*Pictured above - John Dalzell - who tragically lost his life this week.
Emotional morning as Conwy parkrunners paid tribute to North Wales Road Runner John Dalzell.
Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery. https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com www.welshmastersathletics.co.uk It was a rather sad and emotional parkrun at Conwy last Saturday morning as participants, club colleagues, officials, volunteers, and friends, paid tribute to North Wales Road Runner John Dalzell, (48), who sadly died earlier in the week. This shock news had been the main topic of conversation for a few days as people in the running community came to terms with this devastating realisation. John, a popular family man and a successful ultra-distance veteran athlete, was a regular supporter of parkrun, particularly at Conwy, where he made sixty appearances amidst a total of one-hundred and one other parkruns, and it was only a couple of weeks since he celebrated a personal best time (PB) on this 5k course of just 19 minutes and 31 seconds.
He took part in numerous ultra-distance and endurance run challenges and he even smashed records in Scotland during a 50-mile-plus Highland Fling race. John also took part in numerous road and trail races and always provided generous encouragement to fellow athletes and club members.
NWRRC club official and Conwy parkrun MC, John Hatton said: “I knew John quite well. It was very difficult making the announcement at parkrun I just said regular Parkrun participant John Dalzell had sadly passed away this week at the age of 48. Then I asked for a 30-seconds applause in his memory.”
John Dalzell will be sadly missed, and it was perhaps fitting that Conwy parkrunners were the first to acknowledge his contribution to local sport and to justifiably commemorate his short life.
Bumper attendance
This week’s results recorded another bumper attendance of some two-hundred and sixty entrants at Conwy including ninety-one debutants, numerous visitors, and several top club runners, with ten PB’s highlighted amongst the results, and incredibly, the first five athletes ran home in under 20 minutes.
The event also saw an amazing eight quality junior runners in the JM11-14 age category including three debutants with talented youngster Sam Jones (Serpentine RC), making the long journey from London to take the overall runners-up spot with a remarkable time of just 19 minutes and 15 seconds – and he was just four seconds behind the 1st placed finisher, veteran Barry Maksymczuk, MV45, who ran a new PB of 19.11. and teenager Lewis Hall, SM18-19, was 3rd overall with another PB of 19.34.
For the ladies, visitor Caroline Brock (Steel City Striders) was the 1st female finisher, in 4th place overall, and she ran a PB on her debut of 19.37, with junior Ella Grundy (Colwyn Bay AC) the 2nd female, and the winner of her JW15-17 cat in 30th place, in 22.38, whilst veteran Lizzie Irvine (GOG Triathlon) took the 3rd spot in 23.01 in 39th place.
North Wales Road Runners had eleven members involved and Stuart Culverhouse led the team home in 8th place, and also won his MV50 age cat in 20.40, with Steve Bozier 13th in 21.10.
Will Evans finished in 15th place in 21.18 and he was 2nd in his MV40 cat, and Josh Keogh was also 2nd in his SM30 cat finishing 32nd in 22.40, with Richard Scamans 55th in 24.04.
Carla Green had another positive run in 57th place, and she won her VW50 cat in 24.05, whilst Rob Fryer was back to his best and he finished 113th and claimed the 2nd spot in his MV65 cat in 26.40. Youngster Joe Culverhouse was 136th in 28.14, and master veteran Mark Mason returned to parkrun in 149th place and he was 3rd in his MV70 cat in 29.16. Meanwhile, newcomer Nia Lister finished in 153rd place in 29.24, and Gwennan Charlton was 203rd in 33.54.
*Praise was given to the Conwy run director and to all the volunteers and marshals. This is the link to the latest results:
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/results/latestresults/
Other results: *Ellesmere Port: Will Williams won his MV50 age cat at the Ellesmere Port RC 5k race at Capenhurst last Wednesday night with another stunning performance and he finished in 51st place out of 429 entrants in 17.32. Will’s NWRRC colleague Richard Eccles competed in the same race and also enjoyed a good run in 18.20, and 5th in his MV55 cat. *Bognor Regis: Steve Poupart travelled to the Bognor Regis parkrun last Saturday and claimed a new 5k PB of 22.13 finishing in 27th place overall. *Oswestry: Steve Mason made his debut at the Henley Wood parkrun near Oswestry to celebrate an important parkrun milestone and he was also the 1st finisher overall, and the winner of his MV45 age cat in 20.32. After his run Steve said: “This was my 150th parkrun and this was a muddy, twisty, and cross-country type course.”