The London Borough of Redbridge will be using parkrun times to select a team of young athletes for the Mini London Marathon, which takes place in central London on the morning of the London Marathon, on 22nd April 2018.

The Mini London Marathon is the official British Athletics three-mile road championships for young athletes aged between 11 and 17. The event is open to entrants from across the UK. Past winners include Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah.

If your child lives in Redbridge, or goes to a school in the borough, and is interested in taking part, you will need to register them with Vision Redbridge (by e-mail to Active.Redbridge@visionrcl.org.uk) with their name and parkrun time, no later than 31st March.

For more information about the Mini London, please see their website:
https://www.minimarathon.co.uk/

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

Good afternoon Valentines parkrunners.
Did you enjoy yourself this Saturday? Did you manage to knock a few seconds off your Personal Best? Was it your first time at Valentines? However you did, give yourself a huge pat on the back, as getting out and running, walking, jogging 5km is an awesome achievement.

Yes it was a little chilly, but it was dry, which is always a positive. An amazing 242 wonderful people arrived at Valentines and huffed and puffed their way round our two-lap course. I would like to add though the park look really nice this time; of course it always does, but for some reason which I cannot put my finger on, I thought it did (maybe I woke up early enough to have my eyes fully open for once).

Volunteers
Hi-viz hero time!!!! We had 16 lovely volunteers scanning your barcodes, sorting the tokens, organising the funnel, or marshalling your route, so please a round of applause for the following people:
Dowel AHMED, Emil C., Mark DURRANT, Wendy EVERINGHAM, Stephen GILSON, Andrew GWILLIAM, Ed HOOKE, Uzayer MAQSOOD, Paul MATTHEWS, Joanne PERRY-SPINKS, Cheryl Ann SCHULTE, Bernd SCHULTE, Qasim SHEIKH, Michael STEVENS, Tony WHITE, Ibrahim YOUNIS

parkrun first-timers
As this was the second parkrun at Valentines this year, and the first on its regular Saturday, I would maybe in some way class this as the first of 2018, as the holiday season is now well and truly over. With this in mind, I thought it would be nice to highlight the following people for turning up for the first time ever to take part at a parkrun. Hope you enjoyed it, and really hope to see you again next week.
Pradipta DATTA
Joanne FITZSIMMONS
Olivia MORLEY
Quresh HASHMI
Jason FREEMAN
Conor LOVE

Fastest three females
As I write these reports it becomes a little bit of a "I know you but don’t know you" scenario. Which is quite amusing to me when I say I know you, I am writing in the context of I see a person’s time or their position or how close they were to their personal best (or not as they case may be).
This week's results made me think of that as Carol Broome is a regular from the stats that I see, she is always near the front of the ladies. This time, she was first female home! I hope that was pleasing for her, and I think deserved a little mention. Well done Carol.
Carol BROOME 23:33
Gemma THOMPSON 23:46
Becci LEDDY 24:00
Well done to Gemma and Becci for pushing hard. All 3 of the fastest ladies finished in less than 30 seconds of each other.

Fastest three males
Paul GAIMSTER 17:26
Simon THOMAS 18:44
Joe WATTS 18:51
A great time from Paul today, well done. Simon and Joe were only 7 seconds apart, with Joe setting a new personal best at Valentines. Top work all 3.

Personal Bests at Valentines
Javaid RASHID 41:17 ---- 306 seconds improvement
Mai AN 40:15 ---- 124 seconds improvement**
Imran MIRZA 39:23 ----- 736 seconds improvement
Noorjahan BEGUM 38:31 ----- 111 seconds improvement
Imrana SIDDIQUI 37:46 ----- 50 seconds improvement**
Mark ELIAS 36:41 ----- 16 seconds improvement*
Helen MACKENZIE-CARDY 35:58 ----- 18 seconds improvement**
Rajesh PATEL 34:14 ----- 9 seconds improvement
Ava BAILEY 34:24 ---- 182 seconds improvement
Carla VILJOEN 33:45 ----- 14 seconds improvement
Zahra YOUNIS 33:20 ------ 9 seconds improvement
Anna MAN 33:01 ------ 46 seconds improvement
Nina GOHIL 33:03 ------ 61 seconds improvement
Karen VARNEY 32:21 ------206 seconds improvement
Joanne PERRY-SPINKS 32:15 ------ 35 seconds improvement
Soukayna OUHAMMOU 31:29 ------ 12 seconds improvement
Said OUHAMMOU 31:33 ------ 9 seconds improvement
Tony PARKER 30:47 ------ 12 seconds improvement
Ashish RAI 29:47 ------ 60 seconds improvement
Hannah GRIFFITHS 29:31 ------- 67 seconds improvement
Dawid VILJOEN 28:08 ------- 20 seconds improvement
Antoinette DAVIS 27:37 ------- 590 seconds improvement
Simon WAN 25:48 -------- 31 seconds improvement
Zen SINGH 25:35 -------- 19 seconds improvement
Nayim RAHMAN 25:26 -------- 123 seconds improvement
Aidan BUTLER 25:06 -------- 4 seconds improvement
Hardeep KAUR 24:52 -------- 14 seconds improvement
John FLYNN 24:23 -------- 25 seconds improvement
David WELLS 23:24 -------- 88 seconds improvement
John EVETTS 23:03 --------- 180 seconds improvement
Craig PARRETT 22:36 ---------- 23 seconds improvement
Paul STARES 22:24 --------- 17 seconds improvement
Greg TURTLE 22:03 ---------- 28 seconds improvement
Stephan ANTOINE 21:44 ---------- 96 seconds improvement
Joe WATTS 18:51 ------------ 31 seconds improvement

First-time "tourists" at Valentines
Once again I would like to thank the wonderful people listed below for coming to Valentines for a bit of parkrun tourism. Hope you liked the course.
Helen PLANT, Gemma SLADE, George MASON, Kerry MCDILL, Judi LEDDY, Mark PINNEY, Kate WARNER, Carmel PRAGNELL, Nathan WHITE, Helen MAN, Tamsin BRIGGS, Darren WARD, Michael SUTTON, Becci LEDDY, Rob MONK, Michael BURT, Mark THOMPSON.

We don't have space here to give a mention to each one of our other superb runners, but you're not forgotten: we hope you also enjoyed your run, jog, or walk with us!

To close off the report just a small reminder (make a note in your diary) that 17th February 2018 will be Valentines official anniversary... that's 7 years of parkrun fun!

See you all on the 13th for more fun, frolics, and mayhem.

Kind regards

The Valentines Reporter

One of our runners recorded this video footage on Saturday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ewwxeq9xo

Our secret agent in the field has sent us their run report for this weekend's parkrun!

Good day to all the wonderful parkrunners and spectators and dogs, not to mention a few squirrels, ducks, geese, swans plus all the other wonderful wildlife that joined us all this morning at Valentines.

What a great morning it was; quite brisk in the air, but again it was dry, which is always a positive (but personally when it does rain it can be really nice too).
This week 241 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 34 were first timers and 28 recorded new Personal Bests, so well done to everyone, a great effort all round. More mentions on these super feats later in the report!

Volunteers
Great turn out of volunteers today: 17 in total! Massive applause goes to all listed below. Having volunteered myself at times, it really is a nice experience getting to see the runners, walkers, joggers, and sometimes seeing grimaces turn to amazing smiles at the realisation of personal achievements. I'm sure I have seen the odd dog smile too.
Vicki GROVES + Sadie (the dog) • Richard ASH • Andrew GWILLIAM • Charlotte NIELSEN • Simon THOMAS • Alison SCOTT • Qasim SHEIKH • Gaynor WHITE • Tony WHITE • Ed HOOKE • Suzie KNAPTON • Michael STEVENS • Mark DURRANT • Emil C. • Alex PATEL • Dowel AHMED • Uzayer MAQSOOD

Just an extra special mention for Emil who took the reins today as Run Director, and a top job was done, great stuff, and massive thank you from everyone!!!!!!

Fastest 3 females
Claire Louise SPENCER 18:40
Zena PHILLIPS 21:25
Sameena AHMED 22:39

It was Claire's and Zena's first time at Valentines, even though both have over 100 parkrun entries, and wow very fast indeed! Claire came in first overall with her wonderful canine (which I can only apologise for not knowing the name) but very well done. Having a little browse at Zena's stats, I can see she's another great runner, and it looks like she loves a bit of tourism too, which is always great. Sameena is always near the front end, another great run, very consistent, and always very close to her personal best (only 9 seconds from it this week).

Fastest 3 males
Aaron BROWNE 19:28
Simon THOMAS 19:29
Stuart KELLY 19:53

Aaron, Simon, and Stuart take the spoils for the fast men this week. Great work, all 3! Sadly these guys were miles from me, so hard to say if it was a charge to the line being that only 1 second separated the first 2, but great running by all 3. The 4th fastest runner was only 1 second behind Stuart. The fastest 6 men were all from East London Runners.

First-time ever parkrunners!
Okay yes I know I bleat on about this, but for me the people who turn up first time and take the plunge into the world of parkrun are all heroes in my eyes. It takes some courage to turn up to something you have maybe never done before with 200 or more other souls who you probably do not know; the thought must cross your mind "Am I quick enough to be here?" although the simple answer to that is you are always quick enough! No-one is ever too slow, that’s the beauty of parkrun, it’s all for one and one for all. If you see your name listed below well done, please come again, and most of all everyone hopes you enjoyed it.
Laura CANN, Sabina KHAN, Manoj SUDRA, Navjot BANSEL, Priya WAROO, Ying HU, Nadia AINLEY, Ria SUDRA, Jason FREEMAN, Alice HORNEY, Hamza ISLAM

Maybe you are a regular who has brought one of the above along to have a go, well done to you too, please make sure they get to read this report and see their name in lights so to speak.

First-time "tourists" at Valentines
The team at Valentines and all the regulars always like to see some tourists coming to visit. For me personally it adds to the enjoyment of parkrun, and is always nice to hear things like I heard today "love your course" (comment from a guy who went past me like I was going backwards). So with that said, please can we have a round of applause for the following bunch that came to have a tour for the first time at Valentines. I would love to list every tourist, but it is impossible to do once you have visited Valentines more than once, due to the way the results pages are organised, but please comment on our Facebook page and tell us what you liked or disliked... although we hope nothing on the later!
Claire Louise SPENCER, Nick KTORI, Zena PHILLIPS, Melanie SHEEHAN, Nicole SHEEHAN, Sabbir ESAT, Matthew William John BENNETT, Leslie CHU, Geoff BROWN, Paul W H MILLER, Mark DEWDNEY, Kevin BARKER, Kim MAN, Richard SMITH, Katie MAN, Michele SULLIVAN, Andy CLEGG, Joan BARKER, Ryan LOWE, Ella OWEN, Karla WILLIAMS, Chris CANN, Kathy BROWN.

Milestones
Only two official milestones this week, but a little bit special as both runners have done all 50 of their runs at Valentines. Huge congratulations go to:
Baljinder MATHARU joins the 50 club
Sweta MANAPURAM Joins the 50 club
If you know Bajinder or Sweta make sure you shake their hand, as it is a great achievement!

