parkrun – 21/02/2026

23 February 2026 - By Steven Alder

This week saw us at 11 different venues this weekend: Colchester Castle, Whitstable, Maldon Prom, Chelmsford Central, Great Notley, South Woodham Ferrers, Markshall Estate, Dodder Valley (Ireland), Dereham, Jubilee Bedford and ARU Writtle.

On a trip to Ireland saw Fiona Collins and Clive Smith running together at Dodder Valley (near Dublin), completing the course in 26:39 and 26:40 respectively. Clive had visited this one 2.5 years prior to this weekend, but it was Fiona’s first time at this Irish event.

Much closer to home than overseas in Ireland was one of our favourites – Maldon Prom. Firstly, well done to Mick Conroy who completed his 100th parkrun. The parkrun was completed by Leo Cole (21:00 & 1st VM55-59), Banksy (23:21 & 1st VM50-54), Steve Hookings (25:06), Mick Conroy (26:49), Christine Israel-Jones (31:45), Ian Cuthbert (31:45), Ross Silverton (32:22) and Lysia Jiggins (46:12). A huge thank you to Nicola Digby who was the timekeeper this week.

Markshall Estate saw Chris Beazeley (24:45 & 1st VM55-59), Simon Parsons (25:23), Nichola Beazeley (27:12), Scott Townsend (27:30), Karen Flowers (28:41), Kerry Townsend (34:23 & 1st VW60-64) and Ann Johnson (34:37).

Elsewhere in Essex was Adam Hocken at Colchester Castle in 28:40, Andrew Smith (22:22) and Kevin Harper (24:25) at Chelmsford Central, Mike Struthers (39:02 & 1st VM75-79) at Great Notley, Jack Welch (23:40 & 1st SM25-29 and 4th overall) in South Woodham Ferrers and Dean Whittaker at ARU Writtle for his 1st time there in 22:14.

Heading into Norfolk, Witham RC made its debut at Dereham parkrun for a very slippery and muddy course. It was visited by Steven Alder (29:35), Andrew Read (33:18 with Bevan) and Angela Read (34:08 pictured in the May Day 10 T-shirt). They went and had breakfast at Dereham Windmill afterwards before heading off.

Dawn Shilling visited one of her favourites at Whitstable and completed the course in 33:40. This is her 22nd time at this parkrun, having first visited it in July 2013! And finally, Giles Sowerby went off to Bedford to complete Jubilee parkrun, where he went round the course in 21:06.

The full set of results can be found on the parkrun website. If you completed a parkrun but aren’t on this list, you’ll need to add Witham RC to your profile here.

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parkrun Tourism Challenge – Compass Challenge

Another challenge for you to try to collect is the Compass Challenge. This is where you complete 4 different parkrun locations which contain the compass points (North, East, South, West).  You could get this at Great Yarmouth North Beach and South Woodham Ferrers for instance. The fun one to find a compass point in is Lowestoft! There’s quite a few locations around the world you could do this at.