MODI 34:23 Improves PB by 8 Seconds
Paul SEAGOOD 33:55 Improves PB by 769 Seconds
Ajit KUMAR 33:33 Improves PB by 93 Seconds
Amy LECKERMAN 33:19 Improves PB by 93 Seconds
Shakira PATEL 32:17 Improves PB by 2 Seconds
Brian BROWNLIE 31:46 Improves PB by 40 Seconds
Safiya OUHAMMOU 31:39 Improves PB by 26 Seconds
Soukayna OUHAMMOU 31:41 Improves PB by 20 Seconds
Said OUHAMMOU 31:42 Improves PB by 23 Seconds
Kevin WRIGHT 30:17 Improves PB by 31 Seconds
Peter GARGIULO 30:15 Improves PB by 26 Seconds
Keith RICHARDS 25:43 Improves PB by 133 Seconds
Karan GADHIA 25:19 Improves PB by 3 Seconds
Guy KENNETT 24:41 Improves PB by 8 Seconds
John MCCOOEY 23:04 Improves PB by 189 Seconds
Nikhil PATEL 22:52 Improves PB by 6 seconds
Henry DRUMMOND 22:49 Improves PB by 97 Seconds
Chris GREEN 20:53 Improves PB by 69 Seconds
Hayley ROGERSON 20:36 Improves PB by 29 Seconds
Calvin BOBIN 20:30 Improves PB by 14 seconds
William CLIFTON 20:24 Improves PB by 43 seconds
Tim LE RASLE 18:57 Improves PB by 30 seconds
Stuart KELLY 18:32 Improves PB by 14 seconds

Some amazing improvements; well done all! I have of course singled a few out for special mentions. Frances Welling and Amy Leckerman now have 8 and 7 PB in a row respectively, that is a great achievement; one more to go before year end? Also Nikhil Patel now 3 in a row; keep going, great effort. I would also like to add, can some of you please SLOW DOWN as it takes ages to type this lot up! Just kidding, it really is great to see so many people getting out there and improving themselves.

parkrunning during the festive period
As you hopefully know, there is no parkrun at Valentines on Christmas Day, but we will be back on the 30th as normal. Why not end the year with a nice 5km run around a great park, with some of the nicest people you could run with?
Don’t forget on New Year’s Day (10am start) there's an extra parkrun at Valentines, so bring your body, head, and in some cases hangovers, at 10am to start 2018... maybe even with PB?
Psst: if you are one of those ultra-organised people and you have everything all done on Christmas Day don’t forget Barking parkrun is holding an event at 9am, please feel free to join.

Merry Christmas
See you next week
The Valentines Reporter.

Our mysterious Reporter in the Field has kindly sent in their report about the final Valentines parkrun of 2017.

Hi you bunch, hope your festive break went well, I have noticed not as many PB in today's results? Did we all eat too much? I did, and wow my time showed it today!

All joking aside, wasn’t it windy today at Valentines? That back straight just after the small lake... oh my... At times I thought I may even start going backwards due to the wind whistling though that section, the way people were passing me I really did start to think I WAS going backwards.

I also started thinking on the 2nd lap wow this should have been run in reverse today, we would all have been like gazelles with that tailwind on certain sections, with the wind at our backs.

Nice turn out today: 183 in total, which is nearly touching the 200 mark. Well done everyone, and thank you. Volunteer role call as always has to be near the top of any report, as these people listed below are the most important of all in my view, so a massive huge thank you, and lots of clapping hands.

Volunteers
Emil C., Mark DURRANT, Beverley EAGLES, Brennie GABBIDON, Andrew GWILLIAM, Ed HOOKE, Reza JUGON, Joseph KUCHIPUDI, Uzayer MAQSOOD, Samir PATEL, Mark PETERS, Sab SAINI, Qasim SHEIKH, Julia SHMOTKINA

Personal bests at Valentines
I think next we will have the PB at Valentines as those who did manage a PB today with the wind did very well indeed. So again lots of wooohooo and similar noises to the following stars!