Personal Bests at Valentines
Yet again so many people have run, walked, and jogged around Valentines quicker than they ever have before! What an epic achievement.
If you see below your name or that of someone you know personally, pat them on the back, as going quicker than you ever have before at a course is and always should be a great motivation to you and many others who maybe this week did not quite make it. Seeing others do so well can only spur everyone on to greatness!
Mark WELLING 40:21
Duncan MCLAREN 40:08
Noorjahan BEGUM 38:16
Imran MIRZA 37:03
Carly LEZER 36:12
Frances WELLING 35:48
Junaid CAMPWALA 35:33
George MASON 33:27
Carla VILJOEN 33:34
Gemma SLADE 33:35
Melanie EADON 32:58
Haddi BROWNE 32:20
Anna MAN 31:47
Manuela ROSSMAR 30:52
Rajani KanthMACHARLA29:56
Quresh HASHMI 30:02
Natalie ALDHAM 28:58
Julia SHMOTKINA 28:09
Gillian CARTER 27:33
Cathy OWEN 27:08
Elisabeth RICKARD 26:26
Bilkis ACHHA 26:07
Daniel PEREIRA 25:30
Simon WAN 25:22
Zen SINGH 25:11
Hardeep KAUR 24:44
Jacob JOSEPH 22:38
Mark GILBERT 21:15
Very well done everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Report is a little shorter today, as I have been invited to a fellow parkrunner's house for a party to celebrate their birthday (you know who you are), so with that I will bid everyone farewell, and hope to see you all and more at next week’s Valentines parkrun for more fun, frolics, and shenanigans.

The Valentines Reporter

Our secret agent's run report for last weekend's Valentines parkrun has now dried out, so here it is!

Well it had to happen sooner than later, yep the dreaded rain arrived at this morning’s parkrun, although it was not as bad as predicted. [Editor's note: What?!]

It was still a bit miserable, I was thinking on route to Valentines that the numbers will be down today, it’s a bit chilly the rain is falling, it's grey and just brrrrrrrrrr. Mistaken I was, as the numbers were down a little but not too much as still 183 wonderful people arrived and walked, jogged, and ran their legs off around Valentines Park!! Great stuff all, really great stuff. Of those 183 it emerged that 23 people ran quicker than ever before at Valentines, so hats off to those legends (more on that later), also we had a great 7 brand spanking new parkrun participants who joined us at Valentines today for their first venture into the joy of parkrunning; well done indeed.

So where to start this week, well it has to be as always the volunteers those wonderful... no that’s the wrong word... those amazing special heroic people who sort the tokens, time keep, scan your tokens, marshal the course, and all the other jobs that always need doing, and are done before you arrive and sometimes long after you have left. Massive round of applause goes this week to:
Richard ASH • Pathrose LOUIS • Andrew GWILLIAM • Phil BUTCHER • Qasim SHEIKH • Peter SCHRODER • Gaynor WHITE • Tony WHITE • Elizabeth HILLS • Mark DURRANT • Dowel AHMED • Uzayer MAQSOOD
Every one of these people got wet yesterday, some more than others, but they keep on smiling. Please make sure you say thanks when you get the chance (as lots already do) as the encouragement goes both ways.

First-time parkrun participants
These people took the plunge this week to give parkrun a go, we are really happy they have chosen Valentines as their first parkrun venture. We hope you enjoyed it, and hope to see you again very soon; next week hopefully!
Poonam GURUNG, Sharondeep JAWANDA, Shimere PIPER, Lysander BAZUAYE-AULT, Sehnaj PATEL, Shirajul ISLAM

First-time "tourists" at Valentines
A huge thank you to the following people who came to visit for the first time today at Valentines. Do hope you liked the course and the community. We really hope to see you all again very soon; maybe come back and try and beat the time you set today?
Harrison EVANS, Giles DEVLIN, Benjamin James KNIGHT, Toby KENDALL, Peter VAN TONGEREN, Tim GRETTON, Amy BELL, Sharon DAVIDSON, Andrew John Mark TEDDER, Amy GAUNT, Andrew BAILEY, Jason CHEUNG, Jack MUSSETT, Claire FREEMAN, Andy BAKER, Ashton DEVLIN, Kai DEVLIN, Shivonne ROBERTSON, Jeff BROOKS, Claire ONI, Dipo ONI,

Fastest 3 women
Caroline FRITH 22:13
Sameena AHMED 22:38
Carol BROOME 24:10

Caroline Firth was the first woman home, with a great time. She has run at Valentines 45 times now, and is always a great competitor. Sameena is another really great consistent runner; her last three runs at Valentines have seen times of 22:38, 22:39, and 22:38. With a Personal Best of 22:30 you can see she's a very consistent and quick parkrunner. Carol Broome, once again amongst the first 3, has run at Valentines 56 times and is always at the front or very close to it. Huge congratulations to everyone.

Fastest 3 men
Harrison EVANS 18:59
Alex DEVEREUX 19:27
Rodney MUSHANGANYISI 19:36
It was Harrison Evans's first time at Valentines. I think coming home first out of all the runners will always make you like a course. With a great time of just under 19 minutes, I noticed on the Valentines parkrun Facebook page that Harrison by accident left his hoodie and hat behind, I would like to think just going far too fast to worry about picking it up on his way out! Top run, well done. Alex Devereux came home in 2nd with a great mid 19 minute time considering the weather. Rodney Mushangansyi romped home to 3rd again in the mid 19 minute area; looking at Rodney’s results he seems a very competent runner, running at Wanstead Flats parkrun and Valentines, and regularly being amongst the first to cross the finishing line. Well done all 3! Added to this a mention for Giles Devin who came in 2 seconds behind Rodney, now I do not know if Giles was catching Rodney or Rodney passed Giles but 2 seconds is a close finish in any shape or form.

Personal Bests at Valentines
So there was me thinking that the weather is awful so there will not be many people beating their Personal Bests today!!! Oh my, how wrong was I on that thought! So without further comment, huge claps all round for the following heroes who went round today faster than they ever have before, you should feel very proud, well done indeed.
Fiona MCLAREN 40:02 262 seconds improvement
Mark WELLING 39:28 53 seconds improvement
Lauren BATCHELOR 37:45 44 seconds improvement
Duncan MCLAREN 37:29 159 seconds improvement
Noorjahan BEGUM 36:57 79 seconds improvement
Damo O'C 36:29 59 seconds improvement
Imran MIRZA 36:18 45 seconds improvement
James O'C 36:14 71 seconds improvement
Frances WELLING 34:59 49 seconds improvement*
Priya WAROO 33:18 71 seconds improvement
Ying HU 31:51 89 seconds improvement
Sheila SINCLAIR 31:22 31 seconds improvement**
Said OUHAMMOU 30:02 91 seconds improvement
Soukayna OUHAMMOU30:01 88 seconds improvement
Katie MAN 26:20 78 seconds improvement
Quresh HASHMI 29:30 32 seconds improvement
Helen MAN 26:01 44 seconds improvement
Kim MAN 25:27 18 seconds improvement
Daniel PEREIRA 25:02 28 seconds improvement
Nazia ISLAM 24:34 15 seconds improvement
Declan PETERS 24:15 12 seconds improvement
Leslie CHU 23:47 39 seconds improvement
Emmet FITZGIBBON 22:54 54 seconds improvement

The weather was awful at times today so to get a personal best when the ground is wet is a massive achievement; just think how fast the above will go when it’s dry!
I have a couple of mentions to make from the list above. Firstly, Sheila SINCLAIR broke her personal best a few weeks back running a great 31:53 and the next week (New Year’s Day to be precise) she hit the exact same time of 31:53. Now this week she powered through and knocked a huge 31 seconds off that time!!! Amazing, well done Sheila.
Frances WELLING today hit a great time of 34:59 getting into the 35 minute bracket for the first time, which on its own is amazing, but even more so when you realise that Frances has run at Valentines 16 times from her overall 25 parkruns, and of those 16 runs she has beaten her Personal Best 12 times!!!! Top stuff, Frances.

"200 and above club"
To round up the report, just a few names who took part at Valentines who have all passed the 200 events at parkrun. Although the official milestones do mark a person’s achievements, 200 I personally feel is enough to have your name in a run report here and there.
Giles DEVLIN 256, Rakesh SANDHU 258, James HARRISON 286, Joshua David ADLER 229, Samir PATEL 210, Manji GAMI 200, Rahana ISLAM 227, Samuel KUCHIPUDI 226, Verna Marilyn GRANT 244, Sheila SINCLAIR 216, Beverley EAGLES 226.

Ooops!
I have been informed that there may have been a slight hiccup with some times amongst the top 30 runners. We believe the error was fixed before the results were published, but if you finished in positions 1-30 and your time or position relative to the next/previous runner is incorrect, please do let us know. We are only human, mistakes sometimes will happen, and the rain and cold did create a few gremlins for the volunteers to deal with!

Next week
So onwards we trundle to 27th January. Come and finish January with a flourish at Valentines; the weather report says it is going to me a lovely 25 degrees with lots of sunshine! Okay, I lied there, but I can guarantee it will be fun and frolics and huge shenanigans once again. Please try not to get a PB though, I'm knackered from writing them all down.

Yours,

The Valentine Reporter.

PS:
Don’t forget to mark your calendar as Valentines parkrun's 7th anniversary falls on 17th February.

It's almost the weekend! To inspire you, here's the report about last weekend's parkrun, sent to us by our secret agent in the field:

Well hello my lovelies, it is I the Valentines Reporter, with all the latest news and gossip from run number 367 at Valentines.

It is now mid-afternoon on Saturday in my secret bunker, which as some of you know is underneath the boating lake at Valentines, in my yellow submarine (someone should write a song about that)... anyway it's blinking chucking it down, with rain drops larger than tennis balls, so phewwww are we glad parkrun is at 9am and not 3pm. Oh and for the clever people, I know it is raining as I have a periscope!

What a great day run #367 turns out to have been. We had a huge and very very very welcome 272 people attend our little shindig today, and our female course record holder came to tear the tarmac from our paths... and she did!! An amazing 42 people had the first experience of Valentines and a tremendous 44 wonderful people went round Valentines faster than they ever have before, creating 44 brand spanking new Personal Bests!!!! You people really do rock!!

As our great and ever so wonderful [Editor's Note: no he's not!] Run Director of the day Andrew pointed out rather loudly to a huge group of participants, the weather was oh so good for Personal Bests. I was standing nearby thinking oh yes I’m sure that’s great, but what about my poor fingers typing all that up!! Geeezzz thanks Andrew!

VOLUNTEERS
First up as always, massive huge thanks go to the ever so great hi-viz legends that are our volunteers. Please be upstanding for the list of legends below:
Dowel AHMED, Tom BARTON, Emil C., Sharon DAUGHTERS, Mark DURRANT, Stephen GILSON, Andrew GWILLIAM, Ed HOOKE, Suzie KNAPTON, Uzayer MAQSOOD, Susan PARKER, Katie ROSSI, Qasim SHEIKH, Ali ULLAH, Tony WHITE

Come rain or shine the names may change a bit here and there, but always we feel they are the best volunteers ever.

