THE showers from the day before had cleared for Gloucester’s 198th parkrun last Saturday, with a large group of 70 walkers and runners finishing the event. Some had got the message that it was tutu day, a nod to the fact that it was March 22 – with a range of colorful tutus donned by finishers and volunteers.

First male to finish was Michael McManus, visiting from the Central Coast, in a time of 18.36 at his first parkrun at Gloucester. The first female to finish was Anna Schroeder in 24.11 on only her second parkrun.

Eli Soudias was celebrating his 50th parkrun, while Liam Banyer and Archer Smith were both completing their 25th milestones. Jessica Coombes and Michael Kelly were doing their first parkrun, while at the other end of the ledger, Juno Jenkins was doing parkrun 313, and her husband John parkrun 311. The age groups ranged from under 10s to over 80s.

It was another day for personal bests with nine finishing in their best time yet – Julien Dendas, Karen Bolton, Lyndall Wamsley, Lucas Dickson, Harry Charlier, Christina Battam, Rod Eckels, Lara Kemp and Paul Armstrong (who obviously had still been able to get in some training runs while performing in the play The Dining Room at the Gloucester Gallery).

Volunteers this week included Tracy Wilson as timekeeper, who had also persuaded her friend Suzie Dark to join her (both donning tutus) as scanner. Suzie enjoyed the chance to say hi to all the people she knew as they came to get their finish token scanned.

Volunteer pairs were the theme of the day, with Pippa Robinson doing the tailwalker role again, with her husband Steve opting for his favourite volunteer job of having fun handing out the finish tokens.

Thanks to the volunteers who keep this community event going – bringing visitors to town, and supporting families and other locals to get some fun exercise.

Gloucester will be celebrating its 200th parkrun at 8am on Saturday 5 April, so come along and join in the fun of a 5 kilometre walk or run around Gloucester District Park (it’s a free event).

By Carolyn DAVIES