Ray Wards off Worst of Edinburgh Weather

26 OCT2009

The grey skies and wind may have contributed to the numbers being down a bit from the inaugural Edinburgh parkrun but the threatened rain stayed away long enough for 129 runners to complete the second Edinburgh parkrun on Saturday, October 24. There were new winners in both the men's and women's events as Edinburgh/HBT's Ray Ward and Portobello's Amanda Henderson ran to victory.

Ray Ward was just eleven seconds outside of his 5k PB, achieved at the Bushy parkrun on April 11 this year, as he crossed the finish line in a time of 16:09. In fact this was Ward's third parkrun location as the 34 year old had also raced the Banstead parkrun in June of this year. This was Henderson's introduction to parkrunning and the 35 year old not only won the women's race but she achieved a new PB and also set a new course record.

Men's Race

Ray Ward was followed over the finish line by Bushy parkrun regular Danny Norman representing Stragglers, the Surrey based 30 year old athlete placed second in 17:00. Edinburgh AC's James Mittra (35) placed third and first vet, with a new PB by 34 seconds and a time of 17:16.

Women's Race

Portobello's Amanda Henderson beat her younger challenger Fran Hardcastle by 77 seconds. The unattached athlete, also competing in her first parkrun, earned second place with a time of 21:47. Running in her second Edinburgh parkrun and thereby maintaining her 100% record, Joanne Parkinson, who placed fourth last week, went one better to earn third spot with a slower time (by 27 seconds) of 22:12.

Portobello's 47 year old vet, Peter Buchanan, who had such a fine Tour of Fife Championship, topped the Age Graded table recording a performance of 81.43%.