Southsea parkrun - encouragement and support is great

It was a nice morning with a bit of breeze to contend with on the return leg after thanking the marshal at the turnaround point.

Event director Kev Budd and the volunteer team were all in great spirits and helped to ensure everyone had a fun morning.

Tim represents Portsmouth Triathletes and also the Portsea Roadrunners. He thoroughly enjoyed his morning outing and has completed 82 of his 85 parkruns at the Southsea event.

He said: ‘Fantastic parkrun as always guys.

‘Thanks to Kev and the volunteers, along with everyone else cheering each other on. It really makes a difference.’

Danik Bates, of the Stevenage Striders running club, was visiting and he enjoyed his first Southsea parkrun.

He said: ‘Great course and massive thanks to all the volunteers for putting on the event. Hope to be back again soon.’

In total 345 people completed the parkrun on Saturday.

Mindaugas Sasnauskas set a new personal best time of 17min 22sec as he finished in first position with James Hughes, of Fareham Crusaders, second in 17.38 and Bournemouth’s Graeme Miller third (17.58).

Emma Jolley, of Baffins Fitclub and City of Portsmouth, was first lady to finish in 19.03, with her club-mate Emma Williams second (20.31) and Victory’s Michelle Cartwright third (21.02).

Steven Bantock ran the course in 19.38 and Lawrence Craddock, of Portsmouth Joggers, finished in 19.50 as they set good new personal bests.

Well done to Mark Southey, Neil Maxwell, Jenni Grout and Andrew Perkinson who completed their 50th parkruns.

Jenna Fuller, Tony Bennett, Ginette Emmonds, Mirinda Bailey, Rob Stokes and Duncan Gardner all got new personal best times.

Volunteers Janet Simpson, Nicky Hope and Craig Lindsay accompanied Sharon John, from Bognor, to complete her first Southsea parkrun.

The Portsmouth triathlon team and friends including Tim Hardy, Sam Burton, Carol Tolfrey, Neil Tolfrey, Andy Lovell, Debbie Pentland, Michelle Cartright, Jill Oz, Grant Day, Brian James and Fiona Buck enjoyed their run.

Friends Jayne MacDonald and Angela Etherington completed the parkrun and so did Paul May with his son Daniel May as well as Alan Davidson (70).