FASTEST 3 WOMEN
Faye Alexis FULLERTON 17:19
Sarah MILNE 20:32
Sameena AHMED 22:26 New PB!

What can you say about these ladies above, all I will say is, say it fast as if you don’t they will not hear you as they will be a long way away.

Faye Alexis Fullerton is our current female record holder at Valentines with an amazing time of 17:00 set in April 2015 so over 2 years later she returns and runs only 17 seconds slower!!!! Amazing effort. Sarah Milne, today was her first time at Valentines coming in with a great 20:32. Looking at Sarah’s stats a great runner all the way from the Aberdeen area, which seems to be her more regular parkrun. Sameena oh yes, woohooo subs into the 22:20s with a stonking new Personal Best. I would like to say I will take some credit for Sameena hitting this PB after I mentioned last week how amazingly consistent she was, and I do know she reads the reports as she has been kind enough to mention on the Valentines Facebook page. But of course I am just kidding, I cannot take credit. What time will Sameena have to run to get another mention?

FASTEST 3 MEN
Paul REDDAWAY 18:59
Henry HAMILTON 19:49
Rodney MUSHANGANYISI 19:49

Well done to Paul Reddaway being the first guy home with a nice sub-19 minute time. Looking at the stats Paul seems to be doing a bit of tourist parkrunning lately; his home course is Gunpowder, in North London. We hope you liked the course and please do come again soon! Now Henry and Rodney have the exact same time, and as I was a long long way away from the finish I'm not quite sure if Henry beat Rodney to the line or Rodney nearly caught Henry, but either way Wow! that's close running. Well done both of you. As like all events when a tied time the person who came in 4th male gets a mention as it is only fair, so well done goes to Ashley FARIA.

FIRST-TIME PARKRUNNERS
This week we had 9 wonderful people turn up for their first foray into the world of parkrun, to me personally these people deserve as much applause as the speedy people or the consistent runners as I feel 1 parkrun is the same as 100 as we all have to start somewhere, and all at Valentines are so happy the people below chose our place to start their journey. Blinking well done!!!!!
Karen CANN, Evie CANN, Pami BAMRAH, Sarah JOHN-LEWIS, Chinua JOHNSON, Eline FREEMAN, Prabhdeep SANDHU, Amaya PERMAUL, Amardeep Singh RAI

PERSONAL BESTS

Andrew was right, it seems today was a good day for Personal Bests. An amazing effort from all 44 of you, so please take a bow or curtsy if you see your name in lights below. This means you have gone faster than ever before around Valentines. Be proud of that!!!
Laura CANN 50:47
Chris CANN 47:27
Sabina KHAN 46:09
Sharondeep JAWANDA 38:00
Nigel EUSTACE 37:55
Joanne FITZSIMMONS 36:39
Jessica CROPPER 36:15
Shimere PIPER 34:06
Aslam BACCUS 33:40
Carla VILJOEN 33:31
Sehnaj PATEL 33:30
Ava BAILEY 32:56
George MASON 32:31
Haddi BROWNE 31:52
Lysander BAZUAYE-AUL 31:38
Patrick DOBBS 31:34
Daisy WEST 31:07
Imran AHMED 30:32
Hannah GRIFFITHS 28:48
Jeff GORTON 28:02
Lois MOLLOY 27:57
Michele SULLIVAN 27:41
Lee HAMMOND 27:10
Libby HAMMOND 27:08
Katie MAN 25:50
Said OUHAMMOU 25:28
Kim MAN 25:02
Simon WAN 25:01
Zen SINGH 24:53
Hardeep KAUR 24:27
Daniel PEREIRA 24:26
Annette CLARK 24:24
Pauline TESTER 24:20
John FLYNN 24:15
Peter BURDETT 23:44
Samuel BURDETT 23:43
Leslie CHU 23:24
Sameena AHMED 22:26
Stephen SMITH 22:12
John O'SULLIVAN 22:10
Emran HUSSAIN 22:10
Emmet FITZGIBBON 22:04
Liam KEIGHTLEY 21:28
Mark GILBERT 20:48

MILESTONES
Hardeep KAUR joins the 50 runs club this week, well done Hardeep. And a PB time, too!

FIRST TIME VISITORS AT VALENTINES
Paul REDDAWAY, Henry HAMILTON, Sarah MILNE, William ROXBY-CLARKE, Rob BASER, Antonio STIFANI, Wojciech KOS*, Nigel COCKRELL, Gill HOLMES, Rob MAHONEY, Chris BROUGH, Benny FRYETT, Steve HAYTON, Holly BOATRIGHT, Alison DAVEY, Suzanne TAYLOR, James COCKRELL, Gavin CHURCH, Tracy CHURCH, Matt BONNE, Josh MCLEAN, Claire Alison YOUNG, Maryke DE VILLIERS, Judith BASER, Wendy REDDAWAY, Wendy SCOTT, Rob MCLEAN, Deborah MCLEAN, Suzy SMITH, Agnieszka KOS*, Sarah ROXBY-CLARKE, Martine THOMPSON,

We had a some great tourists today from all over: Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Scotland... and even 2 lovely people Wojciech KOS and Agnieszka KOS from Poland, taking in their first UK parkrun. Thank you all 32 of you wonderful people for joining us today at Valentines, we do hope you liked our parkrun and our team, and most of all our wonderful happy community. Hope to see you all again very very soon.

So that just about wraps up this run report. I do hope you enjoyed the read, if you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact the team, or of course please feel free to use our Facebook page.

Onto February we go!

Yours,

The Valentines reporter

Here's the run report for Saturday's parkrun!

Good evening superhuman Valentines parkrunners, I do hope you enjoyed today’s parkrun being number #368 meaning our birthday run is getting ever so close (17th February is the date to set in your diary).
Today an amazing 250 people ran, walked, and jogged around the very pretty Valentines Park in aid of the parkrun cause, well done everyone. We had 11 first-time tourists visit today, and a huge 17 wonderful people making the first venture into the parkrun community. What is another great achievement is that 38 speedsters broke their personal best at Valentines today!!!!! That is blinking amazing, just wow all round, well done all! Names in lights for all concerned later in the report.

VOLUNTEERS
As always first things first, the following 15 hi-viz legends turned up today to marshal, sort tokens, funnel manage, and many other roles which are done before everyone arrives, during the event, and after everyone has left. So please a big, no huge, round of applause to the wonderful people listed below.
Katherine HARRIS • Andrew GWILLIAM • Stephen GILSON • Paul MATTHEWS • Phil BUTCHER • Qasim SHEIKH • Gill PRINGLE • Ed HOOKE • Emil C. • Ibrahim YOUNIS • Dennis BRIGGS • Dowel AHMED • Rory BURR • Ali ULLAH • Uzayer MAQSOOD

FIRST-EVER PARKRUN
Today marked the start of the following people’s parkrun journey. I guarantee I write for everyone at Valentines, to say I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you come again next week, and of course massive congratulations for your efforts.
Caroline WILKINSON, Rhea WEBSTER, Jo PERMAUL, Arshad SYED, Nikki RAI, Jeskiran RAI, Dilip ACHALLA, Diana CONDILLAC, Mark WALLACE, Hardeep RAI, Sukcharan RAI, Kam RAI, Nancy PALUMBO, Abdur RAHIM, Kerry STARES, Dillon WOODS, Harvey WOODS.

FIRST TIME AT VALENTINES “TOURISTS”
We had a lovely 11 people turn up at Valentines today as tourists/visitors for the first time, so thank you for your visit, we really hope you enjoyed the community and the course, and maybe had a tea of coffee or more at the café. Please come back soon to see if you can better your time you set this week.
Ruby CAMPBELL, Maureen BARRY, Harjoat Kaur BAINS, Michael Edward ANSTEY, Samantha CHAMBERS, Daren HORRIGAN, Gim MAN, Paul DENNIS, George CHAMBERS, Rob MILLARD, David SKIPP, Lynda BROADWAY

FASTEST 3 MEN
Simon THOMAS 18:34
Dan SENIOR 18:52
Diarmuid MAC DONNELL 19:33
Well done to Simon, Dan and Diarmuid for being the first 3 guys home this week. Simon was running his 54th parkrun at Valentines (from his total of 62). Looking at Dan's stats, he's been running at Wanstead Flats and Valentines recently. Diarmuid finished in a great 3rd place on his 141st parkrun adventure at Valentines.

FASTEST 3 WOMEN
Louise GILBERT 20:00 New PB!
Laurelle BRANT 22:14 New PB!
Sameena AHMED 22:45
Amazing running from all three of the fastest 3 ladies, with Louise coming out on top this week with a great time of 20:00 and setting a new PB at Valentines in the process. Laurelle stormed to 2nd, again with a PB at Valentines. Sameena yet again in the top 3 and into the 22-minute bracket yet again; well done.

MILESTONES
Morgan KEANE
Lynda BROADWAY
Two great people joined the milestone club, today both hitting their 50th parkrun. Morgan is a regular at Valentines with all 50 runs. In contrast, this was Lynda's first time at Valentines. Thank you for celebrating your 50th at Valentines, and well done to Morgan as well!

PERSONAL BESTS AT VALENTINES
Well it’s that time again for the names to be up in lights (so to speak). Here's your chance to show off a little to your friends and family members who read this report! Top work everyone, very well done.
Louise GILBERT 20:00
Rory BURR 20:52
Emmet FITZGIBBON 22:01
Laurelle BRANT 22:14
Paul STARES 22:17
Jamie AUSTIN 23:03
Rob MAHONEY 23:39
Isabelle SMITH 23:49
Daniel PEREIRA 23:54
Hardeep KAUR 23:55**
Ed HOOKE 23:56
Alan CHAMBERS 24:17
Matilda TAYLOR 24:36
Sarah THOMAS 24:55
Robyn TURTLE 25:14
Nathan WHITE 25:49
Antoinette DAVIS 26:06
Quresh HASHMI 26:48
Amaya PERMAUL 27:01
Jason FREEMAN 27:41
Amardeep Singh RAI 27:46
Imran AHMED 30:27
Andrew David RATAJCZAK 31:19
Lynne FITZGERALD 31:32
Dipo ONI 32:11
Francis AKOR 32:34
Priya WAROO 32:40
Sehnaj PATEL 32:41
Antony SHINE 32:45
Chinua JOHNSON 33:32
Janet SHAW 34:15
Usha MODI 34:22
Joanne FITZSIMMONS 36:18
Noorjahan BEGUM 36:29
Nigel EUSTACE 37:06
Mark WELLING 39:00
Sarah JOHN-LEWIS 43:11
Sabina KHAN 45:06

A handful of mentions for a few people from amongst the above personal bests, just to show extra recognition for their efforts.
Mark Welling has hit 3 personal bests at Valentines in the last 4 outings, first breaking into the 40 minute barrier and now hitting a great 39:00 time. Great stuff, Mark.
Sarah Thomas broke her PB at Valentines that looking at her stats had stood for almost 10 months, which shows if you keep coming and keep trying, triumph will prevail. Similarly for Ed Hooke, a new PB had been a while in coming, but heck this week it really did, and breaking onto the 23-minute area is a double bonus. Well done Ed.
Hardeep Kaur has achieved an amazing 4 PBs at her last 4 parkruns at Valentines. May I say Hardeep is really hot right now? Cooking with custard, even? Great effort!

