Last week was Renton parkrun #121, our triumphant return after a 73 week break (give or take....my math might be off by a week or two) due to, you guessed it, Covid-19.
And trimphant it was!! We had 26 finishers, including 8 with personal bests! Akhil Srinivasan ran a pre-COVID PB of 19:52 and ran 19:28 this weekend. His younger sister Dhanya ran 33:13, blowing her previous PB of 38:08 out of the water! Matt Wexler, who was stuck at 49 runs when we shut down, really wanted his 50th to be at his home event so he didn't play tourist at Des Moines or Redmond but instead waited for Renton's re-launch. He also logged an impressive PB, beating his previous by 7 minutes! Shawn Pearce and Nina Tang, regulars at Perrigo, came down for our launch and both logged PBs as well! Also joining the PB bell ringers club (we have a bell!), Jennifer Samm, Abby Ruelas, and Alexis Hauber.
Our first finisher was also a first-timer, congratulations Sarah Paquet! We also welcomed Graham Smith-Golden and Sarah Fausell to our parkrun family. We welcomed back Eleanor Lee who has participated in many a parkrun with her parents, but is now official at the age of 4! She not only participated as an official parkrunner, she logged her first day of volunteering as well.
Today was parkrun #122. It has been hot and the air quality is poor, so I think a lot of people decided to stay home, but we did have 16 finishers, two personal bests (congratulations to our first male finisher, Jack Gates, who bested his previous time of 22:51 finishing in 22:23 and our first female finisher, Alexis Hauber, who finished today in 27:31, beating her previous PB from last week of 28:01) and one first-timer. Welcome Zachary Turner!
While we always like to give a shout-out to those who achieved a personal best time, parkrun is about running AND walking, it's about those who can run the distance in 20 minutes and those who run and/or walk it in an hour. It's about our littlest parkrunners who come with their parents, who ride in the stroller, or like Eleanor Lee and others, volunteer with Dad as tail walker. It's about taking that first step into outdoor exercise, that return to running or walking after injury or illness or just falling out of the habit, that community spirit of volunteering and cheering for friends and strangers alike, and that reminder that every Saturday there's someplace to go with family or friends, or even on your own. We would love to see our parkrun family grow, so please share what we're all about with those around you. After the trying times we have had, it's so nice to get outside, get some exercise, meet new people and become a part this global force that is parkrun.
Next week is Renton parkrun #123 and we should be seeing our 5,000th finisher cross the finish line. Will it be you?? We're excited for this milestone and hope to see you there!