Saturday 14th June was a memorable day for the parkrun movement, with the exciting news that parkrun founder Peter (Paul) Sinton-Hewitt has been awarded a richly deserved CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to grassroots sport participation. In true parkrun style there was a fittingly special atmosphere at the 169th Conkers parkrun as local club Ivanhoe Runners staged a takeover of this week’s event. Directed by club chairman Kev Sanders and fixtures secretary Andy Lindley, both Conkers parkrun stalwarts, Ivanhoe Runners supplied all the volunteers and pacers including the famous Ivanhoe gorilla! Many runners wore blue in honour of the club and finishers were rewarded with a cupcake adorned with the club’s logo.

First home of the 361 runners was Matthew Howes of Wootton Road Runners in an excellent 16:22 in his debut appearance at Conkers followed by Ryan Pegg of Desford Striders who was second over the line with a new personal best of 17:32 and Andy Hawtin of South Derbyshire Road Runners, third finisher in 17:44.

Tracy Hinxman was first female finisher for the 12th time (16th overall) with a fantastic run that saw her go sub-19 minutes for the first time (18:57) followed by Dawn Storer of Barrow Runners in 20:36 and Katie Cotton of South Derbyshire Road Runners in 21:46. Particular congratulations go to Judith Brand who recorded the best age-graded performance of the day as she completed her 50th parkrun in a new personal best of 24:19 (98th place).

Two other runners also reached the 50 parkrun landmark – Stephen Leafe (27th in 20:08) and Tracy Atherton (83rd in 23:44). Going one stage further Mark Farrar completed his 100th parkrun (85 of them at Conkers) in a time of 21:54 in 53rd position. Juniors Joshua Smith, Eve Feaver, Charlotte Carr and Natasha Mcinerney celebrated their 10th parkruns.

There were 34 new first timers ranging from the first finisher Matthew Howes to Claire Mayles and her young son Riley who appreciated the encouragement of the very vocal Ivanhoe Runners marshals and tail runner Angela Bebbington as they crossed the finish line in 355th and 356th in 57:34. Some 75 runners recorded new personal best times including 4 of the top ten finishers – Ryan Pegg (2nd in 17:32), Jack Leafe (6th in 17:55), Ivanhoe Runner’s Richard Martin, 7th in 18:01 and 10th placed Timothy Barker (18:42). Along with the leading lady Tracy Hinxman the 4th female finisher Eliza Payne also recorded a new personal best of 21:57. Exactly 100 runners managed to beat the Ivanhoe gorilla (Tim Sturla) who finished in 101st in 24:30.

Over on Facebook Daniel Francis posted his thanks to the volunteers with the words “definitely felt like a special event thanks to the Ivanhoers. I’d be sold if I was Ashby based” with Kev Clarke agreeing “superb turnout and support from Ivanhoe. Cake was lovely as well. Nice one.” Amy Derbyshire, who finished 124th in 25:42 tweeted “Thank you @IvanhoeRunners for the Conkers @parkrun! Great job! Top pacers and cupcakes and I even scraped a pb!”
 
Well done to all today’s runners and a huge thank you goes to the 36-strong team of Ivanhoe Runners volunteers who gave up their free time to stage today’s event. 

Written by Ruth Green - last updated by Ian Bolton on 18/06/2014