by Andrew McGovern Collingwood AC (pictured below in red - Ed)

We may not have had any official milestones last week but there was no shortage of them today so let's start there. Jane Fuller completed her 50th run, split almost evenly between Roundshaw and Nonsuch. Carl Storey ran his flake run last week which can only mean that today was number 100 - well done Carl. I finally made it to 250, an event of sufficient significance that my son let me go ahead of him at the finish line rather than outsprinting me down the hill. No doubt normal service will resume at our next run. The big celebration though was for Peter Georgiades who earned himself a blue t-shirt for his 500th run. Peter's been a Roundshaw regular for quite a few years but he started parkrunning at Banstead Woods back in 2010 before moving on to Riddlesdown. There's been a fair bit of touring along the way too. He's also a regular volunteer and is often out setting up the course before the rest of us have turned up. Congratulations Peter, very well earned.

A couple of other notable achievements - Sheila Daily made it to 350 and added to the cake table which I hope you all spotted and availed yourselves of. And Tamsyn notched up her 150th volunteer credit. Thanks Tamsyn, and thanks also to all the other volunteers today.

We had a couple of first-timers, so welcome to William Conroy (a.k.a. Tamsyn's dad) and Shanaya Gandhi, and well done on finishing your first parkrun. Welcome back Andrew Rowley, Emma Wilson, Tanaz Chadwick, Zoe Maher Cashin, and Helen Bettell, all of whom returned for their second parkrun today. It was maybe a bit too slippery through the trees and a bit too windy up the hill to make for really fast running, but we did have a handful of PBs. Special mention for Amber Martingell, going under 27 minutes for the first time on her 20th run at Roundshaw.

Being a fairly small parkrun on the outer edge of London we don't get a lot of visitors, and the "Do we have any tourists?" call at the pre-run briefing often fails to identify anyone from further afield than, say, Reigate or Fulham (and no, Lloyd NEVER counts as tourism!). So it was fairly certain that no-one was going to trump John Hodges who was visiting from South Australia. John's local is Largs Bay parkrun in Adelaide which according to their course description goes through a lush beach reserve. I think we can agree Roundshaw is lush in its own way (although without the beach) so John I hope you enjoyed your run here today.

Ed in other news congratulations to a former Roundshaw Downs runner who clocked up a 31.29 on Sunday - at the BM10k - to take the win (please note the BM10k is a race as well as a run!). Well done Tom.

by Chris Leonard

Okay, cards on the table Roundshaw Downs wasn’t today’s first choice, although it’s my home course and I love it, I mean a challenging trail two lapper with amazing views and a lovely long sweeping down hill finish who wouldn’t?, but, today I was hoping to run at Wollaton Hall (the location chosen by Christopher Nolan for Wayne Manor in his rendition of Batman) but, I was unable to get away tickets for Palace’s match against Forest so that dream evaporated like the morning mist.

What a fantastic day for a run, well a bit chilly to begin with then too warm when you got going, slippery, squidgy and that puddle by the second width restriction unavoidable, but come on, given the week we’ve had, the day was much better that anticipated - all praise the parkrun weather fairy.

Okay, today’s event, number 716 was attended by 148 like minded individuals of whom Roundshaw attracted 11 tourists from as far as field Mile End, Oakhill, Bexley and Mole Valley. Choosing our course and joining the parkrun family with their inaugural run a warm welcome to Andrew, Juan, Zoe and Helen. It’s a common held view that the second run is the hardest, today 6 runners put that milestone behind them, nice one.

We had 4 ‘Unknown’ runners today, it’s easy to forget your barcode, but, parkrun NOW ACCEPT BARCODES ON MOBILES AND WATCHES, also visit the pr website for a variety of merchandise that can be personalised from wristbands to key-fobs, etc.

Whilst it was slippery in places nevertheless a fantastic 11 pbs were accomplished today. Kudos to; John, Alex, Joseph, Carl, Beth, Rosanne, Carla, Felipe, Rasarethenam, Anegba and Luisa.

Milestone T-shirts are available for runners to claim after 25, 50, 100, 250 and 500 runs (or 10 if you are a junior - Ed), unexpectedly no one undertook a milestone run today, although congratulations to Carl celebrating his flake ( 99 runs ). Milestone T-shirts and other assorted memorabilia are available from the parkrun website for volunteers too. Ed - not milestones as such but 200 for Christopher Ironside of Wilson's School and a 150 for Gavin Engelfield of South London Harriers.