But to everyone who got close and to those that this week it didn't happen for whatever reason, you can see above that it can indeed happen if you just keep trying. But most importantly of all, enjoy the ride!

See you all bright and breezy next Saturday (the 10th) for the next exciting Valentines parkrun.

Yours,

The Valentines Reporter.

We'll be trying something new this weekend to help the deaf and hard of hearing! Our pre-run briefing to our runners and walkers will be signed using BSL (British Sign Language).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xzJ1wTO6xG4

So I must explain very quickly, that no run report last week was totally down to me being just too lazy ermm no I mean busy, I do apologise but huge congrats to everyone who took part and I really hope you smashed it!!!!

I will admit I was not in Madagascar training small businesses on tax returns as mentioned on our Facebook page. Sheshhhh my lawyers have been informed!! I was actually in deepest darkest Peru as I had been told there was a huge PB to be seen, I was so excited as I love stats and all nerdy items that come along with that information. Sadly again I was duped, there was no PB in the personal best meaning of the word; PB turned out to stand for Paddington Bear. But my word, the best-ever marmalade sandwiches were consumed by all!

Our ever so resourceful editor posted on our Facebook page a great headcam from a tourism participant Andis Ozols from event 369 last week which was great, but Andis also made a video of his journey from his home to Valentines a kind of making of video; it is well worth the watch. Dedication is a great trait to have.

Enough of the above I am just rambling as always... onto event 370, the birthday bash!!!!

Our wonderful dedicated parkrun enthusiasts ensured we had a great turnout for event number #370, with a whopping 296 participants and 19 superb volunteers helping to celebrate 7 years of parkrun at Valentines! 55 people beat their personal bests, 44 people who had never been to Valentines before arrived and conquered the course (26 different clubs were represented)!!!! Pheww!!! Amongst those present were some of those who took part at event #1: David William THOMAS, Jennifer AKROYD, Carol MUIR, Timi Selon VEERASAMY, and Sam VEERASAMY.

By the way: Happy Birthday, Valentines parkrun!! Our very first event took place 7 years ago today, on 19th February 2011.

VOLUNTEERS
Oh yes it’s that time again, please be upstanding, clap and cheer and wave like you just don’t care, to our superb and amazing and good-looking and bestest people ever... And may I say rather persuading on what I am told to write here?
I give you the hi-viz legends:
Sathanandasundaram ALAGANANDASUNDARAM, Damian BAKER, Robin BOOPUTH, Dennis BRIGGS, Louis DU PLESSIS, Tanya DU PLESSIS, Stephen GILSON, David GODFREY, Gaynor WHITE, Vicki GROVES, Katherine HARRIS, Ed HOOKE, Pathrose LOUIS, Diarmuid MAC DONNELL, Carol MUIR, Gill PRINGLE, Carlie QIREM, Rebecca ROES, Peter SCHRODER, Ibrahim YOUNIS
PS: Thanks all!

FIRST-EVER PARKRUN
The people listed below took this Saturday to do their first parkrun ever. Thank you all for turning up and giving it a great go, and also thank you for choosing Valentines for your first attempt; we hope you liked it, and we really hope to see you all again next week.
Lucy WILKINSON, Kalina HARACHEREVA, Rose JOHN-LEWIS, Ulanda LANGFORD, Adam AGBAMU

MILESTONES
Just a couple of milestones this week, but just as important so huge massive congratulations goes to:
Matthew HICK - a junior parkrunner who has now hit the 10 runs mark with 9 at Valentines. With a sub-20 Personal Best Matthew is pretty quick! Well done.

Our second milestone achievement goes to William Wright, who has joined the "50 club" so hopefully a nice red T-shirt will be winging its way to William's letterbox shortly. William has done all of his amazing 50 runs at Valentines, so thank you for dedication and the support you have shown!

While we are on the topic of amazing feats and milestones I just wanted to list a few names who need a pat on the back or cake (or both). Over the coming weeks, I do realise that some of the peoples named are not at the official milestones, but come on if your run number ends with two 00 after the first number, or is getting close to it, you have done enough to get a mention in my book!
Steven RAMEK 299, Julian MOORE 99, Bilkis ACHHA 99, Michael NEWMAN 48, Vicki GROVES 200, James HARRISON 290, Verna Marilyn GRANT 247, Sonya VEERASAMY 95, Roberta MIH 249, Charlotte NIELSEN 249
If Charlotte, Roberta, Bilkis, and Julian (all of whom are Valentines regulars) make it along next week, then it should be PARTY TIME!!!!

FASTEST 3 MEN
Aaron SAMUEL 17:28
Edward REES 18:28
Simon THOMAS 18:30
Wow Aaron's first time at Valentines and he flew round in the middle of the 17-minute band. Great stuff (and a junior!), really top running, well done, and a nice PB for the event that is sure to come down further in future visits. It was also Edward's first time at Valentines, and another great run to come in mid-18 minutes. Simon is a great consistent runner at Valentines coming in only 2 seconds behind Edward, superb runs all from all 3.

FASTEST 3 WOMEN
Louise GILBERT 20:56
Caroline FRITH 21:57
Sameena AHMED 21:59 New PB!
Louise was the first woman to cross the finishing line, making it 3 times in a row now... and with the exact same time as last week! Pretty consistent, and another junior runner, who's likely to show even better stuff in the future. Caroline came in 2nd place in a close battle with Sameena; only 2 seconds in it. Caroline is a great competitor, always near the front when she runs with us at Valentines. I mentioned in a run report a few weeks back that as Sameena had now got into the 22-minute area she would have to break into the 21-minute band to get another mention... well, she did it, with another great PB! Well done.

PERSONAL BESTS
So it’s that time again, the superb people below have on the 7th anniversary of parkrun at Valentines taken their own glory to another level; oh yes, it’s the personal best roll call. Wohooooooo!
Laura CANN 47:06
Chris CANN 43:25
Mark FINNEY 42:23
Sia KALIA 40:49
Caroline WILKINSON 40:33
Sarah JOHN-LEWIS 40:04
Hana MANGERA 37:20
Satpall MATHU 37:18
Hannah MISTRY 36:43
Caroline WARD 36:19
Noorjahan BEGUM 36:00
Imran MIRZA 35:37
Nikki RAI 35:20
Elizabeth WILKINSON 34:57
Jo FINNEY 34:14
Wendy EVERINGHAM 34:08
Usha MODI 33:43
Prabhdeep SANDHU 32:20
Chinua JOHNSON 31:53
Dipo ONI 31:48
Sehnaj PATEL 31:45
Barry TAVENER 31:22
Ying HU 31:07
Misbah JUNAID 30:56
Kitty BROWN 30:42
Mark PETERS 30:28
Imran AHMED 30:19
Rohit MISTRY 30:07
Louise PAYANIANDY 29:28
Kaya SMITH 29:20
Nadia AINLEY 29:07
Sukcharan Singh RAI 28:21
Klara MARXTOVA 27:35
Joseph WOOD 26:54
Quresh HASHMI 26:41
Zulfkhar AHMED 26:30
Amardeep Singh RAI 26:25
Thevian UTHAYAKUMAR 25:50
Bilkis ACHHA 25:36
Nigel WILLIAMS 24:57
Sarah THOMAS 24:31
Aaron HICK 23:35
Abdullah KHANJI 23:27
Mohammed KHANJI 23:27
Daniel HALL 22:20
Ryder ISLAM 22:05
Sameena AHMED 21:59
Emran HUSSAIN 21:52
Harvi SINGH 21:16
Amar RAI 20:54
Harvey WOODS 20:35
Craig LIVERMORE 19:26
Bradley DEACON 19:02
Jak WRIGHT 18:47
Aaron SAMUEL 17:28
Super jogging walking running all of the above pat yourselves on the back.

VALENTINES FIRST TIME EVER “TOURISTS”
Huge thanks to the wonderful people listed below, who made the effort to come and visit Valentines for the first time. We hope you liked it, and hope even more to see you again very soon.
Edward REES, Steven RAMEK, Damian BAKER, Danny HOLEYMAN, Lyndon HEARN, Ryan HOLEYMAN, Jennifer WOOLGAR, Cathryn LOWER, Dave ROBBINS, Millie FINCH, Abigail HOULT, Nick HOULT, Dean WILLIAMS, Juliann CANTY, Barbara BUDIN, Eleanor ANDREWS, Naomi HARTOPP, Nicola MITCHELL, Phil JUDGE, Chris GRAY, Lee HILTON, Ben HOLLAND, Neil HOLLAND, Polly SALES, Sophia HOULT, Catriona HOULT, Tony WICKETT, Caroline JUDGE , Naomi BROWN, Emma J BROWN, Hannah Mary GRAY, Kathryn Louise HANCOCK, Rebecca ROES, Gayna OROURKE, Oakley WILLIAMS, Beverly GOW, Kasia JAZGARA, Karen HOLLAND, Michele WEBB

CONCLUSION
I hope you all enjoyed this weekend's run. Don’t forget to come back on the 24th for more fun and frolics... oh, and wasn't it lovely weather for our celebration of parkrunning?

Yours,

The Valentines Reporter

The Ilford Recorder have written an article (with photos) about our 7th anniversary last weekend:
http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/valentines-parkrun-celebrates-seventh-birthday-1-5402510

This is a reminder to all our participants to be considerate towards other park users, who have just as much right to be there as ourselves. Rude or inconsiderate behaviour potentially threatens the continued existence of our event.

Also, it is not acceptable to be abusive, threatening, or rude towards our volunteers.

We know that the vast majority of you would be shocked that anyone might behave in this way at our event. However, we have had a couple of such instances reported to us today. Anyone who is unable to behave appropriately will be dealt with as necessary, and is not welcome at our event.

Thank you.

Andrew Gwilliam
Event Director
on behalf of the Valentines parkrun team

A final decision will be made around midday tomorrow whether Saturday morning's event will go ahead as planned.

As we feared that the parkrun scheduled for this morning (3rd March) would have to be cancelled, which indeed it was, we deliberately held back publishing last weekend's run report so that our parkrunners could still get a bit of their weekly parkrun fix!

With thanks as always to our mysterious cloaked reporter in the field:

Hola everyone!!!!!

Your local newshound Valentines reporter here, I have been lying low as the Ilford Recorder wrote a great article about our birthday bash last week and I was jealous. Why should the Ilford Recorder get all the glory when they clearly used my words in their write up!!!! Grrrr...

Heheeh, just kidding, it was a great article, and well done to our volunteer photographer for the day (Louis Du Plessis) for getting his pictures in the paper.

