It was a very warm morning for runners at Castlemaine Parkrun event #340 on Saturday, and everyone was grateful for the shade our beautiful gardens offer in summer.
The warm weather didn’t stop Patrick Smith however, who was first across the line in 18:40, followed closely by Kyan McGill with a new PB of 19:30. Karina Taylor was the first female finisher in a time of 25:14.
Parkrunner, Nathan Rice, who tried to sneak in late to avoid notice, was caught in the act, and awarded his 250 milestone ‘stone’. He then had to run through the tunnel of love in recognition of this great achievement. Nathan has been a Parkrunner since January 2016, so it has taken him just seven years to reach his semiquincentennial. 246 of his runs have been at Castlemaine, the others being at Goldfields Reservoir, Kennington Reservoir, Campaspe and Torquay – I’m sensing a water theme here!
In addition to his commitment to running, Nathan has also managed to volunteer on 21 occasions. All in all, a fantastic effort. Well done, Nathan.
Joining Nathan in the tunnel of love was junior parkrunner, Sebastian Collie who celebrated his tenth parkrun, also a great achievement. It was the week for personal bests as well, so congratulations go to Glen Sheppard (26:19), Brianna Jury (31:59), Greg Taylor (32:47), Liza Shaw (36:05), Lachlan Morgan (36:17), Emma Morgan (40:19) and Parker Williams (47:35) who all achieved PBs despite the hot conditions.
No matter what the weather, the welcome is always warm at Castlemaine, and we extended that warm welcome to visitors from Lilydale, Canberra and Rosebud, and also to first timers David Scott, Lainie Sutton, Judd Pratt, Alexandra Squires and Libby Pratt. As always grateful thanks go to the volunteers who make the event happen each week. This week’s volunteers were: Run Director, Michael Constable, ably assisted by Ronder Clayton, Dianne Cox, Jane Harding, Peter Hill, Stephen Walls, John Willis and Robin Murdoch.
You can see just how many jobs need to be done to keep parkrun ‘running’ each week, so please come along and offer your support by popping your name on the roster, or register to run/jog/walk the gorgeous 5km course by logging on to www.parkrun.com.au/register and collecting your unique barcode, so you can join us every Saturday morning in the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens at 8am.