Sophie Wallis and Nicholas Griggs ran the fastest parkrun times in the UK this weekend (14th October).

Our weekly parkrun top ten is sponsored by the British 50k, who are crowdfunding for the World 50k Running Championships in India, this November. The team features parkrun regulars such as Andrew Heyes, Ollie Garrod and British 100k record holder Sarah Webster. If you can support, or the share the link here, it would be greatly appreciated. 

It’s always a good week when one of the names in the title is a copy and paste from the week before, so a big thank you to Sophie Wallis, who was out fastest female last week and tops the chart again today with an excellent 16:08 at Lincoln parkrun (an event which has previously see the use of a lot of musical puns).

There was a flashmob (I think that is what the kids call it these days) of super quick endurance athletes at Belfast Victoria parkrun this weekend, led home by youth star Nicholas Griggs. 14:05 is some time and it’s a five second parkrun PB for Irish international. There is a 13:36 5000m PB on the track from earlier this year that is a bit quicker though, so we could see a sub 14 minute parkrun from Griggs yet.

The best of the rest

Ellis Cross, of “Club Runner beats Sir Mo Farah” fame, continues to show he’s more than just a one trick pony with a 14:21 at Dover Waterfront parkrun this morning. It is a 15 second parkrun PB for the AFD runner and 2023 has also seen PBs at 5000 and 10000m of 13:47.07 and 28:27.01 respectively. Oh, and a 64:18 half marathon PB at Copenhagen Half marathon too.

Jessica Gibbon was second fastest female with another sub 17 minute showing at Prospect parkrun. At 16:58 it is isn’t a parkrun PB for Reading AC’s Gibbon (that’s 16:36) but it’s another sign that she is flying this autumn and ready to hit cross country season with a bang.

Twenty seconds later, at Citypark parkrun in Craigavon, Robyn McKee was the third fastest of the weekend in 17:18. Having run round this course before it hosted the Anglo-Celtic Plate 100k Champs earlier this year it’s got a couple of rollers in there and starts up a decent hill, so that is a cracking effort.

The next five male positions were at Belfast Victoria, but with the format being “top three in the blurb” it’s Callum Morgan who leads his motley crew home in 14:49. Another three runners broke 15 minutes as well. No prizes for guessing which event had the most in the rankings this week (but we’ll go through the motions still).

The fastest course

Actually you’ll be surprised to read it wasn’t Belfast…. oh right, the tables are below. With eight names featuring on the top 10 lists this week it is Belfast Victoria parkrun that is the quickest.

Women’s Rankings

Men’s Rankings