Saturday 5 October 2024 - Lyme Park parkrun #474

Here are some of Saturday's 'tourists' at Lyme Park parkrun. L to R: Keith, Carol, Phil, SueW, Sue B, Jenny, Martin. Paul F and Andy W missed the photo, and Richard and Nigel didn't run.

It's up the hill towards the Bow Stones path to the start, where the run director was keen to acknowledge that today was the 20th anniversary of 'parkrun'.

Some of our team were keener than others to get to the front of the 149 participants. Carol was less keen!

The first kilometre is relentlessly uphill. I walked.

We turned left into some sunlit woodland, before heading up again to a left turn.

It's still uphill.

Soon I managed to catch up with Jenny, who had been walking faster than me.

The last of the hills for a while - we steadily approached 'The Cage', an ancient hunting lodge. It's described here.

Richard lay in wait with a camera, but he arrived too late for most of the action!

Then it was a gentle run over rough ground to get back to the bottom of the hill, with Greater Manchester laid out before us.

There were nine in our group, led home by Phil, with Jenny bringing up the rear at a walking pace most of us could only dream of.

The first three celebrated while waiting for Keith to stumble home.

All nine of us posed with Richard at the finish.

Our stats are below, and the full results for the 149 participants are here.

Given our wide age range, the age related percentages are a better guide to performance than the finishing positions.

Here's the 5km route, which unusually for a parkrun is just a single lap.

We enjoyed coffees and butties, etc, at the nearby cafe, before eleven of us (the nine runners plus Richard and Nigel) set off on a 16km hike.

What a great way to start the weekend!