Saturday was certainly a day for the younger generation, with a surge of runners from local schools that saw Fletcher's Cove parkrun having the biggest turnout in the post-lockdown era, at 91 participants and a fantastic 38 first timers!

One of the schools taking part was BASIS Independent McLean, who used the opportunity for 18 of their students to stretch out their legs and try some group running as part of their physical education programme - it was great to see them all with smiles on their faces and hopefully we'll see some of them back again in future weeks.

In other achievements, Oya took home gold (well a red sash) and is now a proud member of the 50 club, with a red parkrun t-shirt on its way shortly - quite a few of our regulars are close to their milestones, so more photos to follow soon...

parkrun continues to be for everyone, all ages and abilities and it was great to see post-run tips being shared as people edge ever closer to achieving personal bests (13 this week!) as the humidity drops again - enjoy the temperatures as we approach the Fall (Autumn for our British cohort), before we starting moaning about the cold and look back to the Summer with fond memories!

Well done to Maria as our Run Director this week, her first time in this role, which she carried off to perfection!  Maria was ably supported by a strong team of volunteers - thanks Jolanta, Neil, Dan, Martin, Rodger, Nancy, Linda, Soroush, Lucinda, Katherine, Jasmine & Cecilia!

There are plenty of volunteer roles, so do have a chat with the team if interested - it's a great way to support the parkrun community and keep these events free, forever, for everyone!

See you next week!  Matt

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9/11. Twenty years have passed. For many of us, memories and images from 11 September 2001 remain vividly imprinted in our consciousness. We all can remember where we were, the shock and extended agony of that day, a day that witnessed almost 3,000 lives lost and changed the shape and form of the 21st century.

Twenty years on, the bright sunshine and resplendent blue sky was eerily reminiscent of 9/11/01.

Our collective thoughts were drawn back to that day and to where we are today, guided by the moving words of Matt, our RD and resident Marine, reminding us that the "free forever" freedoms we enjoy with parkrun are freedoms that we so easily take for granted, but that often are fought for. We took a moment to celebrate the Veterans amongst us, and stood as one to remember the sorrows, the grief, the staggering losses, the extraordinary heroism all on display that fateful day.

So much work to do to bend our common future, to make social justice meaningful for everyone, to make the world a better, fairer place. Think global, act local. There's something about our small parkrun collective endeavor that captures so directly the smorgasbord of aspirations that are tailor-made for a more sustainable and more caring world: inclusive, community-focused, fostering positive social capital, founded on volunteerism, self-sustaining, welcoming, non-judging....

So, as ever, we start with a round of applause to the selfless good deeds of this week's 13 volunteers, without whose stepping up, this event would not have happened: Aaron ZITNER  •  Dan OWEN  •  Daniel CONNOR  •  Douglas RINGEL  •  Linda RAHAL  •  Lucinda FLEESON  •  Maria GARCIA  •  Mariana RAHAL  •  Matt CHURCHWARD  •  Nancy EDSON  •  Richard GLAVEN  •  Rodger POTOCKI  •  Zoe PERSINA

Please consider volunteering. A good rule of thumb is to contribute to a volunteer spot every 10 runs or thereabouts. If you would like to volunteer for future weeks, look out for the whiteboard on Saturday mornings, go to the volunteer roster page on the website (https://www.parkrun.us/fletcherscove/volunteer/) or simply drop us an email at fletcherscove@parkrun.com

This week saw 59 parkrunners at Fletcher's Cove, including 4 first timers. With a marathon taking place on our normal course, we switched direction and ran the reverse route down the towpath towards Georgetown.

Big Up to Kevin Downie, who notched up his 50th milestone parkrun ! More milestones approaching in coming weeks, so watch this space...

Saturday's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Fletcher’s Cove parkrun Results Page.

To keep up to date with the latest news, future events and photos, like and follow Fletcher's Cove Parkrun on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fletcherscoveparkrun/

Please make sure you log in on parkrun.com to your parkrun profile and opt in for emails from us - important, for example, when we need to communicate event cancellations, etc. (fingers crossed, not needed - we have had to do that once in the past 5 years, due to an excessive heat advisory one summer).

We have several more Saturday's over the course of the next month where we will be running the reverse course again - keep an eye on our Facebook page for details. We are planning to make use of one of those occasions, on October 9th, to have a tailgate post-parkrun coffee and cake in the lower level parking lot just below the finish line, so make a note in the calendar.

