parkrun – 26/09/2026

2 October 2026 - By Steven Alder

For the final week of September we had a number of locations visited by members of WRC. Members visited Chelmsford Central, Victoria Park Newbury, Colchester Castle, Vingis (Lithuania), Walton Promenade, Alton Water, Valentines, Sizewell, Maldon Prom, Ally Pally, Chesterford Research Park, Great Notley and Basildon parkruns. We were saddened to hear of the news about Markshall’s closure, which is detailed below this post.

Notably was the Lithuanian parkrun, Vingis, which was attended by Dawn Shilling (31:53). Well done on being this week’s international star. Following on from that was Giles Sowerby (18:24) and Karen Pickering (20:39) who attended the brand new parkrun, Chesterford Research Park, in Saffron Walden.

In Essex, we saw Chelmsford Central visited by Leo Cole (20:23), Andrew Smith (21:52), Glen Waller (26:03), Lisa Leader (30:09) and Fiona Collins (31:35). Colchester Castle saw Adam Hocken (28:11) and Patrick Hinchliffe (55:58). At the lovely coastal course of Walton Promenade was Simon Gill (19:41) and Michael Poulter (33:04).

Remaining in Essex, we had Simon Parsons (25:01), Angela Read (30:50) and Andrew Read (33:06) attending Great Notley, with Basildon being visited by Lee Tooey (21:17). Finally in Essex was one of WRC’s regular choices – Maldon Prom. This one saw Jamie Marlow (19:51), Ian Cuthbert (23:20), Dean Whittaker (23:21), James Attenborough (25:01), Steve Hookings (25:06), Alan Cutler (25:20), Claire Lucas (25:22) and Joe McEwan (38:10).

Moving across the border into Suffolk was Vicki Riley (28:37) and Nicola Digby (33:39) attending Alton Water and Geoffrey Reddin (26:18) at Sizewell.

London parkruns now – firstly Valentines saw Ian Lucas (28:05) and Christine Wager (33:19) whilst Ally Pally had Steven Alder (32:18). Finally, Chris Beazeley (25:02) and Nichola Beazeley (27:11) went off to Victoria Park in Newbury.

The full set of results can be found here, which shows all the people who have added Witham RC to their parkrun profile.

Markshall parkrun

It is time for us to say goodbye to Markshall parkrun near Coggeshall. Starting in November 2021 (back then as Markshall Estate), they had their final parkrun in August 2026, after 229 events. Their busiest parkrun was in May 2025 when they had 361 finishers, whereas their quietest event was in April 2022 with only 118 finishers. 9,942 different people had completed the course 54,462 times and 833 unique people volunteered a total of 4,964 times, of which some of those numbers will have been WRC members. Many photos and goodbye messages have been shared on their news page.

As Andrew Read was on the Core Team, I have asked him for a few words:

We would like to thank all the WRC members who stepped up and volunteered when Angela and I were RD and VC. And, of course, thank those who came and ran and made our volunteering worth while.

The parkrun location will be missed, as many of our runners had attended. Whilst it is difficult to obtain volunteer stats, Andrew Read, Angela Read, Monty and Ann Johnson were just a few of the regular volunteers there (sorry if any have been missed). What is easier to find is how many times WRC members have run there. So, who completed the course the most I hear you ask… Angela Read, having done it 82 times! The Top 10 include: