Phoebe Barker and Jed Noblett ran the fastest parkrun times in the UK this weekend (23rd September).
Our weekly parkrun top ten is sponsored by the British 24hr team, who are crowdfunding for the World 24hr Running Championships in Taiwan, this December. If you can support, or the share the link here, it would be greatly appreciated.
Two female athletes were under 17 minutes this week and Phoebe Barker smashed it out of the park(run) with 16:06 at Storey’s Field. It’s a 54 second parkrun PB, but that isn’t a huge surprise as it comes off the back of an excellent 15:54.05 at the Mike Rowbottom Memorial Bank Holiday Open Meeting 5000m race in August.
Jed Noblett didn’t quite make it under 15 minutes today, but 15:03 was enough to take the men’s victory this week. At Burnham and Highbridge parkrun the Luton U23 took five seconds off his parkrun PB and we reckon he’ll be under 15 minutes before long… especially as Noblett has gone under 15 three times at the Friday Night 5K Under the Lights this year. As recently as last weekend he ran 14:46, but the PB of 14:24 came in April.
The best of the rest?
The other female athlete under 17 minutes was Pontypridd Roadent Olivia Tsim, who has featured in this top 10 on multiple occasions. The prolific racer is coming into strong form for the Autumn and wasn’t very far from her 16:44 parkrun PB this weekend.
The second quickest chap was Mohammed Hussein of Roadhoggs Leicester AC. It took 15:07 to finish first at Leicester parkrun and, if it weren’t for a 14:59 a couple of weeks ago (and a 15:03 in Feb) this would have been a PB. So another way of saying that is the third fastest parkrun Hussein has run.
Lauren Ailish Dickson ran 17:03 at Edinburgh parkrun and Simon Heath 15:15 at Burgess parkrun to set the third fastest times this weekend.
Special shout out to Dan Lawson, who is part of the 24hr team for December mentioned above, who ran 15:59 at Hove Prom parkrun. Not quite in our top ten but a PB for the 50 year old who ran 273km in 24hrs last September to finish 5th at the European Champs. Quite a range!
The fastest course?
As the cousin of a Swansea City AFC legend, it saddens me to say that it was a 3-2 victory for Cardiff parkrun over Swansea Bay parkrun the weekend.