At our 170th event, we had 70 people participants. Most notably we had a parade of strollers carrying the next generation of parkrunners! We greatly admire the mommies and daddies pushing them in the searing humidity on Saturday!

Special kudos to Carter, pushing son Brooks to his 50th parkrun! Carter got a PB last week and is a regular volunteer too. Congratulations Carter! Filippo earned his 10 shirt, much to the delight of proud Dad Matteo! Matteo will earn his 50th shirt soon!

 

Speaking of volunteers, they did a stellar job, ably directed by Jolanta. Thank you Andres, Jolanta, Matt, Kate, Rodger, Reid Paul, Michael, Ethan, Paula and Handan!

We had 13 first timers- hands up if you are a first timer!

7 parkrunners recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 3 different clubs took part, including a 250 club visitor from Brockwell in London! We love seeing the 250 shirt come to visit, so welcome, Ed!

A final word to our event directors Andres and Dan. Andres interrupted his parkrun to find and replace a missing rock from our turnaround spot. He got his cross training in for the day!

And Dan, pictured on the right, was one of a trio modelling the new apricot shirts! Tried and tested and thumbs up!

See you next Saturday for more fun on the towpath, where Linda will earn her 50th milestone and Ethan his 10th, and don’t forget coffee afterwards at Black Coffee on MacArthur Blvd!

 

Susan Crammond

Fletcher's Cove welcomed 37 enthusiasts on a wonderful morning to complete their weekly, free, timed 5km. The puddles remaining from the previous day's rain were not enough to stop 8 parkrunners from achieving Personal Bests.

We are very grateful to the volunteers who made this event happen: Alice BENDER, Tita CHICO, Susan CRAMMOND, Andres FALCONER, Rob KEMPSELL, Paula MATTISON, Matt PERKINS and Rodger POTOCKI. All volunteers looked extra special with their freshly cleaned hi-vis vests thanks to Alex Foley. Three weeks in the washing machine certainly paid off. The clean vest even inspired some high fashion ensembles.

A special mention goes out to our first finisher and Fletcher's Cove regular Matt Perkins. He finished the run in 19:07, took the stopwatch and completed the timekeeper volunteer role and ended the morning by doing his daddy duties.

Next week we look forward to celebrating milestones with Carter Beach (50th) and Ethan Wolin (10th). Whether you have completed 100 runs, or just 1, like our 8 first timers this past weekend, the Fletcher's Cove parkrun team looks forward to welcoming you every Saturday at 9am.
Coffee is enjoyed after the run where the choices include learning how to process results under the watchful eye of our Event Director Andres FALCONER!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and see you on the next parkrunday to run, jog, walk, barkrun or stroller-push your way to completing another 5km.

Regards

Sedwyn

Another merry gathering at Fletcher's Cove for parkrun number 168.  This week we surpassed our 3,000th registrant at Fletcher's - we are now at 3,005.....and  since inception, over the course of our 168 parkruns, our average number of runners per week is 56.1

So today, run number 168, we were pretty much bang on our average with 57 finishers who either ran, jogged or walked the course, of whom 12 were first timers and 12 recorded new Personal Bests. Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Fletcher’s Cove parkrun Results Page.

It was warm on the towpath, a subtle harbinger of what to look forward to or not as the case may be as the temperatures and humidity on our patch start to climb...but before we all go to the dogs, we celebrated barkrun day at Fletcher's, beautified and made possible by the gracious participation of several of our four-legged canine friends..

A lovely duo of plenty of dogs and plenty of little folks running today, with 8 under-14s on the trail...

and this wonderful moment captured - >

.......with the accompanying commentary:"   “That was so horrible - I am never doing it again!” .....But I have a feeling she changed her mind moments later - -

The event was made possible by 10 volunteers:

Andres FALCONER • Dan OWEN • Rodger POTOCKI • Virginija POSKUTE • Emma IMPAVIDO • Linda RAHAL • Michael BENDER • Sedwyn ANTHONY • Rob KEMPSELL • Emily CHRISTIANSON

Fletcher’s Cove parkrun started on January 9th, 2016. Since then 2,492 participants have taken part and 259 champion individuals have done the right thing by stepping up and volunteering. Remember, our focus is always on participation, not performance and volunteering is all about participation!

Come participate in the parkun and come participate in the post-run coffee. This week, not being at Black Coffee, you would have missed fascinating discussions on Mississippi, mercury (there is a human shark amongst us!) and a multitude of other scintillating topics..

Get involved and volunteer - sign-up here by clicking on the link or sign up on Saturday..

be happy and healthy,

Dan

What a splendiferous morning at Fletcher's Cove - blue sky, a sublime morning sun, a fresh breeze quivering the shimmering C&O canal waters...This week 75 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 20 were first timers and 13 recorded new Personal Bests.

