Another cold wet November day can only mean one thing it’s our annual naked parkrun. In 2023 we introduced this event as the Keith Hanna Memorial Cup in honour of our former member and friend who we sadly lost four years ago. The event is where you estimate/guess what time you will run the course and nearest to their time will be the winner.
This year’s location we decided on the Waterworks course in North Belfast. So after careful planning from Aaron in marking out the course (with Weetabix cones) and praying no one got lost our BRC Marshalls made their way to their posts (I’m informed that Gráinne on the bike holding the umbrella was quite a spectacle) . Fiona quickly gathered the 15 cold runners together and after group photo and quick race brief from Aaron (everyone was getting cold bless them!) the run got underway.
So round the pond first then past the finish line to begin 2 full laps (encouraged by Fiona T, Ciaran and little O) moving up the small hill (encouraged by Louise) along to just over 1k and onwards to Gráinne keeping us right in making sure no one left the park. Straight on a bit more to Paul directing us right next and shouting out to keep clear of the ambulance! Up and down past the football pitches and next Rowena keeping us right with another ambulance warning message ! The final marshal point we had Mark R and Sam making sure we don’t take the wrong lane then smile for the camera for Lauren before going round the pond again past the finish once more for another lap round again. This time we had Paul warning us to avoid the police car!
So what about the race itself? In last years event David H and Jill were joint winners being only two seconds out BUT this year David managed to top that by being only one second out and proving to be a worthy winner of this year’s trophy – next years target will be to guess the exact time!
Aidan, Donna, Des and Amanda then made up the top 5. Jill was next and all will be revealed as to how this affects the overall race series. Also taking part we had club regulars Andrew, Maureen, Vernon and Aaron. And a big welcome to some of our newest members to this year’s event – Chris Murphy, Stephen Campbell (both zooming way ahead of the field) David McBride and Sarah C. Maureen and Des might have got closer if they focused more on it not being the Sunday Social run but I’m sure it was an interesting conversation they had whilst running round. Full results can be found here.
Finally a special mention to our volunteers Fiona Teague , Gráinne Mcmacken ,Paul McCorry ,Rowena Fair ,Ciaran Toner (and O),Mark Rocks (and Sam) ,Louise M and Lauren who help make the event happen on a wet cold November morning.
Afterwards with it being a chilly wet morning we decided to chill out and go for tea/coffee and buns in the nearby cafe called .. Chill.
AH