A tale of two parkruns – Spring 2026

The first two months of the year saw Porty visit two local parkruns en masse – first we ‘took it away’ on the annual club championships, and then we gave back with a volunteer takeover. So first up, to Vogrie parkrun on 24 January, the chosen location for the January club champs outing and an early season assessment of the runners and riders in the different age category contests in 2026.

Everyone knows there’s a reason you don’t publish the league table until several rounds into the season because one match counts for little… but who knows? An early 9 or 10 points could be what makes all the difference between triumph and despair come December.

An outstanding turnout of 44(!) Porty participants assembled at the start of the run – 23% of the overall field. Most of the chat revolved around who’d had a birthday and moved up an age category, who was there from each age group, and even who’d had an overly recent birthday and so was stuck for the whole year in a younger age category.

Most of us Porty runners know Vogrie, as one of our longer established nearby events, and a decent trail running option as local parkruns go. This was their event number 347. It’s got a fair number of ups and downs and is prone to mud patches, meaning most favour trail shoes. That didn’t stop Slaw tearing round in road shoes to finish first placed Porty in a time of 18.57, and an age grade of 73.7%. Such was his pace at ‘take-off’ that his hat flew off within seconds of the start. Slaw also shows that age is just a number as his VM40 status preceded the next 5 Porty senior male finishers; Graeme T, Ollie, Sean, Peter and Stewart.

A pair of Robs were the next two Porties over the line before David picking up 3rd VM40 in 21.00. That means 9 of the first 15 finishers were representing Porty – and some of them just seconds apart. Fiercely competitive, but I’m assured all conduct was suitably gentlemanly, mindful of course that parkrun is a run not a race… 😬😉

Sarah C was our first female finisher, 2nd female overall, and with a new PB time of 21.45, with Heather next, also securing a new PB, 22.28. Sarah K was next Porty and first VW40 in 22.40.

Not far behind, a fierce battle for points in the VM50 category – one which I was part of but perhaps didn’t realise quite how much. Richard H had passed me early on in his usual breezy running style and I’d seen him overtake Andy M too. What I didn’t realise, as I tried to sustain my pace to keep Richard in sight, was that Andy’s youthful looks are misleading and he’s also in the same age category. He finished in 23.13 with me not far behind in 23.20. I clearly didn’t carry out my start-line research on age categories effectively. Just a couple of places back and next Porty over the line, Gordon was our first placed VM60 in an impressive time of 23.34, just missing out on a 70% age grading.

Mhairi was close behind that, and our 3rd VW40, in 23.44 and then Shona, 1st VW50 in 23.54 with an age grade of 70.15%, and first in her age category overall. Helen Buxton was 2nd VW50 and our highest age grade  of the day, at 74.14%. Eilidh finished next to pick up third senior lady in 24.28, then Graham Johnstone 2nd VM60 in 24.34.

Alastair Paul was first VM70 in a cracking time of 25.28.

Michael P ran his quickest parkrun since April 2025, and also volunteered doing the course check that meant we could all go ahead. Well done and thank you to Michael and the wider Vogrie parkrun team.

The competition helped Ollie, Stewart, Sarah C, Heather, Mark D, Graham, Flora and Chris S all achieve new course PBs, while many others were trying Vogrie for the first time also ran personally impressive times – and Sunny recorded his fastest parkrun finish on any course to date for an all-time PB. Well done everyone. A cracking turn-out at the cafe afterwards to compare war stories rounded out an ideal club outing.

Just over a month later saw our first volunteer takeover of the year, an opportunity to give back and to showcase our club to the local community. On the day, 341 people ran, jogged and walked the course. Sixty-three were first timers and 56 recorded new Personal Bests, hopefully helped in part by our fantastic turnout of pacers at times from 20-32 minutes.

Representatives of 30 different clubs took part but our one club, the mighty PRC, supplied all but one volunteer role, and added in a range of pacers from 20 to 32 minutes. Many of our runners enjoy taking on pacing responsibilities, and I asked in the weekly Portobello parkrun event report on Facebook for people to let us know any feedback and especially if they were helped to a PB, prompting the following responses:

“Shout out for David 25min pacer: brilliant pacing, very consistent and spot on! Thanks a lot, really enjoyed it!”

“Thanks volunteers! I loved having the pacers! I tried my best to keep up with the 30 Min pacer but still managed to beat my PB by 1m 20s. 🏃👍”

As well as a bumper crop of PBs, we also reaped ourselves a haul of volunteer credits for timekeeping, barcode scanning, marshalling, funnel managing, tail walking and everything in-between. And maybe recruited a few new club members too?

As an aside, I spoke to some members of Portobello high school running club who were using the parkrun as a training outing. Did you know that their senior men’s cross country team (coached by Rob and Paul from Musselburgh AC, to give them their due!) recently won the U20 Scottish Schools National Cross Country for the first time in its history? Maybe some future club members in years to come?

Thanks to everyone who took part in either event, a great start to the year for Club Porty.  Look out for a future volunteer takeover of Vogrie parkrun which we plan to do before the year is out as a thank-you for successfully hosting a suitably epic January club champs run for us.