PARKRUN: Not quite up to Dan’s pace

Like many of the 200-plus runners who turned up for the first Alnwick parkrun on Saturday, January 12, I was very impressed with the organisation.

By The Newsroom

Published 26th Jan 2019, 05:00 BST

Mike Henry and volunteers are to be congratulated for a memorable initial event, especially given the setbacks and unforeseen problems that beset progress last year.

While the three-lap circuit is not as quick a 5k course as others, I do think the setting must be very hard to match in any other parkrun across the land, not that I’ve run all 600.

I’m sure I’m not alone in pointing out the unfortunate error on your back page photograph, showing me being congratulated by Mike Henry for the best over 70s time, but identified as the much younger and much quicker Dan Turnbull, whose fastest time of the day at a startling 17.46 mins deserves a photo to show that he has not aged prematurely.

However, I did get very close to him on the second lap of the circuit – when he lapped me.

Gordon Castle,

Alnwick