Angus HOLFORD 16:38 25 seconds faster
Oliver CLIFTON 26:01 110 seconds faster
Mohammad Aftab ALI 26:28 69 seconds faster
Ashish RAI 30:47 9 seconds faster
Sheila SINCLAIR 31:53 23 seconds faster
Mai AN 43:13 109 seconds faster

First time parkrunners
The wonderful people below took their first steps at parkrunning/walking/jogging today. We hope you enjoyed it, we hope it did not hurt that much, and most of all we hope to see you all again very soon. Thank you for coming, and of course a special thank you for choosing Valentines as your first foray into the world of parkrun.
Matthew MCCLURE
Gideon KNIGHT
Zahra YOUNIS
Javaid RASHID
Imran MIRZA

First time Valentines “tourists”
All at Valentines would like to thank the following people from the parkrun community for coming to Valentines as tourists today. Hope you enjoyed it, sorry was a little windy in places; well beyond our control! Hope you liked the course and the sights, and hope we will see you again in the near future; maybe try and beat your time that you have set today.
Steve DANBY, Alistair HOLFORD, John FLYNN, Danielle MERCEY, Louise PRINCE, Evie HEARN, Martin GREENWOOD, Lee RADLEY, Gergana DANBY, Bethany HEARN, Stephanie GREENWOOD, Annick HOOGE, Philip PRINCE, Elizabeth HOLFORD, Joanne PERRY-SPINKS, Laura MCKENZIE, Florence EVANS, Liam KEIGHTLEY, Jeff GORTON, Nancy EVANS, Gareth EVANS, Janet SHAW, Emma PERRY-SPINKS, Annabelle ELLIOTT.

Fastest finishers

Onto the fastest ladies and gentlemen this week. Once again well done, and great running!!

Fastest 3 ladies:
Sameena AHMED 22:47
Carol BROOME 23:49
Danielle MERCEY 25:36
Once again Sameena was the first lady to cross the line, with Carol a close second, whilst Danielle hits third for her first time at Valentines, well done.

Fastest 3 gentlemen:
Angus HOLFORD 16:38
Matthew MCCLURE 18:48
Sean MORSE 20:08
Great work Angus, a new PB for Valentines. Matthew's first ever parkrun saw him coming home in second place. The actual third man to finish is unknown, but we cannot give congratulations to an invisible man, so well done to Sean.

Milestones
Recently if you have been reading these reports ( and if not why not?! you may be aware we have had some huge milestones recently. Today is a little different, with one of our junior runners completing their 10th parkrun and thus earning the coveted junior milestone t-shirt. So well done to Nancy EVANS (36:28), on achieving what we hope will be the first of many parkrun milestones for her!

Upcoming milestones:
Robert TAYLOR 49
Katherine WITHYMAN 49
Djamal RAMOUL 96
Sara PEARSON 48
If you know any of these lovely people above please cheer them on over the next week or two, as that's 3 people almost at 50 and Djamal 4 away from the 100 club. Amazing effort everyone.

So that’s the last run-walk-jog of 2017 at Valentines. Was it a good year for you? Did you smash your PB out of the park, did you manage to go all the way round twice without stopping? Did you set a milestone?

Most of all, and I really mean this: I hope that through parkrun you made new friends.

Please feel very free to comment on the Valentines Facebook page and let us know your story. Be it good, bad, or just funny...

On to 2018. Valentines starts the New Year with an additional event on 1st January 2018 at 10am!. Some of the runners will be combining that with an earlier run at Wanstead Flats parkrun (which will be at 9am). Good luck to all of you, I will be cheering you on from... just under my duvet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The Valentines reporter.

Here's the run report written by our mysterious secret agent for our New Year's Day parkrun!

Hello there Valentines parkrunners, plus of course anyone else who is reading this run report. Well knock me down with a feather, how many lovely people turned up today?! Oh yes, I hear you say, please tell: well, an amazing and I mean amazing 337 (three hundred and thirty-seven) hardy souls arrived at Valentines today, smashing the record attendance by 50 people, and our first time in the three hundreds.

Personally I did not realise how many people where there because as normal I was milling about near the back at the start, chatting to a few lovely people and exchanging lots of Happy News Years. When we started and I trundled down the start straight I did think "Hmm, seems quite busy" as I looked up... and then I saw the stream, no river of people who had already taken the first left at the boating lake, and I realised that the place was heaving. So thank you everyone who came: of course all the tourists, with lots of people doing the double, and as always the people taking their first steps into the world of parkrunning. It was great to see people arriving already caked in mud from their first parkrun of the day (probably I am guessing from Wanstead Flats) so massive congrats to you all, and I understand there were people who did Wanstead Flats and then rode their bicycles to Valentines to complete the second parkrun of the day. Great effort all round. [Editor's note: some people also ran between the two parkruns!]

