LAURA Menham was this week’s run director and talked us through the quick run briefing, before the 163 participants made their way to the start line for this week’s parkrun.

The weather was mild and grey, and the rain stayed away for the duration. Of the 163 to finish the challenging 5km route, 10 were new to parkrun – we hope they come back soon for another go.

Twenty-two recorded personal best times, well done to you all! Visitors from Middlesbrough and from Millom joined us on the day and we hope they enjoyed our parkrun event.

First over the line was Mark Tomkinson, with a new personal best of 18:12 (his third consecutive PB), in his eighth appearance.

First junior runner to complete the course this week was Owen Wilson, in seventh position with a very respectable time of 19:38. In eighth position was Katie Waite in 19:40, a new personal best and first lady home. Well done to you – excellent times!

Top of the age grade table this week is David Spencer with 79.33 per cent. David is a regular at Barrow parkrun and fits into the 75-79 age catagory and can show many a younger runner how it's done!

Top of the ladies age grade is Janice Callister with 75.46 per cent with a new personal best this week. Well done, Janice.

With a new personal best of 21:49 for an age grade of 72:04 per cent, a well-deserved mention to junior runner Jess Ensoll.

As always, our volunteers made parkrun a safe and enjoyable event; we are grateful for their encouragement and time.

If you'd like to volunteer, or you could give up your run every now and then to make parkrun happen, please email barrowhelpers@parkrun.com.

Why not join us next week and give parkrun a try? We'd love to see you. You can sprint, run, jog or walk. You can push a pram or walk a pet on a short lead. Under-11's must be with a responsible adult.

Just register at www.parkrun.org.uk/register/form/ then print your barcode and bring it along with you.

We meet at the bandstand at 8:45am on Saturday mornings. You can take part without a barcode, but you won't get an official time.

Barrow parkrun started on September 24 2011 and, since then, 3,186 different runners, including participants from 292 athletics clubs, have completed 31,787 runs, covering a total distance of 158,935 km. There have been 5,784 new personal bests recorded.

The female record is held by Lizzie Browne who ran in a time of 00:16:24 on January 21 2012 (event number 17). The male record is held by Phil Waite who ran in a time of 00:15:12 on October 3 2015 (event number 206).

The Age Grade course record is also held by Lizzie Browne who recorded a 90.24 per cent run (16:24) on January 21 2012 (event number 17).

This week’s results can be found at www.parkrun.org.uk/barrow/results/latestresults/.

Thanks for reading. See you soon,

GARY WOODHOUSE