Roosevelt Island parkrun - Run Report – Event #73 – April 7, 2018
Miserable weather was promised for our Saturday morning parkrun on Roosevelt Island. Rain, sleet, and snow were on the menu, despite the date - the identified peak bloom day for the DC cherry blossom. However, yet again, we were lucky enough to have dry weather and bracing temperatures – just right for a morning run. The numbers were slightly less than we had hoped for on a Spring morning, although we suspect some of our regulars took time out to save energy for the traditional cherry blossom 10 miler the next day (and it wasn’t a Spring morning).
As usual, the runners included a mixture of tourists and first timers. Again, an astounding 24 of our 51 runners were first timers. The tourists included visitors from several US states, Poland, Australia, Ireland, and several Brits (again Bushy Park was represented). Six 100 shirts and nine 50 shirts were in evidence, as well as six with 25 volunteering shirts (and I know that at least one of them would qualify for a 50 volunteering shirt if it were available). And yes, we had our regular assembly of barkrunners too, although Mia was limited to finish token volunteering this time, much to her obvious irritation as her ‘mom’ was tail-walker.
Our newly introduced pre-race briefing was conducted by joint event director, Svetlana Stanaford. This has been much appreciated as the number of runners increases. We are looking out for these first timers to return and move on to collect 50, 100 & more parkrun shirts.
There are many performances to highlight, but two people need special mention. First the Gazelle from Norfolk, UK, Sam Thelwell, who skipped round to record his first (I believe) leading overall position. Second, mention must be made of Kendall Tata, who achieved an age grade of 82% to smash the VW 55-59 age category Roosevelt Island record with 21.46 (and 3rd overall). Kendall also caught the eye in her most patriotic of uniform.
The comments heard at the finish were enthusiastic. Our island course has yet to attain its spring beauty, but it stuns so many people that such a delightful parkrun site can be found in the middle of Washington DC. There is a unique charm in our boutique RI parkrun. All appreciate the challenge and the atmosphere. Moreover those coming from the larger foreign runs enjoy the smaller parkrun experience. I overheard an English family congratulating themselves for being in the top 50, an unfamiliar experience when your home run comprises many hundreds of runners.
Finally, many thanks to an Arlington County initiative, Hands2Hearts CPR training was on hand at Central Coffee, our post-run meetup venue. This training gave an introduction to CPR and served as a reminder to go a stage further to get CPR certification.
Volunteers lubricate the cogs of each parkrun. We were graced with 12 such willing helpers this week. Thanks to all. Please opt-in for volunteering and let us know if you wish to join the Hi-Viz heroes at rooseveltislanddchelpers@parkrun.com. Looking forward to seeing you all next week when, I promise, Spring will be sprung!.
Nick Young
Run Director
