Whilst the Commonwealth Games are taking place we are hearing frequent reports of clean sweeps, where a group of athletes from one country take gold, silver and bronze in a particular event. It's no surprise really when you note that the 72 participating countries are a mix of those with huge populations and ample capital or natural resources to invest in sport compared to the tiny Pacific islands with less than 1500 people living there in some cases. There's more folk live in Haxby and it sometimes feels like the queues outside Millers fish & chip shop are bigger than that on a Friday night. The outcome is a regularity of clean sweeps.
And so it was on Saturday morning that our own version of the clean sweep took place with two runners from the People's Republic of Copmanthorpe, a not so small landlocked nation to the South East of York.
The Postal Parkrun Tourist Bus was obviously in for repairs this week as the trip to the East Coast only had Team Carter on board. What an impression they made though. Dom romped to first place in a swift 17.59 and then spent the best part of two minutes waiting for his Dad to rock up, with Jim finishing in 2nd place in 19.44.
As you can see below, Dom was that quick he forgot to put his t-shirt on the right way round. Good to see that their powers of recovery are such that the only puffin going on was their mate in the middle.
Sticking with the CWG theme, yours truly was on his way to Brum to watch the squash, one of those games where you need to know what you're watching to appreciate the skill and fitness levels involved. With all the local parkruns cancelled due to a mix of volunteers being busy at the Games and the marathon route going right through the middle of one of them. That prospect sent my imagination into overdrive, imagine busting a gut round your local parkrun only to find you'd stumbled into an international marathon. A race without Kipchoge who is saving himself for Berlin next month, me too! That meant the winning time of 2:10 was referred to by some as slow. Everything is relative. I'd love to be that slow.
Anyway, I found my way to Arrow Valley parkrun just south of Birmingham. A lovely two lapper in a country park, all on tarmac and almost York flat in terms of elevation. The chap who came home first scampered off from the start never to be seen again and finished a little over 17 mins. I was well chuffed with a 2nd place in 18.14, happy days.
The Type 2 fun was just about to kick in...
Elsewhere it was good to see Alex returning to form with a 20.49 round the Mire. Hope your injuries are behind you Sir.
I couldn't find any evidence of Posties taking part in the iconic Lakeland 50 or 100 milers. The closest we got was Jo Barrett marshalling at the Hardmoors checkpoint in Dockray, just above Ullswater. We will have at least one participant next year though, ballot allowing.
Arrow Valley
2nd Simon Middleton 18.14
Morecambe Prom
26th Jamie Butler 22.49
New Earswick
20th Chris Thompson 23.17
22nd Mark Whitby 23.26
Sewerby
1st Dom Carter 17.59
2nd Jim Carter 19.44
Skipton
99th Jackie Mitchell 30.49
Wetherby
20th Rob Butler 23.17
York
50th Alex Davis 20.49
202nd Kev Armstrong 26.38
That's it for this week folks. Hope you all get some good runs in this week. I'm off to pack my bag, getting ready and very excited for the Round the Rock race in Jersey this Saturday.