Parkun 139 - Leslie's 100th

19 + 23 + 29 + 31 + 37 = 139 all prime numbers 34th prime CXXXIX 100010112

Good morning and welcome to parkrun 139 or as my 3-year old daughter calls it “the party”.

I would like to acknowledge that today we’ll be running on the land of the Peramagk people.

I would also like to acknowledge all of our volunteers. We have a very experienced crew today. We are in the very safe hands of David on stopwatch, Jordan on finish tokens, the Bracken family Cameron, Andrew and Declan on token scanning and sorting, the cousins Gary and Paul are our photographer and marshal (and welcome back to you both). Melissa is our tail runner today, making sure no one gets left behind and Jacqui provided our half way flag.

I have to say I’ve done almost all volunteer positions and being a photographer was the hardest one. The worst part was having to decide which are the best photos to keep. It took me 3h once to choose. That’s why I am very grateful to our regular camera folk: Charlie, Gary, Meredith, Paul. So let’s hear if for all the photographers.

We are always looking for volunteers so please consider missing out on a run every now and then, especially if you have a race the next day at events such as the Kuitpo Forest trail run tomorrow. Who is running Kuitpo tomorrow? What a strong contingent. There is also the Glenelg Classic coming soon and you might see people finishing their 20hour walk relay ending in Mt Barker today. There are lots more events and you can find them on the runsarun website. http://www.runsarun.com/events/all_events.html

Who here is a first timer? Welcome, we hope you like it and come back again. Who is a visitor from another parkrun? Thanks for dropping by.

Now for the main main event. Lesley? Lesley has a funny story abour her first parkrun. Once upon a time, 99 parkruns ago Lesley and David showed up at this very startline quite nervous and perhaps a bit over-equipped. They each had a backpack full of water and snacks which they thought they’ll need to run the full 5k. They were a little shocked that no one else ran with that much gear. Thankfully the run went OK and they even came back the next week, but left the backpacks behind. The rest of the story should be pretty familiar: Lesley got the parkrun bug; never missed a week; volunteered regularly; roped in all her family, friends and dogs to come along; got better, fitter and healthier; made new friends along the way; did lots of other events on the side such as Clare half, Mt Crawford, Mt Misery, Mount Hayfield, Sturt Gorge, Cleland, Conquer the Summit, the 35km Bloody long walk; and she had at least 99 coffees and 99 chats after the run (which is her favourite bit).

Lesley - Congratulations on your 100th Parkrun!! Would you like to say a few words?

And thankyou to the running mums Kylie and Naomi who provided the celebration cake.

Enough talk, let’s dance, I mean run!