A NEW winter course is proving popular with park runners in Ulverston.

The 16th parkrun event at Ford Park was opened by volunteer director Kathryn Windett,.

The weather was cold and rather dull, but runners, volunteers and spectators were grateful it was dry and not at all windy.

Seventy-three runners, joggers and walkers completed the well thought-out route that omits some tricky areas present in the summer route.

Of the 73 to complete the four lap barcode event, eight were visiting tourists from Pennington Flash, Haigh Woodland, Exmouth and neighbouring parkruns Barrow and Fellfoot.

Daniel Lamb made his debut and completed the course in 24:30 and Ben White ran his milestone 10th parkrun.

Thirty-three achieved personal best times, 20 for the ladies and 13 to the men.

Leven Valley Athletics Club dominated the top of the results table.

First place went to James Bailey with a new best of 19:48.

Second was Jessica Bailey in 20:26, who was first female and junior runner.

Third home was Ronnie Haddow in 20:44, a new best.

Volunteers this week were Kathryn Windett, Suzanne Pender, Sheila Bull, Pat Thomas, Sharon Curran, Emma Ryan, Jonathon Barton, Sonia Boyle, Ewan Clarke, and John Casson.

Elsewhere, at Barrow, numbers were slightly down which was put down to a xcountry event taking place, Christmas events or the slightly cooler temperatures.

However it soon warmed up, especially after the rousing pre-run speech from run director for the morning Craig Preston.

This week 154 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 12 were first timers and 22 recorded new personal bests. Representatives of 15 different clubs took part.

This week’s personal bests were recorded by: Cameron Bell, Matt Houston, Paul Baxendale, Harvey Burns, Anthony Brown, William Sharp, Dave Denness, Matthew Gleaves, Dexter Stoker, Suzanne Thompson, Neil Ward, Paul Musgrove, Colin O’Reilly, Tony Hough, Clare Greenwood, Pranav Singh, Renée Marsh, Michelle Mahony, Kathryn Blamire, Raymond Wearing, Paul Mcaule and Malini Kamalanathan.

Andrew Dorrian in 18.17; William McAllister in 19.05 and Cameron Bell in 19.45 were top male performers while Suzanne Thompson in 25.09, Louise Tidbury in 25.19 and Bridget Pattinson in 25.54 completed the top three women.

Over at Newby Bridge among the 141 runners was Penny Pullinger, who completed her 50th parkrun before moving to Norfolk.

Thirty-seven were first timers and eight recorded new personal bests. Representatives of 23 different clubs took part.

Special congratulations were made to Millom timekeeper John Roberts who completed his 90th volunteer day.

Runners travelled from Gateshead, Edinburgh, Manchester and Warrington for the 102nd event.

First across the line was John Rodgers in 23:14 and Rachel Read was the first lady to finish in 29:02.

Volunteers who made the Park Run happen included Jon Bailey, Colin Benn, Andy Burn, Lesley Grieve, Stephen Hancock, Karen Hughes, Sarah Lupton, Neil Macdonald, Shelley Myers, Luke Pinney, Pauline Preston, John Roberts and Milly Wilson.