Well knock me down with a feather, blinking cold today wasn’t it? 9.00am Valentines park sure was brrrrrrrrrrr! Lots of headscarves, people keeping jackets firmly on for the run; of course there are always a few like myself, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. (I'm trying to say it isn’t cold through chattering teeth!)

The numbers were down a little but nevertheless 218 hardy souls braved the elements, and stomped around our great park. Added to that, an amazing oh yes amazing 14 even braver souls picked up their tokens, their scanners, their amazing attitudes, and did the volunteer stint, which when it's real cold is a huge undertaking. We also had 30 first-timers (including tourists of course), and 22 ice men/women set new personal bests. More of those terrific feats later.

VOLUNTEERS
I really do hope the people listed below didn't take too long to warm up again afterwards, as wow it was chilly; so a massive huge thank you from everyone to the wonderful hi viz legends:
Katherine HARRIS • Pathrose LOUIS • Sathanandasundaram ALAGANANDASUNDARAM • Rakesh SANDHU • Sheila SINCLAIR • Qasim SHEIKH • Asha SANDHU • Ed HOOKE • Mark DURRANT • Emil C. • Dennis BRIGGS • Kavi JESHRAM • Nikki LOVETT • Uzayer MAQSOOD

FASTEST 3 MEN
Ciaran CANAVAN 18:40
Jason SYRETT 19:29
Tom JOY 19:34

Last week we had a great bunch of younger runners come along and really do very well. This week it seems the more mature gentlemen have come out of the woods, and smashed it out the park to dominate the front of the pack. Tom Joy's first time at Valentines (hope you liked it), Ciaran was only 4 seconds from his own personal best at Valentines, with Jason splitting the 2. Great running everyone.

FASTEST 3 WOMEN
Sameena AHMED 22:07
Carol BROOME 22:48
Laurelle BRANT 23:29

So once again Sameena and Carol take the first 2 places, with both in the 22-minute bracket. Such great consistent running from both. Laurelle came home in third, which is another great run as she has been 2nd or 3rd woman to finish in all her attempts at Valentines.

FIRST TIME EVER AT PARKRUN
Great effort by the people listed here: 11 in total, who took today (and yes it was cold, did I mention that?) to enter the world of parkrun for the first time. Really great stuff, please return next week [i.e. 10th March]. We cannot guarantee it will be warmer, but the smiles will be just as big.
Ronaldo DRIZA, Aditya PATIL, Claire ENNIS, Govin MATHU, Max BELCASTRO WICKETT, Kashan ARSHAD, Nahida HUSSAIN, Karam MATHU, Katie ENNIS, Rabia BUTT, Palvinder MATHU,

FIRST TIME AT VALENTINES/TOURISTS
Wow what a great bunch of first-time tourists we had today. All 19 of you, thank you so much for coming to visit, really hope you enjoyed, and really hope to see you all again very soon.

Tracey GRIGOLEIT, Sam BATES, Hayden BATES, Les PULLEN, Craig CARPENTER, Laura Joan HALL, Orla DEAN, Helen FERNANDES, Karen RICHARDSON, Lavina BHAMBRA, Kie FARRELL, Wayne LEE, David HALLYBONE, Gail CARR, Millie LOXTON, Ian DESLOW, Peter HALL, Ian Grant RICHARDSON, Tom JOY

MILESTONES
Bilkis ACHHA 100 CLUB
Roberta MIH 250 CLUB
Charlotte NIELSEN 250 CLUB
3000 km between them, that equates to 1864 miles. Manama in Bahrain is only 74 km further from London than these 3 legends have ran!!!!

Huge congratulations, and we cannot wait to see the T-shirts!

PERSONAL BESTS
Wendy WILLIAMS 41:30 - Looking at Wendy’s stats it seems she last hit a PB in August 2017 then there seems to be a gap, maybe injury? Then 4 regular runs this year, and bang! a brand new PB. Amazing stuff.
Louis DU PLESSIS 37:08 - So it seems Louis isn’t just a great photographer, he has some speed in those legs too; great PB.
Caroline WARD 35:30 - Caroline hits 2 personal bests in a row, great running
Imran MIRZA 35:18 - Just like Caroline above, 2 personal best in a row
Damo O'C 35:10 - Great stuff as now 3 personal bests in a row!
Ryan LOWE 32:32 - Knocking almost 20 seconds from previous PB, awesome
Ava BAILEY 31:41 - Another who has 3 personal bests in a row!
Nagarajan AYYADURAI 31:34 - Over 180 seconds wiped from his PB, amazing!
Chinua JOHNSON 31:03 - Top effort as now 4 personal bests in a row
Barry TAVENER 29:58 - Barry is on fire with 2 personal bests in a row!
Scott SUMMERS 29:16 - Scott knocks over 120 seconds from his PB for Valentines
Tony WICKETT 29:01 - Over 80 seconds wiped from his personal best
Nancy PALUMBO 24:00 - Wow over 180 seconds quicker than ever before!
Ed HOOKE 23:51 - 2 personal bests in a month, Ed is on fire!
Michael SUTTON 22:41 - 120 seconds faster than his previous PB!
Rodney MARTINS 22:38 - Another star who recorded 2 PBs in February
Emran HUSSAIN 21:51 - Another who has achieved 2 PBs in a row!
Saheb YOUSEFI 21:43 - A great PB, beating a time set in 2015!
Emmet FITZGIBBON 21:30 - Breaking into the 21-minute band at Valentines!!
John O'SULLIVAN 21:25 - Yet another 10 seconds wiped from his PB!
Paul David MITCHELL 20:27 - Smashes a PB set way back in 2012 on our original course at Valentines.

Well done all listed above, really great stuff! But can you better it again next time?

TEAMS
Huge thank you to all from the running clubs and other groups listed here, who were all represented by their runners/walkers/joggers today [and also amongst the volunteers, although our results page doesn't show that]:
Barking Road Runners, Basingstoke & Mid Hants AC, Cambridge and Coleridge AC, Cambridge Harriers, Chigwell and Epping Forest Orienteering Club, Dagenham 88 Runners, Defence Sports & Recreation, Didsbury Runners, Drax All-Stars, East London Runners, Hydrographic Harriers, Ilford AC, Medway Runners Wolfpack, Sikhs In The City, Stone Master Marathoners, Thurrock Harriers AC, Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC, West 4 Harriers, Women Running at E14, Woodford Green AC with Essex Ladies, and Zombies, Run!

NOTABLE MENTIONS
7 runners today had ran over or on 250 runs, with James Harrison being most at 291.
Also a mention for one of our visiting tourists, Tracey GRIGOLEIT who at 249 is so close to that next milestone; good luck for your 250!!!
Dave BEARD (48:09) also deserves a mention today as he enters into the VM70-75 category, I do not know Dave personally, only by sight, but have to say week in week out it's always great to see him, as no matter what the weather/conditions are, he is always smiling. Inspirational to all!!!! Keep it up Dave, you have a big fan here!!

Happy parkrunning, everybody!

The Valentines Reporter!

Event number 377

14th April 2018

Oh yes are finally back huge apologies for the lack of reports over the last month, actually since that awful terrible day back in March when we all just stood around kicking our heels with rather long faces when Valentines along with a huge amount of other parkrun events had to be cancelled due to the terrible weather
But wait it is now April the 14th there seems to be this very strange object in the sky at around 9.00am over our lovely Valentines Park. Oh yesssss our wonderful bunch of participants, the sun was out and it was warm, has to be time to tear up the tarmac!!!
I noticed from my reporters birds eye lookout tower that the jackets were gone the head gear was a thing of the past I even looked in the mirror myself and did not recognise this tanned god/goddess (ok that last part is a small …no huge lie). I am not that tanned

So welcome parkrun fans to run report #377 from the glorious Valentines Park.
This week 262 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 22 were first timers and 42 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 19 different clubs took part.

FASTEST 3 MEN

Joe WATTS 18:44
Rodney MUSHANGANYISI 19:08
Ronaldo DRIZA 19:16

So this week’s top 3 guys all under 20 minutes so congratulations there but more so on a personal level each of the top 3 beat their own Personal bests at Valentines which in my eyes is always the best achviment. Top effort to Joe, Rodney and Ronaldo.

FASTEST 3 LADIES

Linda DAY 21:39
Sameena AHMED 22:18
Carol BROOME 23:00

This week’s Fastest there ladies of course we have the wonderful Sameena and Carol who if not winning are always at the top amazing effort as always. Looks though today we had a visitor Linda Day who looking at her stats normally runs at Raphael’s park in Romford but today took a wrong turning and came down the A12 to Ilford and came out on top… Great effort Linda well done. Hope to see you again very soon.

VOLUNTEERS

Jennifer AKROYD, Sathanandasundaram ALAGANANDASUNDARAM, Ruth BEARMAN, Daniel BULLOCK, Phil BUTCHER, Laura CANN, Chris CANN, Kathryn CREANEY, Ian CUMMINS, Nikki LOVETT, Rabia PIPERDY-ALLOO, Jyoti SONAGARA, Sam VEERASAMY, Ibrahim YOUNIS, Philip ZALOU

Massive as always rounds of applause for our great and ever so humble volunteers we all applaud you all thank you thank you thank you..

FIRST TIMERS

Julie HORSINGTON, Alan WELCH, Francilia JOSEPH, Jitesh RADIA, Asma BEGUM, Ciaran KAVANAGH, Rogent BALA, Ramesh DEPAIAH, Geraldine KENNEDY, Marie DUFFY, Yusuf ALI, Deepak DAMANIA

So today we had 12 first timers to the parkrun fun, good choice to pick today as the weather was great. Hope to keep seeing you all especially in mid-November when this run will be a distant memory same as the sunshine.
Well done all hope you enjoyed.

TOURISTS/VISITORS

Linda DAY, Ingrid DIAS, Michael BATEMAN, Douglas KNIGHT, Aaron WELCH, Daniel TURNER, Katherine HAWES, Jacob EVERINGHAM, James COUGHLAN,
Thank you to the above for making a trip to Valentines, trust you enjoyed our course did you stop at the café?

PERSONAL BESTS (PB)

Rohit MISTRY 29:26
Sanjay JESHRAM 24:22
Seamus O'CONNELL 35:10
John FLYNN 24:03
Noorjahan BEGUM 35:38
Richard GATEHOUSE 24:53
Philip ASTON 24:53
Gurpreet Singh GREWAL 23:45
Amy LECKERMAN 31:04
Sachin KALIA 30:46
Krissy MODI 36:05
Ed HOOKE 23:36
Ariharan PONNIAH 23:25
Yvette REDPATH 23:20
Tasnia CHOUDHURY 30:16
Rodney MUSHANGANYISI 19:08
Hardeep KAUR 23:13
Hardeep RAI 29:59
Peter MCINTYRE 23:01
Caroline WILKINSON 39:49
Mohammed KHANJI 22:59
Ronaldo DRIZA 19:16
Nicholas VOO 21:56
Rosemarie CUA 26:07
Jaya APPIAH 44:17
Ray Sparra EVERINGHAM 28:35
Philip ZALOUM 21:40
George David REED 21:38
Saheb YOUSEFI 21:26
Katherine YOUSEFI 26:46
Beverley TURNER 46:32
Tony WICKETT 28:00
Kashan ARSHAD 27:49
Georgia NODEN 48:10
Abdirashid ALI 27:45
Sukcharan Singh RAI 27:48
Louise POLLOCK 27:09
Anna BOWYER 27:15
Thomas COUGHLAN 27:19
Tony WHITE 27:25
Ashley FARIA 19:50
Joe WATTS 18:44

The sun comes out and the times start to tumble 42 new PB oh my that’s a lot, absolutely top effort from all above.
Some random mentions as always nice to see people who are there each week rain or shine get a PB.

