Saturday 7 January 2023 - Wythenshawe parkrun #505 - Sue's 250th parkrun

There was a turnout of 207 for Sue's 250th parkrun. Not bad considering the dreadful weather. Ron and Andy posed alongside cool dude Jan, and Cary displayed his frozen knees before the start. Sue and I drove rather than cycled, and I was 'three layered up' in full waterproofs. Sue wasn't quite so encumbered, though that's not my excuse for finishing over three minutes behind her. That's normal these days. 

Richard, run director for the day, didn't waste any time at the start, but he did broadcast a few 'landmark' runs, to suitably loud applause.

The normally firm(ish) ground around Oliver Cromwell's statue - reached after a couple of hundred metres, was today what might be described as 'soft going'. So soft that there was no way of avoiding ankle deep marshland thanks to the flooded grass. Luckily this yucky loop is only visited once, and the finishing sraight on which Sue is pictured (thanks Jan) is on puddley tarmac.

 

Very few of us ventured into the tea room afterwards, most people sensibly heading off to their hot baths. But we did attempt to devour some of Sue's landmark run cakes, and we sorted the 207 soggy bar code tokens. Many napkins were needed to dry them, and even then some of the little plastic tokens stubbornly refused to part company with each other. (They arrived after the next two photos were taken.)

Outside, the benches were deserted.

To enter the tea room you had to splash through a deep puddle. It's not surpring that very few people could be bothered!

So that was Sue's 250th. Full results are here.

While I'm at it - I went down to Wythenshawe again on Sunday for the Community Run and to dispose of some of Sue's excess cake from the day before. It wasn't quite as wet as Saturday, so 69 of us lined up without being too desperate to get going, as we had been the previous day. Also this course is easier, with just one water splash that has to be negotiated twice.

Here I am, all alone on the second lap. Thanks to the marshal who took this picture.

Meanwhile, and this is for Conrad's benefit, Sue was engrossed in her jigsaw.

A few hours later, and the 759 piece puzzle was finished and she was trying to crack the 'escape room' type of clues within the picture. All a bit too hard for me.