“Hello, hello, it’s good to be back, it’s good to be back”

Oasis - Hello

“I’m coming home, I’ve been away so long, do you remember me at all?”

Bullet for my Valentine – Hearts Burst into Fire

Saturday marked my return to Leakin Park for the first time since I absconded to the wilds of New Jersey at the end of July – and boy was it good to be home. Home at Leakin Park, home at parkrun, home at Bullwinkles afterwards

I’ve been keeping a close eye on the event in my absence and talk regularly to the core team on the Whatsapp group, but it’s no substitute for actually being there…especially when Leakin Park is in full autumnal (ooops fall!) mode.

I was just a little bit happy!

Conditions were perfect for the 22 participants (of the 2 legged kind, there were also 2 x 4 legged participants as Dolly Murphy and Martina Hornik joined in the fun). The parkrunners were expertly led by Iman Newman who was making his debut as Run Director and did a fantastic job with an entertaining run brief. As usual there was a good team of volunteers behind him, so huge thanks to

Doug JONES, Will JONES, Zach JONES, Bridget MCCUSKER, Kristie METZ, Rory MURPHY, Iman NEWMAN, Jo ORSER, Ed ORSER

for helping ensure a safe event.

Your crack volunteer team

We always welcome new volunteers - we don't want the same faces doing the roles every week. Come and give it a go - none of the roles are difficult and volunteering is FUN!

I enjoyed seeing familiar faces  - not just the core team but also Ed and Jo Orser, Amy Ryan who I met at her first event and is now back for her 7^th, Alfay Manning who had a huge grin as always and of course Gus Campbell. I know Gus from his College Park days, and it was great to see him set another PB……and interestingly he’s now just a few seconds off his college park PB which is an easier course. Clearly he’s inspired by Leakin Park!

Big smile from Amy and thumbs up from Lorie!

Gus trying to work out how he's as fast at Leakin Park as at College Park

In total nearly half the field came home in a new fastest time, so big congrats to

Caleb DIXON, Dan PARRY, Michael WILLIAMS, Christian K, David PLATT, Marco RIBEIRO, Andrew SHAFFER, Jackie WARFIELD, Rory MURPHY, Gus CAMPBELL

for their efforts this week.

We also had two first timers this week. Brendan Gonzales was doing his first ever parkrun, while Tracy Watson was doing her 15^th but her first in the US as she normally runs in Brisbane on Australia’s Gold Coast. Tracy is here on a 6 mth secondment so is looking forward to exploring the US and parkrun simultaneously (when she mentioned visiting Niagara I pointed out she can double up and parkrun at Hamilton Beach on the Canadian side too – win/win!)

There was a healthy turnout at Bullwinkles again afterwards, and I was pleased to see how the parkrun community spirit is alive and well at Leakin Park. I must confess that I felt slightly guilty about leaving for NJ after just 6 events, but I really should not have worried. Doug has done a great job as ED, the core team is well committed and continues to grow with new volunteers and RDs, while we continue to get a steady trickle of newcomers and returners

Enjoying the overhead heaters at Bullwinkles!

All in all it warmed my heart to be back and see what a wonderful event Leakin Park has become – long may it continue (and I’ll try and be back again soon)

Cheers

Rory

For parkrun #7, the clouds parted, BUT Leakin Park parkrun #8, the Sun came out! Run Report event #8

Once again, we managed to avoid the summer thunderstorms, but we were not so fortunate as to escape the humidity.  However, not even the high humidity dissuaded Michael Brice-Saddler from the Baltimore Sun from capturing the stories of our new and returning runners and walkers with their great efforts, big smiles, and grand achievements. Michael did an excellent job bringing attention to parkrun’s goals and representing the positive influences of our mission! Special thanks to Doug Jones, Martha Wagley, Ed Orser, and Jill Balthis for providing key parkrun insights and personal experiences for Michael to highlight in his Sun article.

This week brought parkrun tourists and locals, first-timers and returners!

First-time Leakin Park parkrun tourist, Michael Allen from Tonbridge led the way with core team member Thomas Hornik and another first-time Leakin Park parkrunner, College Park regular James Moreland conquering the oppressive humidity as our front three finishers.