Today was quite nice, actually. The rain held off which was nice of course. Maybe the people from Wanstead Flats and other muddy parkruns may have liked a rain shower to loosen the mud from their legs and shoes!

There were lots of PBs (Personal Bests) today, which are expected as some runners may come to Valentines as tourist for a previous New Year's Day run and may not have been here again for a while, but still good to see how much some have improved over a longer period of time.

We will start as always with a round of applause for our wonderful volunteers who are all amazing as always. I would like to say a special thank you for the lady with blonde hair and navy blue bobble hat who was handing out the tokens, as she seemed to smile at everyone I saw finish... and trust me, I was near the back, and to still be smiling by the time I arrived was epic!!

The hi-viz legends are listed below; please if you can always say thank you to these great people.
Marian ELIAS, Mark ELIAS, Ray Sparra EVERINGHAM, Wendy EVERINGHAM, Alison FRYATT, Stephen GILSON, Andrew GWILLIAM, Ed HOOKE, Jean MARSHALL, Samir PATEL, Carlie QIREM, Maran RAJU, Djamal RAMOUL, Peter SCHRODER, Robert SKEDGELL, Karen ST.JEAN-KUFUOR, Sachin VANMARI, Mark WELLING.

Milestones
Once again this week we only had one milestone unless I have got it all wrong the wonderful person who joined the number club this week is...
Katherine WITHYMAN who joins the 50 club

Well done Katherine, like always if you know the person listed please make sure you say well done or pat them on the back, as next week it will be 51 and no-one will care. Just kidding of course.

First-timers
I really think these people are heroes as it takes a lot to join in to something new no matter how many people tell you it's really friendly, so well done to the following peeps, and really hope to see you again soon.
Imran PATEL
Natalya ZARYTSKA
Debbie PRESTON-LOW
Ava BAILEY
Antoinette DAVIS

parkrun "veterans"
As it’s the first run report of the year, and as I was looking through the results it dawned on me there were quite a few runners today who have got to the 250 run mark and gone beyond, and considering they will not hit another milestone until 500!!! I thought a small mention would not hurt at all.
Adam SHAIKH 270
Jeremy TOWNSEND 256
Rowland LYONS 265
James HARRISON 283
Rakesh SANDHU 256
Sharon DAUGHTERS 252
Sam VEERASAMY 262
These 7 lovely people have amounted to 1834 park runs between them which is 9,170 km... so only another 375,230 km more and they would reach the moon. But a mere 11,000 km short of running to Sydney, Australia (well flying a little as there are seas to cross).

Personal bests at Valentines
As mentioned earlier in this report, a large number of PBs today, so well done everyone and give yourself a pat on the back.
Mo JAMMY 44:38 197 seconds improvement on PB
Mai AN 42:19 54 seconds improvement
Saima LONE 38:24 65 seconds improvement
Lisa YANG 38:00 91 seconds improvement
Frances WELLING 36:01 11 seconds improvement
Joanne PERRY-SPINKS32:50 57 seconds improvement
Philip FREEMAN 32:18 204 seconds improvement
Rosalind HALL 32:10 56 seconds improvement
Vitor MARTINS 30:49 104 seconds improvement
Peter GARGIULO 30:13 2 seconds improvement
Louisa PARSONS 29:16 45 seconds improvement
Michelle LONG 28:32 11 seconds improvement
Alexandra RUTISHAUSER-PERERA 27:36 30 seconds improvement
Heather IMPEY 27:02 255 seconds improvement
Bilkis ACHHA 26:10 7 seconds improvement
Anna CRAWLEY 25:44 377 seconds improvement
Janet BYWATER 25:39 543 seconds improvement
Selina VERNAL 25:16 1 second improvement
Samuel BURDETT 25:05 66 seconds improvement
John FLYNN 25:02 5 seconds improvement
Janine DURRANT 24:06 172 seconds improvement
Mahbub KHAN 23:55 10 seconds improvement
Jakub CZECZÓTKA 23:13 104 seconds improvement
Munim ALI 22:58 91 seconds improvement
Lewis TULLETT 22:49 5 seconds improvement
Mick BROWN 22:45 67 seconds improvement
Sean REED 22:43 103 seconds improvement
Paul WILLIAMS 22:15 15 seconds improvement
Clive STEPHENSON 21:58 27 seconds improvement
Arthur ANSELL 21:09 56 seconds improvement
Damien MCHUGH 19:46 20 seconds improvement
Kevin WRIGHT 19:21 656 seconds improvement
Alex PICKERING 19:17 15 seconds improvement
James NICHOLS 19:09 15 seconds improvement
Alex DAY 18:21 11 seconds improvement
Philip ELLUL 18:14 183 seconds improvement