L

The event was made possible by 10 volunteers, this day not festooned in yellow vests for the simple reason that Alex had dutifully subjected all of them to a long, long, arduous laundry cycle:

Alex FOXLEY • Dan OWEN • Maddie GRIFFIN • Nancy EDSON • Susan CRAMMOND • Linda RAHAL • Alice BENDER • Dj LOOP • Allan DOSIK • Paula MATTISON

Parkrun survives and thrives by the goodwill and contribution of volunteers. We are now ably equipped with a volunteer whiteboard, so it couldn't be easier to sign up for a slot on the spot before you head off on a run.

Don't be shy, just step up and sign up (you can also email us, see the Fletcher's Cove page on the web). And remember, sign up and your gift will be promptly delivered - a free parkrun, courtesy of your fellow volunteers! YOUR PARKRUN NEEDS YOU!!

Hoorah for the milestone marvel, Linda Rahal, who will soon sport a dashing purple parkrun shirt having notched up 25 occasions as a volunteer. Big salute and thanks to you, Linda!

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Fletcher’s Cove parkrun results page.

Michael Bender ran for the 50th time at Fletcher's Cove (59 in the USA; 62 worldwide). Louis Marcus Finn finished in 68th position on her 68th run worldwide. Emma Impavido finished in 42nd position on her 42nd run worldwide.

Fletcher’s Cove parkrun started on 9th January 2016. Since then 2,480 participants have completed 9,363 parkruns covering a total distance of 46,815 km, including 1,342 new Personal Bests. A total of 257 individuals have volunteered 1,487 times.

Now, if you're at all curious as to why results took so long to be published on Saturday - there's an easy answer....all you have to do is sign up to volunteer and you too can be introduced to the wonderful world of results processing, which happens dutifully post-parkrun at our local post-parkrun coffee spot, Black Coffee on MacArthur Blvd. Sign up, come for coffee and see how it happens, then offer your services for some quick training so you can do it one week....

This week, we had conundrums aplenty with garbled and mangled data all well on their way to being resolved until the battery on our faithful laptop died. And that hit us at self-imposed deadline time ("I promise, love, I will pick up the kids and drive to the field in the middle of somewhere for the Terrain Race on Saturday!").....

Results processing involves downloading and merging data sets then running through the results table to check for inconsistencies and these appeared like a zombie apocalypse....names appearing twice....pairs we know run in together appearing large distances apart.....and the process is never made easier by the unknowns who run without barcodes.......kind reminder: please remember your barcode, every time!....

Get involved and be a good sport - volunteer sign-up here - click on the link to find out how...

Stay calm and keep parkrunning people!

 

See you Saturday,
Dan

 

Fifty-nine walkers and runners and nine volunteers enjoyed a mostly sunny parkrun on Saturday at Fletcher’s Cove.

Though the river was deep, we didn’t falter. Conditions underfoot were good despite some lingering puddles from Friday rains. We enjoyed coffee and pastries outdoors at our post-run coffee spot, Black Coffee on MacArthur Boulevard. Results processor extraordinaire Eric solved the thorny problem of what to do if you have accidentally handed out two #34 parkrun finish tokens.

Thanks to this week’s corps of volunteers: Nico, Roberta, Paula, Alice, Steven, Raj, Michael, Nancy, and Eric. Nico notched his 10th volunteer opportunity, putting him well on the way to the coveted 25 volunteer milestone shirt, while Alice and Michael each joined the 25 volunteer club at Saturday’s event.

As you know, parkrun depends on volunteers. Please consider volunteering at an upcoming parkrun by e-mailing fletcherscovehelpers@parkrun.com. You can check out available positions at https://www.parkrun.us/fletcherscove/futureroster/. We will continue to circulate the sign-up sheet during run briefings and at coffee so you can sign up (or check to see if you’ve already signed up) for a future event.

On Saturday, we had eleven first-timers to parkrun, including a group from American University. We hope to see all of you again. We also welcomed parkrun tourists from the UK and Ireland. Welcome Mary, Nikita, Javad, and Paul. With luck, we will visit your home parkruns of Greenwich, Finsbury, and Mullingar.

This week, eight participants attained personal bests, including junior runners Ethan, Nina and Evan. Well done all! And a special shout-out to Rita, who set a course age-group record for Fletcher’s Cove.

More pictures from the week are here - https://www.facebook.com/fletcherscoveparkrun/-(under photos, navigate to the the album titled Fletcher’s Cove parkrun #166 -4/20/19). As always, we encourage you to bring a friend who would enjoy a Saturday walk or run on the canal. Tell them to remember to register with parkrun US and print and bring their barcode when they come. This helps us keep the event running smoothly.

See you next week,

Michael