Charlie Joyce and four-legged partner Dixie hound-dogged the humidity, while Krista Platt’s four-legged friend Ruby enjoyed every puddle the recent rains in Leakin Park had to offer! We are so happy that Shineika Evans found us as an opportunity to help prepare for her half-marathon in September, and that Ed Orser continues to enjoy walking half of our course as he allows parkrun to be a tool in his recovery from heart bypass surgery.

We had such a strong group setting PBs, even with the weather working against them.  Congratulations David Platt, Stacy Poliseo, Maura O’Neill, MacKenzie Hornik, Gus Campbell, Jill Balthis, Sally Waller, and Lori Gonzalez for striking out and setting PBs! Job well done!

Great post-parkrun Gathering

Congratulations to the entire Hornik family, who all had the opportunity to run the course this week thanks to first time volunteer Martha Wagley as tail walker, returning volunteer and Friend of Leakin Park Jo Orser as course marshal, and returning core team-member volunteers Doug Jones and Michael Williams as timer and backup timer respectively, Zach Jones as scanner, and Will Jones handing out tokens. As always, huge thanks to our volunteers; without our volunteers, parkrun wouldn’t be possible.

After a week of rain and storms, we were fortunate to have beautiful weather for our parkrun this week.  The 70-degree weather with a cool breeze brought out some new visitors and great times.

Our regular pack leader, Luis Navarro, was joined by Jonathan Hermansen who was running in just his second event.  The two pushed each other throughout the course and ended with both men achieving PBs.  Jonathan’s strong finish gave him the second fastest time in course history at a 19:09.  Luis’ 19:23 is good enough to be the 4^th fastest time in course history.

The leaders working together to achieve PBs

We like to consider Leakin Park parkrun a family, and it was evident this week as well.  The Horniks, Joneses, Orsers, and Friends of Gwynns Falls were all well represented.

The entire Hornik clan came out in full force this weekend with David sneaking in ahead of his father at the finish; Genevieve and Martina in a dead heat, and Mackenzie providing expert leadership at the finish.

Some well earned post-run relaxation
The Jones boys were well represented this week as well.  Doug and Will both volunteered at the finish while Zach ran his first 5k ever. The couch to 5k program has built a strong base for him, and parkrun led to some post-run naps.

Some friends of the park

Jo Orser brought her husband out to experience the course for the first time.  Both enjoyed their time with their typical large smiles. We also welcomed a group of of Leakin Park regulars. This group of walkers can normally be seen on the Gwynns Falls walking together the opposite direction on a Saturday, but this week they decided to change course and direction in order to join our bunch.  Headed by Lisa Lofty, their pack had more members this week as they crossed the line.  Thanks for joining us!

Volunteers

As always, parkrun could not occur without the help of all our volunteers.  Iman Newman, who has run 5 of our 6 initial events, decided to try his hand at volunteering this weekend.  He shared his expertise by being our scanner.  Bridget McCusker, another Leakin Park regular, took time before heading to Europe to be our tail walker.  And it is always good to see core team members Kristie Metz and Michael Williams helping out at tokens and as a marshal respectively.

parkrunUSA is growing with Leakin Park as the US chapters set a new weekly attendance record as we hit our 100^th registrant.  We love having all of you join us during these summer months; be sure to bring a friend.

Records are made to be broken, so they say, and this weekend had that in abundance not just at Leakin Park but across all parkrun USA events

To recap - the Leakin Park course record was not just broken but SMASHED into tiny pieces by Paul Martelletti who ran a barely believable 15:57. I say barely believable but Paul is the all time parkrun USA record holder as he ran 14:59 at Crissy Field so I guess it's pretty believable after all!

Blink and you miss him - Paul was a blur  

That was only the start of the records though as they tumbled left, right and centre. We had a massive parkrun USA attendance record with 797 attendees (plus 100 volunteers) across all our events (including an all time USA event record of 211 at Clermont). 1000/week can't be that far off IMO - and speaking of 1000 it was the 1000th parkrun USA event this week. That's taken us 5 years - the next 1000 should take rather less time

We had >3000 participants in a month for the first time and beat the total attendance for 2016 in just 7 months of 2017.....onwards and upwards!

Phew - I need a rest after that!

