First TWO important announcements

1. OUR next parkrun in Tampere will be our 200th run. Come ready to celebrate!

2. We are going to LACK volunteers for the rest of April!

... so please, please consider giving up your run/walk and offer your help as scanner, token distributor or the all-important time keeper if you can. We also always need someone to put out the u turn cone too. If you choose to do that particular task, and can get back to the start in time, you can still run or walk the course.!

Without these key volunteer spots (plus RD) being filled each week we cannot put on the parkrun, so if you can help in the next few weeks, please do. You can sign up by email OR leave a message on Facebook!

tampere@parkrun.com

Now for the run report ~ Tampere parkrun’s 199th event!

April Fools’ Day saw a very nice turn out - including the SUN that showed up- for our #199th parkrun.

It’s been very cold at night this week - and the arboretum part of the course was a bit icy this morning, so our lovely Run Director Olli took the sensible precaution of having us run the shorter course twice. Thanks for taking care of us by checking the course this morning!

The walking / running today was really nice.

What always blesses me the most - week after week - is the spirit of parkrun - it’s FUN and so nice to be with such an encouraging group of people.

Today I got great JOY in seeing my friends Anna and Antti spur one another on. It got them both a very nice - fast - finish time with a great PB for Anna. Well done!

There was some very fast finishers today - both the leading two with sub 20 minute times, but excitingly, a first timer, Verne, helped my friend Cristian break the 24 minute barrier with a new PB, and they in turn helped pace Mikael who also got a sub 25 minute PB. Just BRILLIANT!

parkrun is, of course, for walkers not only runners - and we were excited to welcome two new participants today one of whom was unregistered.

I was excited to meet Caitlin from South Africa at last. She’s run parkrun before but this was ran her first parkrun in Finland (and she helped sort the tokens in the cafe after). The whole pack of walkers seemed to be having loads of fun together at the back with Jyri bringing up the rear as our tail walker today.

parkrun is really for everyone … and I love how we help facilitate that. There’s such a spirit of encouragement and friendly ‘competitiveness’ too. Anna ran with her younger son who had a real spurt at the end, today, pipping Ishiri and Annti H (who earned a
PB for his efforts) WELL DONE JULIUS, You did great!

Last week Nina helped pushed Jansku round the course in his sporty wheelchair …in very tough slushy conditions, today it was slightly easier for Tuire (though always hard work) and Nina got to take on a new task of being the eyes for Sari who is visually impaired. Thank you!

Me? I just love to be at parkrun .. and today even stopped to take a few photos, because - you know - getting a good time isn’t everything!

Lorna, from Turku
See you all again when I’m next in Tampere - in May