It’s Monday morning, still quite early. I’ve got a good hour before I need to start work. But it’s one of those Monday mornings when I really wish it was a Bank Holiday with nothing planned. Or I’d booked a day’s leave. I’m not awake enough yet; I am not convinced I will be for a while. It was a very busy weekend. I definitely didn’t get enough sleep – despite an excellent nap on Sunday afternoon.
But it is definitely good tired. Tired because of everything that happened over the weekend. Good tired because I am really proud of what we accomplished – as Stoke-on-Trent Centenary Celebrations came to all four parkrun events in the city.
Eight months of planning since the idea came from Natalie at Stoke-on-Trent Council for parkrun to be part of the centenary celebrations. A lot of moving parts. Special guests invited. A coffee van arranged for Hanley Park. A lot of people involved, but thankfully an amazing response to our request for extra volunteers. Add in the unpredictability of the summer weather and not quite knowing how many people would come along.
Let’s see what happens.
On Friday night, there was a quick visit to the supermarket for cake treats and a cupboard raid to find the “100” candles (first use for a parkrun 100 milestone celebration in 2019), salt and pepper pots in the shape of ducks to use as candle holders, and a model spitfire – obviously. A centenary celebration cake prepared.
Then there the parkrun kit check. In a moment of what felt like extreme optimism, I pondered whether we had enough finish tokens in the box. I thought we might get a few extras for the Centenary event, but how many? Would it tip over 448 (the number of tokens on the parkrun token string). Just to be on the safe side, I printed out a few extras and cut them up in to sections of five. But I doubted we’d need them – I’d just seen the weather forecast on my phone. Rain coming in the next few hours.
Then an attempt to sleep. I’m always a poor sleeper on the night before big events. This was no exception. At one point in the night I woke up to the sound of rain hitting the window – a lot of rain. At that point, I was convinced no one was coming to Hanley Park in just a few hours time. We definitely wouldn’t need those spare tokens.
A restless few hours later, I was up and ready – wearing my parkrun “100” shirt of course. I did have time to sit for a moment of calm, enjoying a coffee and watching the bottle kilns through the window – it looked sunnier than expected and the rain had stopped. Maybe we would get a good turnout after all.
Then it was time to head to Hanley Park. I printed off the volunteer roster for Kirsten – and then left it on the printer. I thought about the scissors for cutting the spare finish tokens just in case – but left them on the table. Sorry! I did remember the rest of the kit though, and the celebratory cake (most important).
The next hour passed by in a flash… getting the kit from the hut, greeting visitors, chatting with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, posing for photos, taking big deep breaths as more and more people kept arriving, and being really pleased that Kirsten was on hand to coordinate volunteers. We have a great team at Hanley parkrun.
Then it was time to get going… with Kelvin the Kiln on hand to help with the run briefing and the Lord Mayor primed to say “go”. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked out on a crowd even half as big to do the run briefing. Wow! Looks like my 4am panic was way off!
I don’t remember much of the next hour or so. It passed by in such a blur. There seemed to be people everywhere; but they were all smiling. Selfies with Kelvin. Milestone cake. Volunteers doing an amazing job.
There were definitely a few anxious moments – the finish funnel was at its limit on a couple of occasions. We needed those paper tokens – now, where did I put the scissors? But somehow, and thanks to everyone who helped out, we just about kept it together. And we could smile. There were a few moments where I could catch up with friends. But there were also so many people I didn’t speak to – and a few I didn’t even realise had been there until I saw the photos. Finishers were still coming through.
(If you want more run-related details – pop across to the official Hanley parkrun run report.)
And then finally, I could breathe again. Almost everything was cleared away and most people had gone from the park. Time for a flat white from Dom and his amazing Goodwin’s coffee van. I needed that. And the oatcakes that followed at the Emma Bridgewater cafe.
Results processing took a while longer than normal – turns out we had 530 participants (a new attendance record) and 39 people doing a parkrun for the very first time. Welcome to the parkrun family.
The finish tokens still need sorting – definitely a task for later.
But what a day. And then we did it all again on Sunday for junior parkrun. We went to Burslem Park – 180 junior parkrunners came too. It was joyful.
It really has been great to be part of the centenary celebrations.
I wonder what might come next.
27 Hours In Twizel 