parkrun – 25/04/2026

30 April 2026 - By Steven Alder

This week, just before that little marathon takes place in London, Witham RC’s parkrunners could be found at Colchester Castle, Clapham Common, Malling Rec, Markshall, Torvean, Great Notley, Maldon Prom, Mile End, Swaffham, Coldham’s Common, Basildon, Chelmsford Central, Felixstowe, Mallow Castle and Rendlesham Forest.

Over at Great Notley we had Paul English (22:46), Keith Taylor (27:32), Mike Struthers (33:12) and Lysia Jiggins (35:47).

Over in London Dawn Shilling was at Clapham Common, where she was 1 of 1,232 parkrunners taking part. This was her 241st parkrun where she completed the course in 34:52 in position 978. Would be interesting to know how many of those 1,232 people went off and did the marathon the next day. Also in London was Geoffrey Reddin at Mile End, where he did it in 30:53. Down in the south, Kevin Harper was at a much quieter parkrun doing Malling Rec in 25:01, with 168 other parkrunners, where he came in 31st.

Annalise Tye went off to revisit the alien course of Rendlesham, where she wasn’t abducted! She ran the course in 23:38 and was 4th lady overall and 1st SW30-34. Steven Alder went off to Swaffham, where he ran the 3 lap course in the sun in a time of 29:53. Closer to home was Ross Silverton at Basildon, in 32:03 and Andrew Smith at Chelmsford Central in 20:57. Colchester Castle had a trio this week, with Mark Lynch (24:15 & 1st VM55-59), Adam Hocken (25:45) and Patrick Hinchliffe (38:49).

Markshall parkrun had Andrew Read, Ann Johnson and Monty as marshals this week, whilst Angela Read was a timekeeper. The Wallens visited Torvean for the first time, with Tony getting 23:46 and Brigid getting 25:36. At Coldham’s Common we had Giles Sowerby (24:03) and Karen Pickering (24:10). Lisa Leader revisted Felixstowe and conquered it in 32:37. Meanwhile, Mick Conroy was over in Ireland, where he did Mallow Castle in 23:12.

Our popular course at Maldon Prom saw Jamie Marlow grab his parkrun milestone of 50. Well done, Jamie. The course was done by by Jamie Marlow (19:50 PB), Simon Scott (22:58), Andy Lager (23:06), Steve Hookings (24:10), Dean Whittaker (24:32), Ian Cuthbert (24:33), Ian Lucas (25:16), Banksy (27:50), Anita Grainger (29:04), Kevin Slattery (32:10) and David Grainger (37:40). After Dean finsihed running the course he was also a Barcode Scanner.

The full set of results can be found here. Don’t forget to add Witham RC as one of your groups on your parkrun profile!

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parkrun Challenge – Regionnaire Status

This is where you complete all of the parkruns in a region, which isn’t easy in the UK! Looking at our closest options, the East of England has 110 parkruns to complete, Greater London has 65 and the South East has 123. You could of course go for the Channel Islands, only 2 there to get!