Speaking of volunteers thanks and appreciation to the 19 high viz heroes without whom today’s event simply wouldn’t happen. Volunteering brings another rewarding dynamic to the day and there are a wide variety of ways to get involved, many roles allow you to run as well. If you’re interested in getting involved email roundshaw@parkrun.com or speak to one of the team.

Next week, Palace are playing at home, happy days, I’ll be clocking up run number 152 at Roundshaw ahead of a 12.30 kick off, it going to be a great day especially if we can, some how, manage to get three points.

Wishing one and all a restful weekend and happy parkrunning.

Roundshaw Downs parkrun
Event number 716
30th March 2024
This week 148 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 15 were first timers and 11 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 21 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 19 volunteers:

Nick WHITE • Martin LLOYD • Stephen HEWETT • Sarah TINDLEY • David ALDERSON • Ric ADAMS • Robert BUTLIN • Michael OGUNNAIKE • Claire PHILLIPS • Ken WRIGHT • Tamsyn DOWN • Robert HUNTON • Sheila DAILY • Simon DAILY • Chris LEONARD • Matthew DARK • Chris CHARLWOOD • Lesley ROSE • Emilie CLEMENT

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Roundshaw Downs parkrun Results Page.

Roundshaw Downs parkrun started on 18th July 2009. Since then 9,676 participants have completed 81,306 parkruns covering a total distance of 406,530 km, including 10,512 new Personal Bests. A total of 787 individuals have volunteered 9,855 times.

by Charolotte Tracy

On this sunny, but windy Saturday morning we welcomed 22 Roundshaw first-timers and 4 parkrunners for their first time ever. Huge congratulations to Leo Wayne, Simeon Burton, Joseph Growney and Darcy Brown - we hope to see you again in the future! Also a special mention to our tourists today - the furthest of those came from Cambridge and Hull respectively.

Ed - touring myself today I have to say it was very windy in Dover!

In the first parkrun of official spring this year the weather was very pleasant with fabulous views of London, even the Wembley arch was visible today. Hopefully this weather continues for the rest of the season.

A shoutout goes to Spooky the dog, who, at the age of 17 has completed her 40th parkrun! Also an arbitrary 150 parkruns for Josh Skipper, and an official milestone 25 runs for Maurice Walker.

Ed - Also a special shout out to the young boy who stopped to collect someone's returned keys - one of our runners emailed in to say he was a real hero as others had just run past them. A good deed, well done.

We had 139 finishers this week, big congratulations to everyone who achieved a personal best and as always, a huge thank you to all the volunteers who make the event possible. Special mention today to Nicki Clark at Riddlesdown, who is the the first person ever to achieve 1000 volunteering credits. We hope all those at our neighbouring parkrun enjoyed their celebrations and the t-shirt reveal!

Roundshaw Downs parkrun
Event number 715
23rd March 2024
This week 139 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 22 were first timers and 25 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 23 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 18 volunteers:

Mick TURNER • Michael John Richard HIGGINS • Rory MACLEOD • Riaz HOSSENBUX • Sunjay BHOGAL • Ken WRIGHT • Kirsty COTTON • Tamsyn DOWN • Cai ISFRYN • Andrew MCGOVERN • Wilfred YUNG • Idelkys QUINTANA RAMIREZ • Lesley ROSE • Cathryn TRACY • Charlotte TRACY • Melanie ROLLS • Winifred YUNG • David DURRANT

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Roundshaw Downs parkrun Results Page.

Roundshaw Downs parkrun started on 18th July 2009. Since then 9,661 participants have completed 81,158 parkruns covering a total distance of 405,790 km, including 10,501 new Personal Bests. A total of 787 individuals have volunteered 9,836 times.

by Robyn Meyer

What is the round, yellow ball in the sky? It can’t be the sun, surely? After what has felt like constant rain of over the last few weeks, what a lovely surprise it was to not only run in the sun, but sun that had a bit of warmth in it.

And so it was we arrived at Roundshaw Downs parkrun, one that had been mentioned to my partner and me about six months ago as one we must visit if we like mud. We do. Given the biblical rainfall over the last few weeks, we donned our mud shoes and prepared to wade through some sort of swamp. We were actually pleasantly surprised at how dry the ground was. Just a few muddy puddles around the back wooded area. As one of the friendly volunteers told us, ‘It dries out quickly here, you should have seen it two weeks ago!’

Roundshaw is two laps of slightly undulating grassland, which otherwise seemed to be populated with a few dog walkers and not a lot else at that time on a Saturday morning. An oasis of calm in the middle of an otherwise industrial part of Croydon.
Complete with very friendly core team and marshals, it is a lovely parkrun. The absence of toilets more than compensated for by the epic panoramic view over London on the way around.

