Split by about 50 miles in distance yesterday Luton, Wardown and Beckton parkruns have shown me community spirit is alive and kicking in the 21st century, no one will dissuade me otherwise now!

Yesterday at Luton my home parkrun one of the founders of our event Lisa Langford very sadly lost her battle with cancer leaving her husband Adam and young family!

The outpouring of love towards this brave courageous lady is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever witnessed reading on social media! Luton parkrun paid a great tribute to this fine lady by the runners wearing purple the colour of their charity Willows Foundation that done so much for her and her family!

There was also a fine show of great respect with applause from all the runners before the start of the event, you all have done Lisa and her family proud!

You will never be forgotten and will always be in our hearts, RIP Lisa!

Now for Beckton may be one of the smallest parkrun in London but they are sure massive in community spirit, the welcome we got was nothing short of brilliant! Numbers almost doubled by a Tribes Sport event at the Excel Centre, it was great to see the legendary East End hospitally kick in!

Top line from Dave the run director for the day asked “Who is new to Beckton” and half of us put our hands up, one of the regulars quipped “it would have been easier to ask who was local 🙂

Great sense of humour guys!!!

On the tourist front it was great to bump into a group of Cow-Cowl tourists local to me from St Albans parkrun! Nice to finally meet Scott Clarke in person, he was accompanied by his sons Joseph whose 50th event (top work) was yesterday, Samuel 41st catching up fast and their friend Lucus Yorke. Top work team Clarke!

Also in attendance was Paul Bliss, Wai Meng Au-Yeong and Howard Bull, my pleasure to meet you all. Special mention to my friend Martin you are a ray of sunshine on a cold winters day and make this adventure even better if that was at all possible mate 🙂

Course

This course consists of 2 anticlockwise laps of Beckton District park South that comprises of mixed terrain of grass playing fields and tarmac paths!

The main difference between the laps (apart from lap 2 is slightly longer) is instead of completing a second loop you run straight down from Beckton corridor to the end of the park at Stansfeld Road, where you then do a sharp right turn back onto the playing fields that is conned path leading up to the finish funnel!

This is a very flat fast course even allowing from running on grass. I was lucky to witness on the day when a fellow tourist Ieuan Thomas of Cardiff AAC broke Beckton’s course record with a very impressive time of 15:10

Outstanding running Ieuan!

Personal Stats

I have come to the conclusion that finishing this challenge is the most important thing in a year, avoid injury and times for me are a bonus, event time 33:33

Important Info

There is a free car park next to the start Sat Nav E6 5LT, toilets are available at the pavilion before the start of the ran and are unlocked by the parkrun volunteers!

Another reason why I love Beckton is their home style pop up cafe that refreshments are brought in by the volunteers, so please if you stay for a coffee donate to the cafe fund!

Final Verdict

Very well done to Dave Radford and his team of volunteers for making us all very welcome at Beckton, you are a credit to the parkrun community!

Would I recommend Beckton completely yes, not only as a PB style flat course but mainly for their legendary hospitality!

Top work team Beckton!!

 Best

Mark aka Silent runner

Run on – 18/02/2017