LAST weekend was certainly a busy one, living up to the club’s name Innovation Multisport!

Saturday saw a group of members disembark on Bushy Park, near Hampton Court Palace for Its 1000th event. Over 6204 runners, joggers and walkers attended, and 136 hi viz hero volunteers made record breaking history! The crowds were immense and the back log of runners before the finish just showed the great scale of how popular parkrun really is to people! With over an hours wait to get scanned, every one was in good spirits and it just shows what it really means to us, Saturdays will never be the same.

On Sunday, there were 3 different events all taking part on the same day! First up was Ride Essex, various distances cycling the roads around Essex starting and finishing in Writtle, Chelmsford. Chris Grey and Garry Orton were tackling the 64 mile route which ended up being closer to 68miles. Richard and Jeannette Baldwin plus Richard Owen took on the 36miles. It was a beautiful day for the popular cycling sportive raising money for local Essex charities.

Next was Duck n Dash Aquathlon, held in Letchworth open air swimming pool. The 400m swim of the pool was 8 lengths, followed by a 5k run. Kelly Burgess managed an event personal best, beating her overall time in 2021. Clare Branch, Kelly Grey, Susan Mould, Cheryl Ponton, Dayna Cooper and Dave Nicholas all did amazing as it was their debut at this event. Very well organised and relaxed that’s great for first timers doing their first multisport event.

And finally we had Emily Webber and Sarah Walker taking part in one of Londons many half marathons, The Big Half! Along with a big group of volunteers from the club along the route. They both did fantastic, here is a write up by Emily, aged 17 explaining her experiences of running her first ever half marathon!

“I had an incredible time at The Big Half in London. It was an early start getting on and off trains and the closer we got to Tower Hill station, the more trains were filled with other runners which progressively made me more excited but a bit more nervous for my first ever half marathon. I had loads of support from my family, boyfriend and running friends prior to the race which helped me calm some nerves. I was mostly worried about how it would go considering I hadn’t ran regularly the past few months over a distance of 10km and in my head I had to do twice that! I got the opportunity to run alongside my cousin Luke who got into running earlier this year and set himself up for a big challenge early on so I’m really proud of him.

Starting off was thankfully really comfortable and the miles were counting down so fast! The crowds were absolutely amazing, not one part of the race was quiet. I had constant motivation the whole way through which helped significantly. There was so much to sightsee on the way round and the city filled with music and cheers of my name as I have it on my Innovation Multisport vest. I managed to see my family at the halfway point just before the amazing Tower Bridge and my cousin and I couldn’t believe how far we had made it through.

There were points we just HAD to walk but never felt guilty for. We were there for the excitement and not a time. In our heads we knew we just had to cross the line no matter how long it took. Luke even ran for the Martha Trust charity and raised over £500 which is amazing. Seeing my Innovation family at mile 11 was honestly the best part.

Seeing the people you know and have been running alongside cheering you on made it all. It was a good feeling that there was only 2 miles left to go and before you knew it we made it! Despite not being able to walk down the stairs right now, I highly recommend this race to anyone. Incredible atmosphere and support the whole way around I wasn’t even looking at the downsides. Sure it was tiring, but the feeling of crossing that line was so achieving and like no other. If you’re thinking of doing your first half, I highly recommend The Big Half.

Have no pressure thinking about time, just do what you love. I’ve been running for a while now but only took it seriously at the end of last year and never did I think I would complete a half marathon at only 17 years old. My family, Parkrun and Innovation family have been such a big inspiration for getting me to this point. Here’s to one of many!”