As for numbers at Leakin Park - once again we had a nice crop of people trying out parkrun for the first time. 8 people broke their parkrun duck, inclduing

• Kylie and Johnathan Hermanson, originally from Utah but now in Maryland
• Frank Cammarata
• Lori Gonzalez - who did one lap last week but this week did the the whole 5K!
• Kate Donegan who gave me some great thumbs up pics on the course!
• Will Jones - son of core team member Doug, will has volunteered but this was the first time he's ever done 5k, so well done Will
• Charles Muse and Laya White - who enjoyed it so much they wanted to buy parkrun apricot T-shirts with Leakin Park on them!

As has happened with each event we had visitors exploring our park. Cindy Cohen came from College Park where I've ran with her on a number of occasions. Cindy was also representing Prince George's Running Club who have been a big supporter of parkrun and was fresh from her 50th parkrun event last week, joining the prestigious 50 club and qualifying for a free red 50 T-shirt!

Cindy in full flow
Cindy was joined from College Park by Alan Mulwinda of Howard County Striders who was doing his 11th event.

Obviously the afore-mentioned Paul Martelletti was visiting (all the way from Mile End in East London) and was accompanied by his (slightly slower but no less friendly and fun to chat with) wife Karen Harris  - we also discovered afterwards we had a mutual acquaintance, parkrun is a small world!

  Paul and Karen with Rory ( and Dolly!)

Regulars Luis Navarro and Iman Newman became the first Leakin Park parkrunners to join our "mini 5 club". I have shamelessly stolen this idea from College Park as a way of recognising our regular attendees at 5, 10 and 25 (but no T-shirts until 50 unless you're a junior!), and we has plenty of people doing their second and third events which is always wonderful to see

Continuing the record theme, there were plenty of PBs this week so well done to Bridget McCusker, Malisha Pate, David Platt, Doug Jones, Robin Destefano, Martha Wagley, Daniel Gonzalez and Karen Ferris - all of whom set their fastest time round Leakin Park!

Tom Hornik made his debut as Run Director this week, and was aided and abetted by a great team, including family members Genevieve and Mackenzie on timing and David on tokens. Joy Goodie was our scanner and Alfay Manning took a break from participating to marshal and cheer everyone on at the loop! Kristie Metz took the key roe of Tail Walker. Thanks again to everyone - we always need a regular pool of volunteers to ensure the event can go ahead and we are not relying on the same people.

It would be great if every registered parkrunner "opted-in" to the volunteer email that goes out every week asking for volunteers. You can do this via your results email that you get after run or directly into your parkrun profile and go to "email options".

Finally this week I have some sad news - this week was my last at Leakin Park for the foreseeable future as I have relocated to New Jersey with my job (and 3.5 hours each way is a little far even for me to commute for parkrun).

I am personally gutted to have to leave the event after just 6 runs, but equally and very proud about what we have created at Leakin Park. I also have full confidence in Doug, Kristie, Tom, Genevieve, Michael and all the team that they will continue to do a great job in growing the parkrun experience in West Baltimore. Also Doug will be taking over as Event Director so he's the main man now

It was nice to be able to finish by actually taking part with Dolly in tow

  See you soon I hope!

I hope to be back occasionally to visit and see how everyone's doing, and in the meantime will be working hard on parkrun New Jersey - so keep your eyes peeled!

Huge thanks to everyone who helped get this off the ground, and to Kristie for the cheescake and Beth Jones for the tasty treats at the finish!

I'll be there in spirit this parkrunday and everyone after

Cheers

Rory

It was our 4th event this week and we were very fortunate to have local 8th District Councillor Kris Burnett visiting us. I first met Kris back in the Spring to talk about the parkrun initative for Leakin Park. He was generous with his time and immediatedly enthusiastic about the idea and offered to help in whatever way he could

Unfortunately due to the demands on his time Kris was unable to make the inaugural event but did send his Chief of Staff Adam along. However this week Kris was able to join us, and brought along his brother Caleb, father Alfay and mother Etosha. All four thoroughly enjoyed their experience and Kris gave a little speech before the run started.

Kris and family

Community is at the heart of parkrun, and both Kris and the Leakin park core team want to ensure that the event takes a central role in helping to improve the health and well being of the 8th District, West Baltimore and beyond. So thanks again for you support Kris (and next goal is to get Mayor Pugh along!)

Just as welcome as Kris and his family was the sight of another large bunch of first-timers as well as some tourists. Over half the field were running their first ever parkrun and we got some wonderful feedback on the friendliness of our event.

