Christmas Day parkrun, 25/12/24, at Alderley Park

It was a good turnout for Alderley Park parkrun, where 324 runners and walkers enjoyed an active start to a day of celebration and goodwill.

My injured knee meant I'd perhaps be too slow to do the run and get back home in time to cook dinner, so I chose to wander up the course as far as a sharp bend where I could ring my handbell and cheer on the runners, being thanked by many, "thank you marshall" despite me not actually being a marshall.

I'll continue via captions...

Near the start

'Martin's Corner' (for one week only!)

The leaders on their first lap

Keith's son Matthew, who we'd last seen as a child, was heading Laura's partner Callum

The first lady came through a couple of minutes later in eighth place

Laura, in 14th position, wasn't far behind

Matthew's dad, Keith, was taking it easy in position 87

Sue was next in our team, in position 106

Jenny, walking, was keeping up a good pace

Second lap, and Callum was still on Matt's heels

Laura was going strong

Bearded Andrew, a Wythenshawe Community Run regular, wasn't far behind Laura, in position 19. The girl walking (limping) was a spectator like me. She had a torn ACL.

Sue was still going well on her second lap. I now moved back to the start/finish

Jeanette had a good run, finishing strongly in position 169

Sue went back to walk in with Jenny in under 40 minutes - an excellent walking pace for 5km.

Laura and Callum went on a wind down, so missed the group photo taken by a passer-by:
L-R: Carol, Matthew, Keith, Sue, Jenny, Richard, Jeanette, Rufus, Paul, Martin

They turned up eventually

What a lovely way to start Christmas Day. There were record parkrun turnouts all over the country for the events that took place (most don't take place on Xmas Day and New Year's Day).

Then back home to cook Christmas Dinner - see previous posting.