Newport Running Club members celebrate parkrun milestone

Harry Stokes, who runs in the junior male 11-14 age category, made the trip to Shrewsbury to run his 50th parkrun, where his milestone was celebrated with a red 50 t-shirt.

cake, to celebrate the specific t-shirt that Harry is now able to claim upon entering the 50 club. This was Harry’s second parkrun at Shrewsbury, and he has also run 22 times at Telford, 8 at Isabel Trail, twice at Beacon and Cannock Chase, as well as once each at Alderford Lake, Rutland Water, Hanley, Wolverhampton, Wyre Forest, Perry Hall, Upton Court, Walsall Arboretum, Dudley, East Park, Dolgellau, Aberystwyth, Congleton and Minehead. Harry has also completed 143 junior parkruns, which take place on Sunday mornings.

A number of NDRC runners were in attendance to celebrate with Harry, including his dad Oliver, sister Fae, and grandad John, all of whom are regular parkrunners.

Also taking part, in what was his 200th parkrun, was Martin

Murdoch, along with Donna and Darren Hesbrook-Edwards, and Neil Jones.

Meanwhile, a bit further north, up the A49, NDRC’s Ellen Deighton was running her 100th parkrun at Alderford Lake in the company of club mates Wendy Tonge and Toni Ireland. This was Ellen’s 10th run at Alderford Lake, and the other 90 are made up of 79 at Telford, 2 at each of Isabel Trail, Cannock Chase and Bibra Lake, and 1 each at St. Peters, Havant, Gunpowder, Shrewsbury and Roosevelt Island DC parkruns.

Entry to the 100 club allows parkrunners to claim a black “100 t-shirt”.

The milestones reached by club members this weekend are all the more impressive when the “parkrun pause” is taken into account; the free, weekly timed events were all postponed from March 2020 until July 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.