parkrun – 27/12/2025

30 December 2025 - By Steven Alder

Despite it being only 2 days after the Christmas Day parkrun, and then only the day after the BD5 race, many of our members still attended a parkrun for their final edition for 2025. It was also due to a lot of people doing parkrun on the 27th December that it was decided our annual tradition of running BD5+1 as a club be done as BD5+2 for 2025.

Witham RC could be found at Basildon, Colchester Castle, Burnham-on-Crouch, Maldon Prom, Southend, Chelmsford Central, Great Notley, South Woodham Ferrers, Thomas Mills, Zalew Łęg (Poland), Brickfields Park, Christchurch Park and ARU Writtle. Adam Hocken returned to Colchester Castle (for his 77th time there) after having done it on Christmas Day, but doing it over 8 minutes quicker, completing it in 28:01.

Lysia completed her 50th different location at parkrun this weekend, completing Christchurch Park in 32:28. Having now done 150 parkruns altogether, this means she has a tourist quotient of 33.33%. She’s completed most of the Essex locations, with just a few remaining until she’s done them all! Some have been a bit further away, even having done one in Jersey! Great touring, Lysia! Annalise was also over in Suffolk, but attending Thomas Mills for the 6th time, completing the course in a palindromic time of 25:52 and first place for the SW30-34 age group.

Chelmsford Central was well attended this weekend, which had Andrew Smith (20:58), Clive Smith (22:33), Kevin Harper (25:21), Dominique Harts (29:25), Lisa Leader (30:14) and Dawn Shilling (31:44). Dominique managed to grab herself a PB at Chelmsford Central, knocking 27 seconds off her previous PB from December 2023. Well done!

Nicola Digby went to Burnham-on-Crouch, her first visit there, completing the course in 34:28. Also attending new locations was Nadia McLeod at Southend (25:27),  Steven Alder in the snow at Zalew Łęg (26:54), Gus Maby at Brickfields Park (22:49). Pictured above was Giles Sowerby attending Basildon parkrun for the first time in a time of 19:44 in 5th place.

Our popular location over in Maldon saw lots of Witham RC members: Andrew Lager (24:04), Vicki Riley (24:34), Steve Hookings (24:52), Mick Conroy (25:33), Claire Lucas (25:55), Nichola Beazeley (26:16), Chrissy Israel-Jones (29:50), Ian Cuthbert (29:50), Joe McEwan (26:41), Naomi Emerick (45:31) and Chris Beazeley (52:18).

Emma Austin visited Great Notley, which she has now done 10 times, completing it in 36:34. Over in South Woodham Ferrers was Ross Silverton, his 40th time there, coming in 1st place for VM75-79 and in the top 100 overall. He completed it in 35:19. Leo Cole went for ARU Writtle’s 4th event, where he grabbed an impressive age grade of 75.47% completing the course in 21:04.

Full results on parkrun’s website can be found here. Don’t forget to add Witham RC as a club to be included! Let me know if you need help sorting that.

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parkruns in 2026

Well, that’s a wrap for parkruns in 2025, but we can all start 2026 in style by attending a parkrun on New Year’s Day should we wish. A handy map of what locations are on can be found here. If you look at all the Saturdays and Special Events around the world, it’s actually possible to do a maximum of 63 parkruns in 2026.