- parkrunday 15th April 2023
- parkrun #203 – Philips Park
- Different event #115
- Time: 51:55
We did it! Yay! Today Jo and I completed all 72 parkruns in the north west of England and are now North West Regionnaires! Jo also completed her 100th different venue and joined the Cowell Club!
As you know, we’d originally planned to complete the north west back in March at Hyde but then Philips Park launched and forced us to change our plans. Fortunately, this enabled Jo to combine her Cowell with our Regionnaire so we had a double celebration!
Jo drove this time, with me and Roz as passengers. We parked on the street next to the park, and didn’t quite realise just how close we were to the finish funnel!
Joining us at Philips Park were Robin who was running, Jason from the NW parkrun Tourists group (also running), and Calum and Lynsey who were both barcode scanning. It was great to meet up with Mark Brocklehurst (from With Me Now) who was up from the south coast with some running friends to do the Manchester Marathon tomorrow. Mark completed it at a gentle jog.
Philips Park is very close to Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium (parkrunners are allowed to use their Blue Car Park when there’s no match day disruption). I’d actually run through this park a number of times before as the route for the Manchester Beer 10k cuts through it.
The parkrun route is two big laps which include an out and back section, followed by a smaller lap with no out and back. The big lap has a steep hill, which came as a surprise to many! The small lap also has a hill, but it’s not as steep. The park is nice (the gorgeous sunshine helps!) and the running is all on tarmac paths.
Following my accident during the week my back and neck were still sore so I opted to walk the course. I walked all the way with Alison Medlicott and her dog Barny. Alison’s home parkrun is Pennington Flash but she and her husband Peter like to visit different parkruns when they get the chance. It was nice to have some company on the way round!
At the end there were cakes (thanks Jo!) followed by a trip to the local cafe for parkfaff. In this case the local cafe was the Express Deli inside the local ASDA superstore. It wasn’t quite as ‘express’ as we would have liked, but it did the job.
A huge thank you to Run Director on the day Lindsey Farrelly and her fabulous team of volunteers. This was only the 6th event and already it’s a fabulous addition to Manchester’s parkrun family.