My favourite line came from Cassie Kasparian (fresh from taking the female course record) who mentioned she had done a lot of running events and training groups over the years and reckoned she had probably spoken to two people in that time.......by the end of Saturday she'd had spoken to 5 times that amount! It was great to see, not just so many first timers, but so many staying around to chat afterwards, meet new people and hopefully make new friends. This is what parkrun is all about!
Amy, Kathy, Cassie and Karen with ED Rory
One of our first timers Vicki Klima has just relocated from Massachusetts and was delighted to learn about a weekly running event to help with her training and also meeting people. I can empathise, having found that parkrun was a great way to meet people after moving over here on my own. Amy Ryan was another newcomer to the area and parkrun, and joined us for breakfast afterwards.....where she discovered she was a near neighbour of core team member Michael Williams. Small world!

It was also the first time running the course for parkrun core team members Doug Jones and Tom Hornik.

Tom cools down with Martina and Iman while Doug is pleased with his run!

The core team put a lot of time and effort in ensuring the event goes ahead each week, so it's great for them to get the opportunity to partake too! To enable that we would love to have some more volunteers come forward to fill some of the roles each week - all the roles are easy to do and fun as well! You can offer to volunteer by

1) emailing the office leakinparkhelpers@parkrun.com
2) posting on our Facevbook page
3) opting-in to the volunteer emails (via your profile page or the weekly results email) and responding to the weekly email appeal!

As well as first timers we had several visitors. Furthest travelled was Alison Hardy from Corby in the UK who was very positive about the course (most people are!). Some familiar faces joined us from the DMV events - parkrun USA Country Manager Darrell Stanaford was on scanning duties, and College Park ED Colin Phillips came up to see his new neighbour, and took the course record to boot! Also making the trip up I-95 was Fletcher's Cove regular, fellow Irishman and my doppelganger Dee Coughlan. Hans Greuber and Eric Johnston added Leakin Park to their list of events, while we have special visitors from College Park in the form of Lisa Wilson and Hump Plotts. Lisa and Hump normally form the marshal duo at College Park, with Lisa at the turnaround and Hump managing the newly named "Hump's Crossing" This week they took a break in order to visit and volunteer - Hump marshalled at the loop while Lisa tail walked and took some great pics!

Some of our visitors!

It was great to have so many visitors, and also great to get so many positive comments about our park and our course - spread the word guys!

We can't overlook our returning runners of course, and after taking a break last week Luis Navarro returned for his 3rd run - for once having company at the front! David Platt set a new PB on his second event, as did Iman Newman on his third. The biggest PB was set by Clare Murphy who took a whopping 16 minutes and thirty seconds off her time (after tailwalking at her first event!)

Clare SMASHING her PB

Malisha Pate also returned  - and brought her two grandchildren in a double buggy as well! Despite the dodgy front wheels Malisha did a great job pushing them round and I think they had fun too
'What's wrong with these wheels?"

We can't finish without saying thanks to our Hi-Viz heroes - well done to the following who ensured a great event went ahead safely, all well lead by Kristie Metz in her first stint as RD!

Joy GOODIE, Will JONES, Kristie METZ, Rory MURPHY, Hump PLOTTS, Darrell STANAFORD, Michael WILLIAMS, Lisa WILSON  
Our Hi-viz team
Final thanks go to our wonderful supporters Friends of Gwynns Falls / Leakin Park who donated a unused room in the brick building for us to store our signs, flag and cones - thus saving us from lugging them back and forth each week! Thank you guys!

That's all for this week - I'm about to head home to Baltimore after a week in Mexico with work, and can't wait to see you all on Saturday morning

Cheers

Rory

We are right in the middle of holiday season right now - at times it appears that almost everyone I know (bar me) is on holiday and is sending me pictures of them frolicking on a beach or by a pool

Bucking the trend this week was our Run Director Doug Jones who came back from his holiday in time to take the reins on Saturday morning. Doug is an integral member of the core team and did a great job in his first stint as RD - being a teacher helps a lot when you need to maintain order during the run brief!

Doug delivering the brief

Doug was ably assisted by another bumper crew of hi-viz volunteers! Kristie Metz was our tail walker along with son Mason doing his first parkrun. Keeping with the familial spirit Zach and Will Jones (Doug's sons) helped out on Tokens and Timing respectively, alongside Randy Moreland on the other timer. Tom Hornik was our crack scanner this week and Bridget McCusker took a break from setting age-category records to marshal at take pictures at the loop!