The first timers’ briefing revealed that there were a couple of newbies to parkrun, and tourists from Devon, Germany and Australia (why is there always someone from Australia?!).

The lovely RD mentioned a few of 'arbitrary' milestones in her briefing: well done to those people. There were some big numbers there, which I think shows Roundshaw is one that you just keep coming back to.

Ed - 550 for Ken, 400 for Yasin, and 200 for Edit - pictures below except for camera shy Yasin! Thanks to the Lawrences for the banner.

Thank you all for a lovely morning.

Ed - A little word from one of our volunteers today - a well done to the lady who made it round in wellies.

Welcome today to 5 brand new parkrunners - Rene, Andrew, Vinay, Neil, and Luisa - hopefully see you again.

Roundshaw Downs parkrun
Event number 714
16th March 2024
This week 165 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 26 were first timers and 16 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 26 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 19 volunteers:

Nick WHITE • Kate HUBNER • Mick TURNER • David ALDERSON • Robert BUTLIN • Helen ELDERFIELD • Alison SYMONDS-TAYLER • Lorraine TURNER • Ben NEWBERY • Claire PHILLIPS • Tamsyn DOWN • Debbie CHARD • Ray BRINKLOW • Matthew DARK • Lisa CASTLE • Lesley ROSE • Melissa FARQUHAR • Robyn MEYER • David DURRANT

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Roundshaw Downs parkrun Results Page.

Roundshaw Downs parkrun started on 18th July 2009. Since then 9,639 participants have completed 81,019 parkruns covering a total distance of 405,095 km, including 10,476 new Personal Bests. A total of 786 individuals have volunteered 9,817 times.

by Andrew McGovern

Today's Roundshaw Downs parkrun couldn't have been more different from last Saturday's. A week of fairly benign weather - and, crucially, very little rain - left the course not just runnable again, but actually pretty firm. Attendance was nearly doubled, aided in part by the cancellation of Nonsuch, and it was nice to spend a bit of time chatting after the run rather than running for cover and warmth.

We had a total of 15 PBs this week (15 more than last week!), so well done if you were one of them. Adam Gilbert improved by 5 seconds to finish in 3rd place. Rebecca McGowan and Amber Brough-Nuesink, our second and third female finishers, both went under 22 minutes for the first time, and by some margin. Matthew McGovern was followed home by a very excited dad as he improved by six seconds and just dipped under 27 minutes on his 25th run at Roundshaw, running a negative split in the process. And Ching Lui took over a minute and a half off her previous best.

A big welcome to the four runners taking part for their first time ever - Ben, James, and Joseph Wayne (do I detect a family connection there?), and Giuseppe Membrino. And hello to the other 27 running Roundshaw for the first time. Yes I know a fair number of you had popped over from Nonsuch, but we also had visitors from Hastings / Eastbourne (Matt Edmonds, looking very impressive as first overall finisher), Norwich (Ian Gostling), and Milton Keynes (Chris Beard, also our runningest runner today with 655 runs to his name and clearly embracing the parkrun tourist lifestyle).

On the milestone front, congratulations to Jade Gomez for her 25th, and to Darren Nevin and Sarah Adams for reaching 50. Darren has run all of his at Roundshaw, whilst Sarah was visiting us for the first time (yep - Nonsuch). There was an unofficial 150 for Rosie Edser, and a 150th at Roundshaw (out of a considerably higher total overall) for Chris Leonard who also did the First Timers Briefing. Chris, I'd never thought of Roundshaw as 'all left turns except for the turn before the woods' but that's actually a pretty useful way of describing it. I'm going to use that in future.

Roundshaw Downs parkrun
Event number 713
9th March 2024
This week 160 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 31 were first timers and 15 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 23 different clubs took part.

The event was made possible by 17 volunteers:

Mick TURNER • Annette HELLIWELL • David ALDERSON • Andrew James Lawrence MCDONALD • Helen ELDERFIELD • Michael LARKIN • Lorraine TURNER • Ken WRIGHT • Andrew MCGOVERN • Fran MCGOVERN • Elzbieta DOBOSZ • George ENGLISH • Chris LEONARD • Matthew MCGOVERN • Idelkys QUINTANA RAMIREZ • Patrick MCGOVERN • Lesley ROSE

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Roundshaw Downs parkrun Results Page.

Roundshaw Downs parkrun started on 18th July 2009. Since then 9,613 participants have completed 80,854 parkruns covering a total distance of 404,270 km, including 10,460 new Personal Bests. A total of 783 individuals have volunteered 9,798 times.