Fantastic International Women’s Day parkrun in Tampere Finland

7th March 2020

Tampere’s 125th parkrun

Congratulations to everyone who joined us today to celebrate international Women’s Day. Many of us were wearing suffragette purple and it was particularly wonderful to see so many purple 25 volunteer t shirts because, as you know, without volunteers there would be no parkrun.

Today we were very happy to celebrate Jarmo’s 25th time of volunteering. Yay you will now get the coveted purple volunteer t shirt! Well done!

Volunteering, as Jarmo and others will testify, is a great way to get to know other parkrunners a bit better: core tasks are the Run Director (RD), 2 time keepers, a token giver, a scanner and a tail walker, but we also need help each week with setting up the parkrun, taking the u turn sign, packing up stuff, token sorting, result processing and writing the report. If you are able to help in any of these tasks next week or in the future please sign up. We’d really appreciate your help!

Congrats today to everyone who participated in today’s parkrun in sunny wintery Tampere, especially the five first timers. We hope you enjoyed your run with us today and really do hope to see you again soon!

It was lovely that today was Tampere marathon club’s parkrun Saturday ... which meant they incorporated the parkrun into their training. We love you joining us! Especial thanks to Suvi for the fabulous women’s day warm up! I really enjoyed it (even if I didn’t get a good time today I at least had a better and more enjoyable run because of it)

There are no winners or losers in parkrun but huge congratulations to today’s first finishers ... for the first time in ages (as far as I can remember) ... the first finishing male was pushed over the finishing line by a very fast female runner. WOW WOW WOW! Huge respect to you Nuppu for helping Vesa get a new PB (personal best) this morning and for finishing yourself in your second best parkrun time ever! Well done!

There were 6 other PBs today: Merly, Cristian, Katta, Javad, Kari and Sari. Well done! It’s always fantastic to see improvements and you can each give yourselves a well-deserved pat on the back at your achievement today!

The weather was perfect for winter running today and last night when I went out to do a pre course check I was also treated a bonus of the most spectacular winter scenes! I used spikes today (and yesterday) because they give me confidence in icy conditions but they weren’t really necessary and most people ran in normal running shoes.

My thanks as ever to the RD (this week Nina) for making sure everything went well. There were a few issues with the results today - and this was partly caused by people forgetting their barcodes. Please, please try to remember to bring them. Parkrun rules do specify “no barcode no results” and while we do try to accommodate you it does sometimes cause issues ... so do what you can to help us make parkrun run smoothly!

We meet next week at the same time and the same place.

See you then

Lorna from Turku

Leap day parkrun at Tampere parkrun

29th February 2020

Tampere’s 124th parkrun

What a difference a week makes! Last week I was RD in cold, grey, wet, blustery conditions ... today the temperature in Tampere was at least ten degrees colder but the sun was shining and it was truly a JOY to participate today! Thank you for Tuire for giving out the starting speech.

We had a lot to celebrate today, not only was the sun shining, the lake shimmering and everything sparkling in the frosty sunshine ....today was also a unique opportunity to run on a leap day (the next time is in 28 years ...and I’ll probably be cheering people on from the volunteer line at the ripe old age of 88!) and we also got to celebrate ELVIRA’s 100th parkrun, all of which have been done here in Tampere!

Fabulous attendance Elvira .... and thanks for all the volunteering you do too week after week arriving early and helping whoever is the RD set up the parkrun. YOU ARE A STAR PARKRUNNER!

Congratulations too to everyone who achieved a PB today .... there were eight of you, including Tuire (who overtook me at the u-turn and flew along the return leg today!) She was aided by the wonderful Oskari and our fabulous junior parkrunner Eleanora who zoomed round with Jansku ....fabulous team effort!

... and it was a JOY to see the youngster skipping along at one point (as well as sliding happily on an icy patch on the verge) as I tried my best to keep up with them (I failed, and got across the line almost two minutes after them but still a personal best this year in Tampere for me ...so I was happy!

Thanks as ever to the wonderful volunteer team who made today’s parkrun possible, especially Suvi who led us in a fabulous, fun warm up prior to the run.

There were ten first timers today- yippee! - hope you all enjoyed participating today. Hope to see you again soon!

We meet again next Saturday - same time (9:20 for the briefing) and same place (under the bridge). It’s international women’s day and there’s no better way to celebrate than inviting your friends to join us next week and cheering every participant (male and female) across the line.

If you would like to help volunteer next week please drop us an email or message on Facebook. Without volunteers there is no parkrun, but with YOUR help from time to time we can help others participate, improve their fitness and have fun. Post parkrun coffee at Sanna’s cafe is always fabulous and today parkrunner Leena sat outside in the sun! Wow!

Lyhyesti suomeksi:

Kiitos kaikille osallistujille. Karkauspäivän parkrun oli upean aurinkoinen. Paikalla oli jopa 10 ensikertalaista, hienoa! Tervetuloa uudestaan. Omia ennätyksiä tuli useammalle, onnea kaikille! Kiitos Tuirelle alkupuheen pitämisestä ja Suville alkulämmittelyn vetämisestä. Onnea Elviiralle pääsystä 100 -parkrun klubiin. WOW! Tulevana lauantaina on kansainvälinen naistenpäivä ja sen kunniaksi halukkaat voivat pukeutua violettiin. Nähdään silloin!