Ashley FARIA 19:50 Almost a year since last PB but always quick, this week at Valentines whoop whoop well done.
Ray Sparra EVERINGHAM 28:35 knocking a few seconds off previous time shows that effort and practice does pay off well done.
Caroline WILKINSON 39:49 Starting back in February at around the 43 minute mark 8 runs later solid sub 40 runner well done be very proud of yourself
Amy LECKERMAN 31:04 3 PB in a row top stuff Amy can see the sub 30 coming very soon.

Now as this is the name in lights section may I just suggest while at home or work just scroll perfectly to your name in the Personal best section above and then walk away from PC but of course leaving screen open may I even suggest turning the brightness up? Just in case someone walks past your PC and can read about your total awesomeness!!!!!!!

MILESTONES

Sonya VEERASAMY Hits the headlines for completing the ton up 100 runs whoop whoop!!
A perfect time to complete the milestones as no one else has a milestone this week, so the glory and adulation is all heaped upon Sonya! Great effort well done superb fantastic.. oh soak it up as next week 101 no one will care

While I was away writing Chinese fortune cookie messages (the bills need to be paid) we had one of our regulars reach the 250 benchmark and I think she deserves a small mention so very very very well done too.
Verna Marilyn GRANT who is now at 252 runs.. Well done.

LAST WORDS
That’s another report done and dusted we do hope to be more consistent with these now and hopefully get them up on the website ASAP after the run.
Please if you have any input comments feel free to post them to our Facebook page even if you just want to thank me for writing these ever so fantastic reports that’s fine with me  Just kidding on a serious note please enjoy parkrun as that’s what we all turn up. Oh and make sure you thank the volunteers without those hi Vis legends we could not cope.

Yours as always

Valentines reporter.

For the second time this year, an incident has been reported that involved one of our runners and a member of the public.

Please remember that we do not have exclusive use of Valentines Park. Each one of our participants is an ambassador for Valentines parkrun, and how you behave reflects on the event as a whole. It shouldn't be necessary for us to say this, but other people are entitled to use the park without:

• having sharp words being directed at them;
• being sworn at;
• being forced off the paths;
• being shoved or pushed past;
• or being made to feel unwelcome or threatened in any other way.

Any further incidents of this sort risk the suspension of our event.

To try and improve things for everyone, from tomorrow (21st April) we will require more marshals out on the course. This means we need more volunteers to help out each week, so if you haven't volunteered before (or haven't done so in a while), please consider doing so. Your results e-mail has a link to opt-in to receive the e-mails we send out to our volunteers.

Thank you.

Andrew Gwilliam
Event Director

Valentines parkrun # 379 - 28/04/2018

Good afternoon evening and even morning fellow parkrun enthusiasts did you all have a great time Saturday morning 9.00am? Or was it more a great time just before 9.00am and an even better time a few seconds after you finished!. Of course we all hope you loved it. What a great way to start the weekend as I am sure all will agree once you get your breath back a little after the run the feeling of utter satisfaction is amazing. So well done you.. Take a bow and the applause.
Let’s be honest the weather was can we say typical for this time of year much better for running than last weekend (London marathon weekend) wow that was a hot one. Was great to see a few Valentines regulars sporting there London marathon 2018 finisher T-shirts at today’s parkrun well done to everyone who took on the 26.2 miles.

This week 253 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 24 were first timers and 53 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 19 different clubs took part.

TOP 3 MEN
1 Spencer EVANS 19:01
2 Chris GREEN 19:38
3 Rodney MUSHANGANYISI 19:55

Great run from Spencer just missing out on the sub 19 minute this time but top effort great PB from Chris coming in 2nd and once again in the top 3 Rodney. All under the 20 minute mark well done all.

TOP 3 LADIES
Karen LEVISON 21:08
Laura WOODHOUSE 22:32
Carol BROOME 22:36

Well Karen, we had not seen at Valentines for a few months always a great competitor and today was no exception storming home first. Laura romps home to 2nd place with a new PB at Valentines so going very well. Carol never seems to be out of the top 3 ever amazing consistency.

VOLUNTEERS
Jennifer AKROYD, Antoinette DAVIS, Mark DURRANT, Marian ELIAS, Stephen GILSON, Celia HINE, Suzie KNAPTON, Pathrose LOUIS, Uzayer MAQSOOD, Paul MATTHEWS, Samir PATEL, Rabia PIPERDY-ALLOO, Djamal RAMOUL, Qasim SHEIKH, Garry SUKHIJA

Massive huge applause once again for the ever present supercalafraglistic Valentines volunteers once again great work always a pleasure to see there smiling happy faces and to hear their words of encouragement for everyone.

FIRST TIME EVER

Talha ADAM, Jason SALES, Birte ETIOBI, Rhianedd HUGHES, Jayen RUWALA, Vital RUWALA, Baljit CHAGGAR, Naomi LAWRENCE, Natasha LANAI, Jagdeep SANGER, Lisa SALES, Amol SHRIRAMWAR, Rebecca DENTON, Keran CHUDASAMA

The wonderful people listed above took their first steps onto the parkrun ladder today which is simply awesome, hope you all loved it and really hope to see you and maybe you can convince a few friends to come along too more the merrier as always.

TOURISTS-VISITORS
Mathew TURNER, Alison MATTHEWS, Phil BATCHELOR, Ashley LOVETT, Peter EATES, Lesley PILSON, Sarah HONOUR, Keith ALLCHURCH, Martyn ALLCHURCH,
9 lovely tourists today thank you so much for coming to see us hope you enjoyed our course and park and maybe even had a cuppa in the Valentines café? Hope to see you all again very very soon and that’s the letter V marked on your alphabet challenge.

PERSONAL BESTS (PB)

Oh my word!!!!!!! 51 yes you read that right 51 amazing people beat their own personal best time at Valentines today!!!! Truly amazing effort from all well done!!!!!
Take a bow and bask in the glory oh and make sure you look after your leg muscles as those things made you faster today than ever before be very proud!!.

Lauren BATCHELOR37:04
Shique ISMAIL 36:28
Rob MAHONEY 21:40
Ronnie WALLER 40:29
Georgia NODEN 39:39
Michael REID 39:14
Dilip PATEL 25:08
Jillian YOUNG 25:08
Hugh MAUNDER 35:37
Ed HOOKE 23:29
Francilia JOSEPH39:11
Mark ELIAS 35:01
Nancy PALUMBO 23:52
John FLYNN 24:02
Ciro GARGIULO 33:52
Laura WOODHOUSE22:32
Lydia LERNER 33:51
Beth HATHERALL 33:45
Beverley TURNER 44:13
Abdirashid ALI 26:28
Abdur RAHIM 26:35
Josh MCLEAN 26:39
Rob MCLEAN 26:39
Saroj PATEL 32:48
Ramesh DEPAIAH 26:41
Aslam BACCUS 32:09
Caroline WILKINSON38:54
Tony WHITE 26:49
Edward ELEY 26:50
Gaynor WHITE 45:53
Christie Agnes DAVID 38:11
Damon LERNER 27:05
Emily HEARD 31:51
Sanjay JESHRAM 24:12
Ava BAILEY 31:21
Belinda BHATTI 31:01
Augustine David Nesakumar CHRISTOPHER 38:10
Bindu RADIA 40:28
Pritesh PINDORIA 30:38
Chris GREEN 19:38
Sachin KALIA 30:10
Claire HOWARD 30:06
Amy LECKERMAN 30:05
Yasmin MCINTOSH 37:48
Alex WEST 24:32
Jaya APPIAH 43:05
Mark PETERS 29:36
Reza JUGON 22:31
Deborah MCLEAN 29:25
Tanya DU PLESSIS 49:09
Ella BRYNES 28:34
Ferdus AHMED 28:17
Rosemarie CUA 25:55

MILESTONES

Two entries into the parkrun club today big congrats to Jack and Laetitia 10 and 50 well done keep going.
Jack BRYNES Joins the10 Club
Laetitia DUMBURA Joins the 50 club

CLUBS

Huge thanks to all the clubs and there runners for coming to Valentines today.
Barking Road Runners, Bracknell Forest Runners, Chafford Hundred Running Group, Chigwell and Epping Forest Orienteering Club, CSSC Sports & Leisure, Dagenham 88 Runners, Drax All-Stars, East London Runners, Ilford AC, QPR Runners, Sikhs In The City, SLGR, Thrift Green Trotters, Thurrock Nomads, Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC, Walthamstow AC, Weald Park Warriors, Zombies, Run!

So that’s it April is over. Next week’s fun filled parkrun live from Valentines park Ilford be there 9.00am oh and don’t forget it’s a bank Holiday weekend so the weather could be awful I do hope not..

Please if you have any comments or just pure praise for all the people at Valentines please post up on our facebook page

Till next time
Bye for now

Valentines reporter.

Good evening or morning parkrunners did you have a good time on Saturday at Valentines? Hope you did, plus of course, hope you really enjoyed the gorgeous weather scrorchio as some may say.
As the picture below shows it was picture perfect.

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So our ever so great run director for the day was the ever so popular Jennifer AKROYD who as always made everything run so smoothly with the excellent help of the may I say perfect bunch of volunteers who made the effort to dress up in extra clothing (hi vis) in the hot hot hot weather. Thank you all.

The spectators today were out in there full glory (yes this is a shameless cute picture plug) but wow they do look cute.

<img src="" alt="CUTE" />

This week 267 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 29 were first timers and 42 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 15 different clubs took part.

VOLUNTEERS

Jennifer AKROYD, Dennis BRIGGS, Tony Ross COLLINS, Mark DURRANT, Wendy EVERINGHAM, Manji GAMI, Samir PATEL, Qasim SHEIKH, Robert SKEDGELL, Kresh VEERASAMY, Ronnie WALLER, Ibrahim YOUNIS
As stated above many many many thanks to all the volunteers who turn up each week and point and cheer and scan and just do everything so the run goes as smooth as silk. Please make sure you say thanks as you whizz past or at least smile if breathe is a little short 

TOP 3 LADIES
Karen LEVISON 20:46
Carol BROOME 21:50
Sameena AHMED 22:01

Wow 3 very fast ladies made the top 3 today with Karen back for her 2 week on the trot and romps home first again and a better time than last week, But it seems that Carol likes the hot weather as sliding into the 21 second bracket with a new PB really great effort, rounding of the top 3 by no means least Sameena only 2 seconds off her own PB.