I have to point out that one of the runners achieved the dreaded double today. Not a double parkrun but a double PB. So she does deserve a separate note:
Sheila SINCLAIR 31:53 0 second improvement

Rather unlucky for Sheila as she set exactly the same time last week!!!!!! So Shelia unlucky, but heck you’re consistent, and what a great way to start the year off!

Fastest 3 men
David MILLS 17:48
Philip ELLUL 18:14
Alex DAY 18:21
Well done all three. David is a first timer at Valentines so I’m guessing he liked the course, Philip and Alex both beat their previous PB at Valentines.

Fastest 3 women
Kelly CLARK 20:47
Rachel MORISON 21:12
Louise GILBERT 21:33
These three women were at Valentines for the first time, so I am hoping they liked the course; although maybe at their speeds they did not notice it so much. Well done all three.

First-time "tourists" at Valentines
Thank you everyone who attended today, we really hope you liked Valentines and we hope to see many of you again.
Margaret BYERS, Jaroslava COLLYER, Elizabeth O'DONNELL, Alex PATEL, Krisztina MAROTI, Lili MAROTI, Karen VARNEY, Antony SHINE, Kevin RYAN, Paul DEARMAN, Anna MAN, Margaret BAINBRIDGE, Alison HAWKES, Lorraine MOOR, Carmel MEEKING, Steve PEACOCK, John KNAPMAN, Corinne MOUHOT, Lynsey MANN, Trish GROVES, Jo BRETT-WAKELING, Claire COOK, Eleanor WILLIAMS, Camilla HAWKINS, Danuta GROSZ-SIKORSKA, Sue PARKINSON, Julie BLAKEBROUGH, Annette CIPA, Jude MCCAUGHREN, Zsolt MAROTI, Emma O'SHEA, Amelia MILLS, Jean-Clement YAOHIROU, Bernadett KALMAR, Jayne BROWNE, Andrew HARRIS, Caroline MOORE, Han CHERRY, Rachel LE ROUX, Viktor F SZABADI, Richard ROCKLIFFE, Kerry MAVRIS, Vee BEBE, Rebecca MARSHALL, Maud HODSON, Christopher REID, Mandy RENSHAW, Jane PANNELL, Emdad RAHMAN, Simon WAN, Kat MASKELL, Sarah BURNS, Andy SMITH, Paul SCHRODER, Lee PARKER, Andrew KITSON, Daniel GREEN, David VERNON, Charlotte GAREY, Ethan GEORGESON, Fiona ELWIN, Jason SEARLES, Michael BARRON, Maxwell BARNISH, Jeremy TOWNSEND, Jeremy BENSON, Kasia STACHOWIAK, Dylan WILLIAMS, Chris WEBSTER, Aneirin GLYN, Paul STARES, Duncan ANDERSON, Marco JOHNSTON, Robert NEWTON, Peter CRAIK, Mark GILBERT, Jane RUKIN-WHITE, Michael GARDEN, Robert SOMMERVILLE, Antony SMITH, Louise GILBERT, Henry ANSELL, Graham WHITE, Richard RUFFELL, Rachel MORISON, Stephen TAYLOR, Christopher DURCAN, Nathaniel DYE, Ralph AMBROSE, Kelly CLARK, Harry GLYN, Carl MARSTON, Edouard GUIDON, Alun EVANS, Justin PARTIS, Louis LE ROUX, Neil TURNEY, Adam HEWITT, David MILLS.

And finally...
Thank you everyone once again, and I'd like to add special thanks to the volunteers. We had a lovely photographer (Jean Marshall) today who has uploaded some great shots which can be seen via the Valentines parkrun Facebook page. Can you spot yourself? Oh by the way, there are even pictures of me... but who am I?

See you all on the 6th.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Bye for now,

The Valentines Reporter.