Special new year parkrun at Gloucester

But it held off for the 49 walkers/runners who decided that the best way to start the new year was by running/walking five kilometres through the beautiful Gloucester District Park.

There were many visitors - including from Wollongong, Newcastle, Raymond Terrace, Sydney and Brisbane - with 17 of them doing their first Gloucester parkrun. And four people chose January 1, 2024 to do their very first parkrun. Laura Fraser, Kirsty Harvey, Thalia Batey and Sophia Greenwood - welcome to parkrun!

The first finisher was visitor Anthony Blines with a new personal best time of 23.32 - and he then ran back along the route a number of times to encourage each of his family members to the finish line.

Young Audrey Russell (another visitor) was the first female across the line with a time of 25.17.

There didn't seem to be much evidence of hangovers from the night before with a few other walkers/runners starting 2024 in style with personal bests - Trish Prindsle, Rachel Zimmerman, Annie Blines, Naomi Blines and Emma Turner.

Mandy Tomlinson was the tailwalker - while celebrating her 25th milestone parkrun.

Thanks also to the other volunteers who offered to help so we could run this extra event. Arthur Poynting was timekeeping, working in unison with his wife Ros who handed out the finish tokens. Lauren McRae was scanning the barcodes with assistance from her children Hannah and Roy who were collecting tokens.

See you next week at 8am Saturday at Gloucester District Park.