On the 6th April 2024 our running club had a takeover of Queens parkrun Belfast. A full report (Fiona Teague), video (Aaron Hill) and pictures from our visitor Sandra Rhodes (Thanks Sandra) is available through the links below.
Event Report by Fiona Teague
Well, a parkrun takeover warrents our own parkrun run report.Planned as part of out 10th birthday celebrations BRC headed over en masse to Queen’s parkrun this morning. Some ran, others volunteered or did both! Storm Kathleen was still in her infancy at 9.30 so didn’t prove to be a problem but many of the other local parkruns had to cancel. This included Ormeau, the normal home of a BRCers on a Sat morning. But we delayed the start and waited for them to rally over. This, plus the additional BRCs and the inevitable visitors in search of a Q parkrun, doubled our numbers. We broke out the back up tokens (300 up) just in case but slid in at 297.A rarity for Queens, we were able to provide pacers. 20- Ciaran, 22- Vernon and David- 25 minutes. The larger numbers and muddy conditions did’t help but they stuck close to their times arriving on 20.16, 21.39 and 24.52 respectively. Well done guys.
First three men in, running at their own pace, were Peter, Dan and Syd. First three BRC ladies were Liz, Michelle and Marie-Louise. Great to see Brendan running after injury, joined by JP, Stephen R, Aaron and Amanda. Des gets special mention- at a total of 489 he has completed more parkruns than any other participant today. Cake at 500 please!There were a few mutters about the undulating course, some went as far to call them hills! It was definitely muddy but the sun shone and it never rains at Queens.
On to our volunteers. Brendan was allocating roles and we quickly realised that not knowing a course hinders marshallng! Armed with maps, cones and lanyards we send Mark out to the steep Dip. Aidan manned the 3 way turn, always a tricky one, deciding who has done 2 laps. Stephen D headed them off at the MPT turn, we’ve lost a few that direction. Helen did the sharp turn- always a few that want to run straight on home. She directed them up to Paul at the Horrible Hill. I’m sure he heard a few muttered expletives before they splashed their way down to Siobhan at the end of the out and back. We’ve had fallers there before, taking the turn too fast but not on Siobhan’s watch!At the finish line Maria counted them in for Aoibhin and Kathy to hand out the tokens over their bumps. There is now talk of a new club sub section- buggy club! Special thanks to Kathy who stepped in when our DoE vol turned up with broken fingers- not conducive to handing out tokens.Scanning was down to Nicky and Tommy. With failing phones and growing queues, thanks to Liz, Brendan and David for stepping in to help. Charged with also distributing the lastest parkrun magazine as they scanned, they managed half a box. Nicky says it was all him!We had a bit of a wait for the TW (67mins) but there were many hands to help clear up and head into the Clubhouse for coffee. Thank you to Aoibhin for baking and to Siobhan and Mark for biscuits. There was even gluten free for Brendan!
The last of us eventually left at 12- a very sociable parkrun indeed. Thank you to everyone for making it a success- the pressure was on Brendan and I as resident RDs! Have a great weekend and stay safe as Kathleen is getting a bit more stroppy!(Hope we did’t miss anyone not registered as a BRCer on the results)
FT