TOP 3 GENTLEMEN
Chaoran SUN 18:08
Dan SENIOR 18:18
Simon THOMAS 19:10

Chaoran first time at Valentines and must like the course as he won only 8 seconds from the 17 Minute bracket, Dan comes home second in a great new by 1 second personal best. Simon always a great runner superb consistency coming home third.

FIRST TIMERS
Jubeda MASTER, Naseem AKHTAR, Sharon GRAHAM, Shailesh KUMAR, Sabina ADAMS, Ayah ADAMS, Sneha PUROHIT, Joanne YUEN, Andrew FORDE-JOHNSTON, Humera YOUNIS, David LESTER, Pranav DEUGI, Naseem AKHTAR, Rachel GILBEY, Kirti PUROHIT, Sharon GRAHAM, Salma KHODABAKSH, Chandra MANUKONDU, Saema AHMED

Wow how many first time ever parkrunners!!! Awesome effort everyone named above really hope to see you all next week.

TOURIST-VISITORS
Russell KING, Chaoran SUN, Manon EVANS, Simon NG, Stéphanie EVANS, Darshana THIRUCHELVAM, Sergei GOLOVKIN, Tony YOUNG, Clara EVANS, Robert SKEDGELL, Jeremy EVANS,
Many thanks for the above people coming to visit today for the first time big thanks to Robert Skedell who came and volunteered as a tailwalker on his first visit.

DISTANCE VISITOR TOP 3

So was curious today just too see where our new 1st time tourist-visitors had come from bit difficult to do without being a complete stalker  but just took a note of the runners parkrun that they have done the most and assumed that this is their homerun. Then of course with the help of Google, did a little map check and the result is below.. Of course all just for fun and only includes the first time tourists at Valentines as there is no way of checking as yet for others

Russell KING – approximate 27 miles Hatfield forest (now closed )
Tony YOUNG – approximate 22 miles Chelmsford central
Chaoran SUN-approximate 5.7 miles Mile end
Most other 1st time visitors were local area Wanstead flats or Hackney .
Most important thank you all for coming, do hope you enjoyed.

PERSONAL BESTS (PB)
An amazing amount of PB times today guess with the hot weather some peoples muscles were nice and loose and warmed up very well top effort everyone listed here be very proud of yourselves.
Debbie MACK 29:17
Kerry MASON 23:35
Rajesh BALATHANDAPANIDESIKAN 29:33
Amy LECKERMAN 29:37
Raj KATECHIA 29:08
Chinua JOHNSON 29:05
Launa BROADLEY 29:41
Kay SUKHIJA 29:49
Rosemarie CUA 25:35
Dan SENIOR 18:18
John FLYNN 23:47
Tahir ALI 23:48
Pritesh PINDORIA30:31
Nagarajan AYYADURAI30:40
Carol BROOME 21:50
Edward ELEY 26:07
Lisa SALES 42:09
Tony WHITE 26:12
Ivan FERNANDES 26:14
Bindu RADIA 40:07
Jamie AUSTIN 22:00
Sarah JOHN-LEWIS38:59
Caroline WILKINSON38:52
Francilia JOSEPH38:50
Natalie JOYCE 30:42
Katie LESTER 28:21
Keran CHUDASAMA 27:18
Naomi LAWRENCE 31:26
Yasmin MCINTOSH 37:11
Jason SALES 27:21
Hayley KAYE 31:35
Aran MAY 22:31
Daniel TURNER 31:43
Aditya PATIL 24:52
Jessica CROPPER 35:59
Mark ELIAS 34:08
Tamara ANDREWS 33:56
Katie ENNIS 31:51
Hardeep KAUR 23:05
Usha MODI 33:27
Richard GATEHOUSE22:42
Amanda PARKER-GAMON32:22

Some really top efforts by all of course always nice to pull the odd random name and see how they have got to their PB or May I say current form?

Amy Leckerman 6 personal bests in a row now subbing under the 30 minute mark!!!

Rosemarie CUA 3 personal best in a row now nicely in the 25 min bracket

Mark ELIAS times coming down nicely with a huge almost a minute PB today

CLUBS
Auckland Road Neighbours, Barking Road Runners, Chigwell and Epping Forest Orienteering Club, CSSC Sports & Leisure, Dagenham 88 Runners, Drax All-Stars, East London Runners, Ilford AC, Orion Harriers, Queen Mary University Runners, Roding Valley Tri, Sikhs In The City, Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC, Zombies, Run!

TOP 5 AGE GRADE CLASSIFICATION

Karen LEVISON 20:46 VW50-54 81.70 %
Carol BROOME 21:50 VW50-54 76.79 %
Dan SENIOR 18:18 VM40-44 75.68 %
Ryder ISLAM 22:15 JM10 73.48 %
Ashley FARIA 20:08 VM45-49 72.10 %

The top 5 mixed age grade classification really great efforts by all superb effort as always by Ryder Islam being a junior of course Karen getting over 80% is just great work.

Conclusion
Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend everyone and see you all again bright and early for another super day of parkrun
Please remember if you have any comments about this report please feel free to post them on the Valentines Facebook page.

Yours as always

The Valentines reporter

OUR MEETING POINT THE OLD WELL

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Greetings fellow parkrun fans how was your run yesterday was it a thumbs up major wohoo or a more sedated woohoo or just a wow did not fancy that but glad I did it kind of day?

Weather was good not to hot but again not cold perfect actually.

Would like to thank Alzheimer’s Research for attending Valentines to inform us of their great work. Do hope that some people went and spoke to find out more from their representative if not please feel free to click https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/.

Looking through the results it seems that some people had definitely had their go go juice with an amazing 55 new personal bests from a field of 265 that’s pretty impressive we had a wonderful 16 People who were trying Valentines for the first time, be it as a tourist or a first time parkrun participants. A nice group of 15 different clubs also came to show their colours wonderful effort everyone.

I did notice one thing a few weeks back at Valentines, at the Boathouse corner there is a clock on the wall picture below, now this clock. I do not think has worked for a while so as you only pass it at the start and then on the final straight the time will never change so you can never ever be slow at Valentines as it seems we are all faster than time itself. But please do not stand under the clock as way to many Pigeons reside on that roof as you can see so always a danger of a deposit..

TIME STANDS STILL

" alt="Never ever a slow time" />

I know enough of that chat and bluster, where are the details of how awesome you all are. So here you all go please enjoy and please any comments on what you would like to see in these reports or anything else please feel free to email

valentinesoffice@parkrun.com

please feel free to post on our Facebook page.

TOP 3 GUYS

Tom DAVIES 19:30
Ashley FARIA 20:02
Eanna MCATEER 20:37

Tom comes home first today in the 19 minute bracket with Ashley just outside the 20 minute mark by 2 seconds that’s not even half a step Eanna rounds of the top 3 with a great effort.

TOP 3 GIRLS

Karen LEVISON 20:43
Carol BROOME 21:37
Sameena AHMED 22:00

Karen turn up for the 3rd week in a row and yep she comes home first again going a few seconds faster than the previous week, but it seems that Karen has lit a fire under Carol as wohoo another PB 13 seconds quicker than last week’s personal best amazing effort. Sameena also it seems is back in the grove as always a great consistent runner this week only 1 second from her own PB but when you look at Samenna efforts 22:01 last week 22:00 this week I can see a pattern

VOLUNTEERS

Huge thank you to our team of volunteers as always without them we cannot have the event

You could always try a bit of volunteering yourself it’s actually quite inspiring. Take a look here

Paul ANDREWS, Dennis BRIGGS, Phil BUTCHER, Emil C., Beverley EAGLES, Marian ELIAS, Mark ELIAS, Andrew GWILLIAM, Ed HOOKE, Nikki LOVETT, Diarmuid MAC DONNELL, Paul MATTHEWS, Charlotte NIELSEN, Tarik QIREM, Carlie QIREM, Qasim SHEIKH, Ronnie WALLER, Tim WOOD

MILESTONES

Amy FREEMAN Joins the 10 Club
Neill COLLINS Joins the 50 club
Not really a t shirt club but James Harrison made it 300 runs which is a lot in anyone’s books so deserves a little mention.

FIRST TIME EVER

Thank you to the wonderful people named below who came to Valentines for the first ever attempt at parkrun, do hope you enjoyed and really hope to see you all next week.
Kitty LAM, Pandu DESIR, Kathleen DENTON, Carla MORASSI, Zaina INAYAT, Mikel BRECKENRIDGE, Cindy KOON, Brett NODEN, Tahmina ISLAM, Jessie KOON, Amaara ADAMS

This weeks wonderful tailwalkers heading down one of the straights note the bumps in road to slow down all you personal best speedesters

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FIRST TIME TOURISTS-VISITORS

As always many many thanks for the people below visiting Valentines for the first time hope you enjoyed and of course all the other tourists that have made the visit to Valentines in the past.
William CLISSOLD, Nadhim BAYATTI, Imran ALI (The leapster), Richard MILLS, Martha WATSON.

PERSONAL BESTS (PB)

55!!! Personal best oh my will you all please slow down this part takes ages to complete and the sun is shining and I really need to be laying in the garden  Massive congratulations all be proud to know you have gone faster than ever before.
Sabina ADAMS 25:49
Raj KATECHIA 28:48
Jubeda MASTER 53:14
Debbie MACK 28:35
Carol BROOME 21:37
Saf RAHBOUR 43:43
Baljit CHAGGAR 42:48
Rajesh HIRANI 28:17
Scott SUMMERS 28:16
Amy LECKERMAN 29:12
Rajesh BALATHANDAPANIDESIKAN 29:15
Aran MAY 22:05
Sue PARKINSON 29:41
Alyssa ERULIN 29:47
Ying HU 30:11
Jocelyn SUMMERS 27:56
Ferdus AHMED 27:53
Reza JUGON 22:27
Natasha LANAI 27:41
Nagarajan AYYADURAI 30:27
Andrew FORDE-JOHNSTON 28:42
Naseem AKHTAR 41:09
Kerry JENKINS 30:37
Sharon GRAHAM 40:24
Belinda BHATTI 30:50
Lisa SALES 39:50
Jessica CROPPER 35:13
Amanda PARKER-GAMON31:41
Rhianedd HUGHES 39:44
Jillian YOUNG 24:37
Salma KHODABAKSH 39:20
Oana MIHAESCU 39:09
Tamara ANDREWS 32:57
Alison SALE 26:51
Aydin ALI 26:50
Ayah ADAMS 25:04
Jason SALES 26:45
Elizabeth WILKINSON33:02
Beth HATHERALL 33:09
Stéphanie EVANS 33:22
Ciro GARGIULO 33:38
Sarah JOHN-LEWIS38:37
Abdirashid ALI 26:18
Bindu RADIA 37:57
Amol SHRIRAMWAR 37:46
Isabelle WOKOMA 25:12
Rosemarie CUA 25:21
Vital RUWALA 33:41
Manon EVANS 25:27
Clara EVANS 25:57
Augustine David Nesakumar CHRISTOPHER 35:38
Saema AHMED 54:05
Caroline WARD 34:52
Noorjahan BEGUM 35:16
Sanjay JESHRAM 24:00

Fabulous personal bests from all just picked a few random names to give an extra highlight too because seeing your name hopefully will boost you on even more.