Keep strong, stay healthy - let's make the world a better place - best, Dan

 

 

 

It was a gorgeous day for a run in the park and a perfect day for a park run.

It was a glorious day with perfect weather in the mid 60s low humidity and a cool breeze for all 76 park runners to enjoy. It was so nice out that 4 visitors from other clubs came to discover the charms of Fletcher's Cove this early September morning.

We've gone back to wearing our masks for our pre-run briefs, but that did not dampen our spirits. In fact the cloudless blue skies and mild temperatures brought out the best in the 20 athletes who posted personal bests. The beautiful weather must have also brought out the 9 new runners who joined us for the first time today.

It's never too early to introduce kids to the joys of the great outdoors and the benefits of exercise. The competitive spirit lives on with a new generation of parkrunners thank you to all the families that bring their young ones along. We all cheered as two of these kids raced each other to a photo finish!

As our post run coffee get-together continues to grow in popularity we explored new ways to maybe streamline the ordering/ queueing process. It's still a work in progress so we're open to ideas. We should acknowledge how accommodating and friendly the staff have been at https://blackcoffeedc.com/. If you've worked up an appetite after your run please do try one of their delicious breakfast sandwiches.

Finally a great big thank you to all those who volunteered to help this week. Clare, Dan, Martin, Nancy, Scott, Linda, Michael, Tricia, Matt, Rob, Jennifer and Maria thank you.

Parkrun is a community run organization that continues to exist because of those who generously donate their time every week. If you would like to join the halls of Parkrun fame and become a volunteer just follow this link: https://www.parkrun.us/fletcherscove/futureroster/.You'll feel better for it and you'll earn our eternal gratitude.

Have a great week everyone and see you next time.

HT

 

 

Another week, another parkrun, it was super hot, but all had good fun!

Although the humidity and heat continued to challenge, we welcomed an impressive 72 parkrunners at Fletcher's Cove this Saturday, one of our highest turnouts in the post-lockdown era... and continuing with the trend of first timers, Nancy briefed another 9 this week - great to see you all, please come back!

and somehow, despite the heat, another 9 managed to record personals bests - watch out for more as we approach the fall!

The great thing about PBs is that it's personal to you - there is never any pressure and the only person who ever comes last is our tail-walker!

Whilst on those merry bunch of guys & girls - as always, a super huge thanks to our volunteers, superbly conducted by Martin as our Run Director this week: thanks Dan, Lisa, Nancy, Shafick, Emma, Ben, David, Sol, Lien, Neil, Maria, Nica & John!

There are plenty of volunteer roles to choose from and many allow you to complete a run as well - if you fancy taking the photographs one week, or writing a run report, then do please ask one of the team or respond to the weekly emails.  On the run reports it would be great to get some feedback & quotes from tourists on their first impression of Fletcher's Cove parkrun, so do please share this plea on social media if you get a chance.

See you next week!  Matt

As always, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - please share!

We're seeing an average number of around 60 parkrunners per week at Fletcher's Cove since opening again and this week didn't disappoint - a brave 60 tackled the Washington DC humidity on Saturday morning, including 7 first timers.

We welcomed tourists from overseas...

and closer to home, including Daltyn from Roosevelt  Island who took home first place!  Close behind, the buggy competition was hotly contested, with UK taking gold...

Even thought the August humidity brought on a sweat, 5 of the Fletcher's cohort recorded personal bests this week - they obviously had their Weetabix that morning!

Encouraging everyone along, a big thanks to all the volunteers this week: Alex, Dan, Steven, Nancy, Michael, David, Chris, Alexandra, Lucinda, Martha, Neil & Katherine!

Our post-coffee routine is getting more popular and this week saw a few fun & games with tables & chairs (you had to be there!), so next week in the spirit of competition within the Palisades community, a few of us will congregate at Buna Bicycle Cafe at 4828 MacArthur Blvd NW.  All are welcome to come along for some post-run analysis and it's a great way for the regulars to encourage all our first-timers to return!

I'll close with a caption competition this week - our duo of token counters - post your entries on our Facebook site and the winner gets a free coffee next Saturday!  Have a great week, Matt.

 As always, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - please share!