Parkrun No. 19 had 18 finishers: 10 women and eight men. Doug Kirkby ran a fantastic 21:57, which is the seventh-fastest time on this course, and an improvement of over three and a half minutes over his six parkruns. Four other personal-best times included David Pope (31:04), Jeffrey Patterson (34:05), Alison Dewis (38:37) and Christina White (50:55).
We also welcomed first-timer Rachel Lawless as she became the 135th registered participant at this event.
Three fixtures into the eight-event Island Race Series, followed by the TC 10K at the end of April, the running community can embrace parkrun as part of their training program. Shawnigan Hills, as the title suggests, provides hill training over 5 km, whilst Clover Point, in Victoria, is flat and provides the runner with more of a speed session.
Most of these races are on consecutive Sundays and so some of our competitive parkrunners are volunteering on the Saturdays when they are racing a day later. Many of our regular parkrunners are also part of the group of volunteers that run the TC 10K run clinics. There is definitely a lot happening in our local running community!
So, walk, jog, run, volunteer or simply come and watch — it is up to you. Make parkrun integral to your upcoming race training schedule. Be a part of the community, make new friends and socialize — we meet at Shawnigan Coffee House post-run after each event. It is a great way to start the weekend.
Next run: Saturday, Feb. 15 at 9 a.m.
– Mark Swannell, organizer
