parkrun – 18/04/2026

19 April 2026 - By Steven Alder

Another great week of parkrun tourism, where we’ve spread around to Brentwood, Colchester Castle, Maldon Prom, Markshall, Chelmsford Central, Walton Promenade, Elemore Park, Poole, Roosevelt Island DC (USA), Green Park, Felixstowe, Great Notley, Haga (Sweden), University of Stirling, Hadleigh, ARU Writtle and Albert (Melbourne – Australia).

Great to see a few different international bits of tourism going on, spreading us over 3 continents. Andrew Lager was in Washington DC and ran round the beautiful Roosevelt Island DC parkrun in 23:11. Fiona Collins and Clive Smith crossed the finish line together in a time of 26:28 for Haga’s 400th event in Sweden. Meanwhile, as Annalise Etherington finishes her touring of the world, she did a final parkrun in the Southern Hemisphere at Albert, Melbourne in Australia in 22:49. Fantastic work putting Witham RC on the world map!

Leo Cole, who has done the highest number of parkruns at Witham RC, completed his 467th parkrun at Brentwood as 3rd VM55-59 in 22:45. Steven Alder who is catching him up completed his 466th parkrun at Green Park over in Reading in a time of 29:30. Kevin Harper has now done 446 parkruns and was at Chelmsford (25:44). That’s a lot of parkruns between those three.

Dominique Harts was also in Chelmsford where she went round the course in 31:02. Mike Struthers visited University of Stirling in 34:12 to grab 1st VM75-79, whilst Ian Lucas was the first member of the club to visit Elemore Park up in t’north in 28:19 as 2nd VM65-69. Patrick Hinchliffe decided to go back to ARU Writtle, where he grabbed 3rd VM70-74 in 38:51

Maldon Prom as always got a grand turnout! Well done to Jamie Marlow (20:18, 2nd SM30-34 and his fastest parkrun), Nicholas Grainger (23:27 & 1st SM18-19), Steve Hookings (24:17), Mick Conroy (24:22), Vicki Riley (24:41), Edward Grainger (25:42), Geoffey Reddin (26:47), Nichola Beazeley (27:38), Chris Beazeley (27:39), Anita Grainger (29:27), Lisa Leader (30:41), Chrissy Israel-Jones (31:34), Ian Cuthbert (31:34 for his 111th parkrun), Ross Silverton (32:37 and 3rd VM75-79) and Adam Regan (36:43).

Over at Markshall Ann Johnson managed to get her fastest ever parkrun whilst Dionne Radley grabbed a parkrun milestone by completing her 25th parkrun. Monty was also at this event timekeeping (thank you Monty). The course was conquered by Adam Hocken (24:55 & 3rd VM60-64), Scott Townsend (25:24), Shane Ketteridge (29:20), Ann Johnson (32:36 & 3rd VW60-64), Kerry Townsend (32:57) and Dionne Radley (36:33).

Heading down to the south coast the Reads were visiting Poole, where Angela managed 31:02 and Andrew 34:16. Also coastal, but over in Suffolk, was Giles Sowerby at Felixstowe where he ran the course in 19:51 as 3rd VM45-49. Michael Poulter also went coastal and was re-visiting Walton Promenade in 41:49.

Over in Hadleigh, Finn took Lysia Jiggins where they triumphed the hilly course in 35:58 for their first time there. Visiting Colchester Castle was Mark Lynch in 24:50 and at Great Notley was Karen Pickering (23:00) and James Goodey (27:33).

The overall results can be found here. Don’t forget to add Witham RC to your profile to be included!

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parkrun Challenege – The Postcode Challenge

This challenge requires you to do a parkrun in each of the postcode areas of the UK (eg CM, CO, IP). Currently two postcodes in London don’t have a parkrun, making 122 different postcode locations to collect. At present, 2 people in the world have achieved this.