Tailwalkers head off

Our HiViz heroes

Adding to the family theme we welcomed Rachel Lukens and son Marty visiting from College Park. Marty is a veteran "parkstrollerer" as he likes to relax while Mum Rachel does the hard work. As he is only three he can't take part yet, but having seen his sprint finishes on occasion I'm sure he'll be ready to go on his 4th birthday! He was also intrigued by the prospect of a new parkrun having only ever seen College Park, but I'm relaibly informed he enjoyed his excursion!

Rachel and Marty ready to go

I met Rachel randomly at her first College Park event back in December- we chatted before and after the event, walked to coffee together and next thing you know we were firm friends! This is one of the things I love about parkrun - on any given week you can meet someone new and gain a good friend, and I've been fortunate enough to make dozens over the years. So it was great to see Rachel and Marty coming to visit  - come back soon!

Still more family themed news - father and daughter Bruce and Kristen Kane returned for their second event, and managed a family double as both of them set new PBs! Well done both

Iman Newman also set a new PB and dipped under 38 minutes  - well done Iman

We had 6 (registered) people finishing their first parkrun, as well as a few unregistered debutants. Remember it's always worth registering - it only takes a few minutes at www.parkrun.us/register and means you'll always get a time  - and can get a run credit towards your free milestone T-shirt! Hopefully everyone enjoyed the morning

We have some exciting news for next week - our local 8th District Councillor Kris Burnett is joining us on the start line at 9am! Kris has been an enthusiastic supporter of Leakin Park all the way and it's great that's able to come join us on Saturday. We'd love to see a nice crowd down to run with Kris so please get your barcode out and meet us there!

Looking forward to seeing you all this parkrunday!

Cheers

Rory

In music they talk about the difficult second album....in parkrunworld we talk about the difficult second event

For the inuagural there's loads of publicity, excitement, visitors and volunteers. The second event is more of a "back to reality" moment - it's when the event starts to settle into its natural rythym and groove, the extent of the volunteer and runner base becomes a little clearer.

Playing on the Linkin Park / Leakin Park mixup which is commonly heard, this would make last Saturday Meteora, after the inaugural's hybrid Theory

Happily our "difficult" second event went as smoothly and successfully as the first. We had a decent turnout of 23 participants (actually a couple more as some did one lap so weren't recorded, but are always welcome!) which was commendable given the holiday weekend timings!

More importantly a whopping 15 of these were people trying parkrun for the first time  - some of these hadn't registered yet but we hope they will and also that they will come back! Well done to following parkrun debutants

Clare MURPHY, Charlie JOYCE, Margo WORKMAN, Sally WALLER (another Baltimore Road Runners Club member!) Iman NEWMAN, Suresh POLA, and Jason COUNSMAN#

We also created an exclusive club of four people who have run at both Leakin Park events. Luis Navarro has been first man home both times, and this week he set a new course record breaking the one he set last week! Bridget McCusker is a member of the marvellous Friends of Gwynns Fall / Leakin Park and also owner of the age grade record for our event with 69.65%, again setting a PB from last week. Gus Campbell has been a regular at the College Park event but is making a new parkrun home for himself at Leakin Park and set a PB as well (he also brought daughter Jessica Gerbig along for her first Leakin park event!). Finally Sai Pola rounds off the list of double Leakin Park attendees - and he also brought a family member along in Suresh Pola!

We had a member of the 50 club join us, Simon Wraight sporting his red 50 t-shirt (remember that juniors claim a free t-shirt after 10 runs, adult can do it after 50, 100, 250 and 500 runs!). Simon is an expat living in West Virginia so it was great to have him along to try out our park! Also visiting, from Colorado this time, was Gillian Carribine and her son Devon. Gillian was sporting her purple 25 volunteer Tee - you claim this after volunteering on 25 different parkrundays

Speaking of volunteers - once again we were fortunate enough to have a great team of hi-viz heroes making sure the event could go ahead. The Hornik family once again took on a big chunk of the roles, with Tom and David manning the timers, Mackenzie handing out tokens, and Genevieve on marshalling duties. Michael Williams scanned merrily, Jo Orser managed the turnaround point, John McCaul showed everyone how to loop and Clare Murphy (plus dog Dolly!) tail walked, ensuring we know when everyone's in. Simon Wraight also helped with marshalling (and getting our flag up pre event!)

