parkrun – 10/01/2026

12 January 2026 - By Steven Alder

That’s another parkrun complete, with Witham RC attending at Colchester Castle, Raphael, Maldon Prom, Chelmsford Central, Clacton Seafront, Leicester Victoria, Great Denham, Wickford Memorial and Markshall Estate. Our newest local, ARU Writtle, didn’t take place this week and isn’t on next week either (they’ll be back for the 24th January).

Markshall Estate, pictured above, saw a few of us visiting, dogs included, so sometimes it’s coined barkrun! Running around the course here was Simon Parsons (24:30), Geoffrey Reddin (25:24), Scott Townsend (28:10), Ann Johnson (34:51), Andrew Read (34:54), Angela Read (34:55), Kerry Townsend (36:53) and Karen Flowers (49:44). Karen has now done 66 parkruns, of which 33 were at Markshall Estate, so if she’s doing a parkrun I guess you’ll have a 50% chance of seeing her there! Monty also made an appearance at Markshall Estate where he was volunteering (Thank you Monty!)

Fiona Collins (32:04) attended Wickford Memorial with Clive Smith (23:07), a flat course over 2 and a bit laps and were hosting a pacer week this week. Steven Alder went off to Bedford with his friend and completed Great Denham in 29:51, whilst Nichola Beazeley went all the way to Leicester to do Leicester Victoria in 26:09.

Visiting the seaside was Michael Poulter attending Clacton Seafront, completing it in 31:50, along with 197 other runners. Close to home, Maldon Prom, we had a large cohort as always. Well done to Ian Cuthbert (21:36, in 10th place and grabbing a course PB), Andrew Lager (22:58, 1st place for the VM50-54 age group), Leo Cole (23:35), Steve Hookings (26:24), Ian Lucas (27:26), Liz Atkinson (29:56 – her 66th time at this location), Katie Layley (30:01), Dawn Shilling (31:23), Andy White (31:39), Lysia Jiggins (32:13), Joe McEwan (38:09) and Adam Regan (38:59).

Chelmsford Central had Andrew Smith (21:51), Kevin Harper (24:29) and Nadia McLeod (27:15), whilst Colchester Castle had Adam Hocken (26:01) and Patrick Hinchliffec (37:27). Visiting London was Giles Sowerby completing Raphael in 19:05, with a bronze finish in 3rd place.

The full set of results can be found here. Don’t forget to add Witham RC to your profile to appear in these results!

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parkrun Challenge: (Totally) PIED

The Totally PIED challenge is split into two challenges. Being ‘PIED’ and also ‘Totally PIED’. It stands for ‘parkruns in Essex Done’, so completing all of the parkruns that are in Essex. As an extra challenge, to become Totally PIED, you can also head into London to complete the parkruns in ‘old’ Essex, east of the River Lea. That’s 25 different parkruns for PIED and an additional 10 to be Totally PIED. How are you all doing with that challenge?