Lily Hawkins, Scott Stirling and Finn McNally ran the fastest parkrun times in the UK this weekend (30th September).

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. 

Shout out to Liam Adams who ran an excellent 13:58 at Maribyrnong parkrun in Australia. The international athlete competed at the Rio Olympics and has a 13:31 5000m best from 2013 and a 2:08:39 marathon from July this year.

Lily Hawkins was the fastest female this week with a strong 17:11 at Shepton Mallet parkrun. The former Wells City Harrier (need to update that parkrun profile) has a 16:56 parkrun PB from last year but this is the fastest of 2023 so far. Hopefully this is a sign of a cross country ready to take on the mud!

A little bit closer for the mens

It was a real dead heat for the men’s rankings this week with four runners within two seconds and all at different events! It might well have been a victory week for any one of them, but two will have to settle for shared honours and one missed the podium altogether.

Scott Stirling and Finn McNally were the two with 14:42 at Victoria parkrun, Glasgow and Worthing respectively. Both runners have quicker parkrun PBs from earlier this year with Stirling a 14:45 at Falkirk parkrun and McNally a 14:24 on Hove Prom, but when it comes to 5k PBs it swaps the other way round with Stirling the quicker with a sub 14 minute showing of 13:56 and McNally just above that mark in 14:09.

If only they didn’t live so far apart… maybe a parkrun in the middle next weekend?

The best of the rest?

At Raphael parkrun it was Gemma Kersey who was second fastest in the UK with 17:20. 2023 has seen a new 5k PB on the road for Kersey, with 16:16 at Podium 5k in May, but her parkrun best of 16:07 is still a teeny bit quicker.

Nancy Scott of AFD has had a year of excellent new personal bests and ran 17:34 at Kirkcaldy parkrun this weekend. In July Scott ran 16:52 at Bushy parkrun to add her new fastest time alongside PBs for 5k (16:20) and 10k (34:07), both of which came in August this year.

Charlie Brisley and Jake Smith were the third and fourth quickest males in just 14:43 and 14:44 so it was a really close run thing this week. The only thing we know is that it was a real quick week for running a free time trial in your local park!

The fastest course?

It looks like three events had two in our top 10 with Dulwich, Worthing and Cardiff all three regular top 10 features. The crown this week goes to Worthing with a second and a fourth for the south coast event.

Women’s Rankings

Men’s Rankings