parkrun – 01/08/2026

6 August 2026 - By Steven Alder

Welcome to the first August report – even more so since we had no race results to share last week! The Witham RC members attended parkruns at Highwoods, Walton Promenade, Mersea Island, South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford Central, Great Notley, Maldon Prom, Jeskyns Community Woodland, Lanhydrock, Beckenham Place, Y Promenâd Aberhonddu (Wales), Markshall, Bedgebury Pinetum, ARU Writtle, Mile End and Y Promenâd Llandrillo-yn-Rhos (Wales).

You’re not seeing double with Y Promenâd. That’s Welsh for The Promenade and there are two locations in Wales that have this parkrun name, one in Aberhonddu and the other in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos. Surprisingly, we (as a club) attended both of them for the first time on the same weekend. Karen Pickering completed Aberhonddu in 22:07 as 2nd female/1st VW40-44 whilst Chrissy Israel did the one in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos in 27:44. Llongyfarchiadau (that’s Welsh for “congratulations”)! Christine Wager was also a fair distance away in Cornwall, completing Lanhydrock in 35:28 for her 111th parkrun.

Two participants were visiting a London parkrun this week – Steven Alder completing Beckenham Place in 30:50 and Fiona Collins at Mile End in 30:10. In Kent, Geoffrey Reddin completed Jeskyns Community Woodland’s 3rd event in 25:31, whilst Nicola Digby visited Bedgebury Pinetum in a time of 36:21. After all the far away locations that leaves just the Essex locations, with Leo Cole completing Highwoods in 22:13 and Cathryn Mills at Markshall in 32:43.

ARU Writtle was attended by Dean Whittaker (25:50), Simon Parsons (26:23) and Ian Cuthbert (26:24) with Simon and Ian attending this location for the first time. Nearby to Writtle at Chelmsford Central saw Lee Tooey (21:51), Nadia McLeod (21:52), Clive Smith (22:17) and Kevin Harper (23:13) – Lee and Nadia grabbed themselves a course PB. The Beazeleys visited Walton Promenade in 25:17 for Chris and 27:17 for Nichola – Chris also got a course PB whilst Nichola did her 321st parkrun. Maldon Prom saw Vicki Riley (24:40), Anita Grainger (28:25) and Joe McEwan (56:15) with Steve Hookings as a Marshal.

The final 3 locations saw Giles Sowerby (20:53 & 1st VM45-49), Keith Taylor (28:02 & 1st VM65-69) and Lysia Jiggins (36:24) at Great Notley, Adam Hocken (25:23) and Ian Lucas (25:31 & 1st VM65-69) at Mersea Island and Dawn Shilling (32:45) and Ross Silverton (41:00) at South Woodham Ferrers.

 

The full WRC results can be found here. Don’t forget to add Witham RC to your parkrun profile so you get picked up in these results.

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parkruns in Prisons

Did you know that some custodial locations (prisons, young offender institutions, and correctional facilities) have a parkrun for the residents there (some locations accept guests, but it needs to be arranged in advance). These are spread over the world, most being in the UK but Ireland and Australia have a few too. HMP Haverigg (Cumbria) hosted the world’s first prison parkrun, starting in May 2017. Closer to home, Warren Hill in Suffolk started in November 2018. Hollesley Bay (also in Suffolk) had a parkrun between June 2019 and June 2022. Black Combe parkrun does sometimes allow people to request to go in – would make for an interesting bit of parkrun tourism!