Sanjay JESHRAM 2 weeks ago Sanjay hit a new PB of 24:12 then last week hits 24:12 again!! Very annoying but oh yeh this week bam 24:00 well done

Caroline WARD 34:52 Caroline on her 23 effort at parkrun breaks into the 34 minute bracket great effort.

Alison SALE 26:51 A great regular runner at Valentines on her 175th run breaks into the 26 minute bracket amazing effort if anything shows that if you keep trying Personal Bests do come in the end Hope you don’t mind me saying last PB was back in 2016 supreme effort. Huge congratulations Alison.

Lisa SALES 39:50 Lisa is only at her 3rd parkrun all at Valentines but wanted to point out as now into the sub 40 bracket starting at 45 minutes in April so is really a great improvement well done Lisa keep it up.

Jason SALES 26:45 now I am unsure if Jason and Lisa are related/married? Who knows but both started parkrun at same time both now smashing personal bests with Jason now into the 26 minute bracket awesome effort.

TOP 5 AGE GRADE CLASSIFICATION

Karen LEVISON 20:43 VW50-54 81.90 %
Pam JONES 33:28 VW80-84 81.52 %
Tom DAVIES 19:30 VM55-59 80.17 %
Carol BROOME 21:37 VW50-54 77.56 %
Ashley FARIA 20:02 VM45-49 72.46 %

Ladies take 3 of the top 5 age grade classifications superb effort from all, looks like the may I say more mature runners were all on song today.

CLUBS

Auckland Road Neighbours, Barking Road Runners, Bramhall Runners, Chigwell and Epping Forest Orienteering Club, CSSC Sports & Leisure, Dagenham 88 Runners, East London Runners, Ilford AC, Orion Harriers, RunFit Essex, Sikhs In The City, Sphinx AC, Women Running at E14, Zombies, Run!.

Last week I snapped a picture of some cute as a button Gosling chicks now this week I came across them again oh my word they grow quick!!! Evidence below.

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Have a great week everyone enjoy the working week but guess what!!! Next Saturday let’s all get together again at Valentines for another 5k run/walk/jog.

Yours as always the ever so secret and ever so shy

Valentines reporter

PS Today Sunday as i was driving home i stopped at a crossing to let a gentleman cross the road and noticed he was a regular parkrunner from Valentines. Its a very small world.. what was worse is i know his name and the time he took on Saturday.. wow i need to be less nerdy at times

PPS Should we try and have a fancy dress run soon as the weather seems to be getting nicer any suggestions to a theme ?

We don't provide water to our participants, and the café doesn't open on Saturday mornings until after we've started, so please remember to bring along your own bottle if you might need something to drink for your run!

Harry and Meghan’s or FA cup final day your choice…

Hi everyone it’s your ever so friendly secret Valentine reporter here checking in once again to give you the highs the lows and the other stuff that is sometimes rather important and sometimes just a load of old twaddle.

First things first I have been informed by the powers that must be listened too, the people upstairs the bosses, the big cheese, the power, and other names they liked to be called. That this week there seems to be a few slight issues with the timings seems there was a bit of a mix up in the funnel by a few, we do apologise for this inconvenience but can we all please pretty please pretty pretty pretty please try and go through the finish funnel in the correct order collect your token and then head of for scanning. Thank you.
Second things second as our wonderful event director pointed out during today’s briefing!!!! Drumroll please….. holy cow Batman parkrun official is coming to Valentines next week with cameras and production crews for some filming mainly after the event so please nice haircuts everyone I am currently just looking at a new outfit not sure of diamonds and ruby sparkly shoes is a little over the top but we will see.

As I understand they will be some filming of our event for future use on the parkrun website and to show to local councils sports clubs etc. to show the greatness of parkrun and the community spirt so lots of smiles please.
So enough of all that let’s get on with the report the results are in the gossip is in from our on the field Squirrel reporters (who just eat nuts all day long and still can’t email a decent report)!!!

SQUIRREL IN THE FIELD REPORTERS EATING NUTS AGAIN!!!!

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This week 268 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 26 were first timers and 45 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 21 different clubs took part.

Volunteers
17 yep 17 hi vis heroes arrived today and with the gusto and pure energy as always made event number #382 go as smooth as possible as always a huge thank you to each and every one of the names listed below.

Andrew GWILLIAM • Bill SAUNDERS • Daniel COGAN • Dennis BRIGGS • Ed HOOKE • Emil C. • Hannah SHEIKH • Nadeem YOUNIS • Naimah RIAZ • Paul MATTHEWS • Rabia PIPERDY-ALLOO • Reza JUGON • Sameena AHMED • Sathanandasundaram ALAGANANDASUNDARAM • Stephen GILSON • Tarik QIREM • Tony Ross COLLINS

TOP 3 GENTLEMEN
Nick TAM 18:34
Andrew BAXTER 19:09
Nathan JONES 19:17

Well done to Nick for romping home first with yet another PB Andrew coming in second only just outside his own PB at Valentines and Nathan breaking his own PB round off the top 3.

TOP 3 LADIES
Carol BROOME 22:10
Yvette REDPATH 23:01
Ulrike GERSTENBERG 23:26

Amazing effort by Carol to come home first a little slower than last couple of weeks but 1st place is always sweet. Yvette coming home second with a new PB at Valentines by 19 seconds. Rounding of the top 3 ladies was Ulrike with a very decent time of 23:26. Top effort all 3 well done.

FIRST TIME EVER

Today at Valentines we had an amazing 9 people join us for the first ever parkrun..Hope you all enjoyed and really hope to see you all next week and now you know the course I am sure PB for everyone. Thank you for coming.
Linda SHARMAN, Warren VAN DER VYVER, Dj ROSSI , Victor MANTEY, Mohammed ALI, Francoise DOOSE-LEE, Fiona PALUMBO, Lisa O NEILL, Danielle HARRISON

VISITORS-TOURISTS

16 Wonderful tourists came to say hello today for the first time, as we all know there may have been more tourists but for the first time these great people below come and had a go at Valentines, hope you liked hope you come again sooner rather than later.
Krish BHATNAGAR, Lucy AYRES, Matt JONES, Nimit BHATNAGAR, Richard FOX, James Paul ROCKALL, John BRODERICK, Doug ANDERSON, Vishal BHATNAGAR, Sana BHATNAGAR, Tracy RICHARDSON, Noel FRANCIS, Karen CLARK, Liz SNOOK, Alan WELLBELOVE, John BRAYBROOK

PERSONAL BESTS (PB)

SLOW DOWN!!!!! Holy smokes it takes ages to do this bit and 44 wonderful souls ran faster than ever before you should all be very proud take a bow!!!!!

Pritesh PINDORIA 30:22
Brennie GABBIDON 32:55
Kathleen DENTON 36:25
Djamal RAMOUL 25:24
Beth HATHERALL 32:19
Yvette REDPATH 23:01
Kirti PUROHIT 23:07
Nathan JONES 19:17
Aran BOWMAN 32:08
Edward ELEY 25:47
Rachel GILBEY 36:11
Sharon GRAHAM 39:11
Haddi BROWNE 31:42
Vernon SELLAHEWA 26:11
Julian MOORE 19:28
Douglas KNIGHT 22:11
Nigel CUTTS 19:36
Pamela WHERLY 44:53
Alison SALE 26:45
Aron BERHE 26:49
Amanda PARKER-GAMON 31:17
Eline FREEMAN 30:59
Clara EVANS 24:23
Francis AKOR 30:22
Rachel EYRES 30:18
Michael TOMKINS 27:00
Damon LERNER 27:04
Sneha PUROHIT 30:17
Emma MCATEER 34:49
Nick TAM 18:34
John FLYNN 23:33
Sue ANDERSON 33:56
Courtney SUHR 27:21
Sachin KALIA 29:44
Mathew TURNER 27:41
Pramila MONRO 27:44
Christopher KEMP 21:43
Max BELCASTRO WICKETT 29:43
John O'SULLIVAN 20:41
Stéphanie EVANS 33:15
Raj KATECHIA 28:37
Lydia LERNER 32:55
Mark PETERS 28:58
Fiona DHARMAKEERTHI 36:53

As always is great to see people achieving PB times so nice to pull the odd names at random to give even extra kudos and let them bask in the glory of an extra name check.

Alison SALE- Last week Alison got a mention as it had been quite some time since her previous PB now I am thinking Alison is now just glory hunting as she has only gone and done it again!!! Amazing stuff, well done.

Julian MOORE - A great regular at Valentines with over 100 runs always consistent but seems that maybe Julian had a solar panel installed for extra energy as wow the 19:28 time knocking almost 10 seconds from previous PB set back in November 2017. Top effort!!!!

John FLYNN - Having a quick look at the results seems John is liking Valentines with over 100 runs in total with 14 at Valentines and his last 3 all being PB knocking almost 30 seconds of his time since April.

Michael TOMKINS – Seems that Michael may have had 3 shredded wheat for brekkie too as almost into the 26:00 minute bracket knocking an impressive 9 seconds from Previous PB set back in February 2017. Superb effort

Mark PETERS – Breaks into the 28:00 minute bracket going really well 3 personal bests in the last 4 outings at Valentines, fair to say that Mark is on form!!

Nick TAM – Nick has ran at Valentines 8 times now with 6 being Personal bests and today as well as winning he breaks into the 18 minute bracket at Valentines .. I am thinking Nick may like the course

So to each and every one of you setting a new personal best, bask in the glory open the webpage results and leave your laptop phone pc on so others can see your greatness!!! Well done all.

TOP 5 AGE GRADE CLASSIFICATION

Andrew BAXTER 19:09 VM45-49 76.41
Carol BROOME 22:10 VW50-54 75.64 %
Timi Selon VEERASAMY 28:38 VW65-69 72.99%
Ashley FARIA 20:07 VM45-49 72.16 %
Nick TAM 18:34 VM35-39 71.90 %

Last week the ladies had 3 of the top 5 age classifications this week the guys have 3 all great times and great age grade percentages.

CLUBS

Zombies, Run!, Women Running at E14, Transport for London parkrun Club, Sikhs In The City, QPR Runners, Petts Wood Runners, Orion Harriers, Ilford AC, Harlow RC, Eastern Veterans AC, East London Runners, East End Road Runners, Drax All-Stars, Didcot Runners, Dagenham 88 Runner, CSSC Sports & Leisure, Clapham Chasers RC, Chigwell and Epping Forest Orienteering Club, BeaRCat Running Club, Barking Road Runners.
Amazing 21 different clubs at Valentines today thanks all for coming…

THE PARK LOOKING REALLY PRETTY

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CONCLUSION

As I have slipped this week and am a little late uploading this report I do apologise but heck the sun was shining today and the book I am reading was one of those cannot put down just one more page books..
Please don’t forget to join us all at Valentines 9.00am sharp Saturday for more fun and frolics. Oh and the film crew.

Yours

The Valentines secret (some people know me) reporter.