Having enough volunteers every week is vital to putting the event on - so I'd urge everyone to try it occasionally. None of the roles are difficult and they're actually lots of fun - so please opt-in to receiving volunteer emails (you can do this in your parkrun profile) and join the fun!

That's all for this week - see you next parkrunday for our 3rd event  - but at 9am not at "Minutes to Midnight" (yes, another Linkin Park reference :))

Cheers

Rory

"If you build it they will come"

Field of Dreams

We did it.

WE did it.

WE DID IT!

Some 8 months after we first approached the Parks&Recs department of Baltimore City Council looking for their support for a parkrun, last Saturday marked the first parkrun to be held in Baltimore. It's been a lot of work and before I do anything else I want to thank the following

• Cortney Weinstock and Fran Spero of the Parks & Recs Dept - quite simply without these guys and their support we would not have an event at all.
• The Friends of Gwynn's Falls / Leakin Park - these wonderful people have been hugely supportive and passionate about ensuring we get going, providing valuable advice and helping with the funding!
• Kris Burnett (8th District Councillor) and all his office - again hugely supportive and encouraging. Adam (his chief of staff) joined us on Saturday and Kris will be visiting on July 15th!
• The core team - Randy Moreland, Doug Jones, Kristie Metz, Tom Hornik (and family Genevieve, MacKenzie and David), Michael Williams. To start a parkrun you need a strong core team you can rely on, and we certainly have this
• parkrun USA - they provide the central support that no event can survive without!
• Everyone who turned up and took part on Saturday - you're all awesome!

We were fortunate enough to have great weather for our first event - especially given the storm that swept through at 5am or so, waking me and worrying me! The park looked beautiful in the morning sunshine, and once again I gave thanks that Cortney had suggested this park as a venue way back when we first met. Not only is it a perfect venue for parkrun and very scenic, there are plenty of options for additional walking, running and cycling pre or post parkrun.

Ready to go!

We had a great turnout of 31 participants  - and 17 of of those were people trying out parkrun for the first time - which I love to see! I hope you all enjoyed your morning and will come back next week (and the week after that etc!). Also included were tourists from Australia (Jo Inglis) and London (Veronica Fikackova), plus a healthy contingent from our neighbour events in DC and College Park. We had juniors (Lauren and Anna Furlong), seniors (no I'm not falling into that trap!), dogs, Friends (Bridget McClusker ran, setting the highest age-grade %, while Jo Orser and Joy Goodie volunteered), running club members (6 different clubs including Hazel Teal and Lisa Zanti from Baltimore Road runners club) and families (the extended Murphy/Campbell/Furlong clan)

The extended clan!

In short, we had everything that makes a parkrun such a wonderful morning - not least cold water (kindly provided by Tom Hornik) and brownies (provided by me - I think my baking passed the test!)

We also, of course, had a merry band of hi viz heroes aka the volunteers. To ensure an event goes ahead safely we need people to man the various roles every week so would welcome anyone who would like to offer the services. None of the volunteer roles are difficult, full training is given and you will have fun, I guarantee it!

If you're interested in volunteering please email the office leakinparkoffice@parkrun.com. You can also "opt-in" to our volunteering emails on your parkrun profile - this then means you'll receive our weekly email looking for volunteers! So big thanks to this week's group of heroes

Joyce ADAMS, Joy GOODIE, Genevieve HORNIK, Thomas HORNIK, Mackenzie HORNIK, David HORNIK, Doug JONES, Kristie METZ, Randy MORELAND, Rory MURPHY

Some of our merry band!    

After the run we adjourned to Bullwinkles, just down the road on North Franklintown road near the I-70 junction. Dawn and her staff gave us a warm welcome, and the morning was discussed over good food, coffee and maybe a small beer or two! Having a spot for post-run socialising is critical to buildihg the community vibe so we're very happy to have Bullwinkles!

Talking things over!

So that was the inaugural. We built it and you came. But what's great about parkrun is that we get to do it all over again next Saturday....and for a lot more Saturdays after that!

See you soon

#loveparkrun

Rory