We headed to Evesham Velo Park Junior parkrun for a spot of volunteering. My husband did barcode scanning again and this week I did the warm up, tail-walking and token sorting. You can read more about Junior parkrun on my previous post.
Evesham Velo Park, Cheltenham Road, Evesham, Worcestershire, WR11 2LZ
Facilities at Evesham Velo Park Junior parkrun
This is an established Junior parkrun that recently moved to its new location. Previously it was by the river but now it’s at Evesham Velo Park. This means there is plenty of parking. We made the mistake of parking in the first car park but you follow it around where you will find plenty more. Plus that it closer to the start/finish.
Also accessible by train, bicycle or on foot.
There are also toilets and a café in the pavilion. We didn’t make use of either of these.
Evesham Velo Park Junior parkrun Course
A nice, easy to follow course consisting of 2 lots of 1km laps. This is all enclosed and marshalled. Offering some varied gentle bends and gradients on wide asphalt paths.
Near the end of the second lap you can move over to the right to finish, which has cones to make this clear. Obviously those on their first lap are asked to also keep left to allow others to pass.
Evesham Velo Park Junior parkrun Results Event 8
This is a relatively fast Junior parkrun in terms of overall finishers in my opinion,. By looking at the results I knew there was no way I could keep up with last place walking. That doesn’t mean to say you should be put off as there is always a tailwalker. Also it felt like a very inclusive parkrun and a great one for beginners – especially in terms of the course itself.
- 61 participants finished in times ranging from 7:49-18:09.
- 33 male and 28 female.
- First finisher was JM11-14
- First female finished in 8 minutes.
- A JW10
- She also had the highest age grade with 77.21%.
- 6 first timers
- 15 tourists
- 7 PBs
Milestone Bands
Three children collected their Junior parkrun milestone bands today. Plus a further 4 children achieved new milestones.
My Experience at Evesham Velo Park Junior parkrun
We were two of the 16 volunteers today. Receiving a lovely welcome. Plus we were recognised from when we attended Cosmeston Lakes parkrun but one of the other volunteers. After a description of the course I donned my orange jacket.
It was my first time doing the warm up and the Run Director called me over to stand opposite the children who were already all lined up at the start. She then did the briefing and then I turned on my music.
Warm Up
Having looked at a video of the Junior parkrun warm up on YouTube I combined this with trying to remember the written instructions about it from Par Track Junior parkrun. Everyone seemed to join in well and enjoy the warm up and it felt like it went fairly well. I realised after that I just missed the ankle rotations but everyone seemed keen to get going too.
Tail Walking
As I say I had looked at the results and felt pretty sure no-one was going to be 100% walking the whole course as the times were quick. There were some recently turned 4 year olds and first timers but even so they set off at quite a good pace!
Those who were near the back did have their parents offering them encouragement and support. Everyone did so well, especially given that it was another rather warm day.
One of the parents even said I was a shark and I wondered how they knew! (sharkrun). Turns out it is from when the course was by the water. Maybe I will return as a shark when the weather is cooler.
Token Sorting
Afterwards the token sorting didn’t take long with not many tokens to get through. My husband even helped by putting them back on the ring for me. Unfortunately there was still one token missing.
Children around this area are really lucky to have several Junior parkruns nearby and this is actually the third of which we have now volunteered at.
Read about my volunteering at Junior parkrun
We started our parkrun journey with Junior parkrun after reading about it on Sarah’s blog (MumofThreeWorld). You may also be interested in my previous post about Should children do parkrun?