Pontefract parkrun

05/09/2026

Event number 721

Today we had 376 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 71 were first time visitors to Pontefract - 16 brand new members of the parkrun family - welcome and I hope you enjoyed your trip to Pontefract.

54 people recorded new Personal Bests.

The event was made possible by 24 volunteers, several of whom stepped up towards the end of the week, a huge thank you to the following superstars;

Stewart HAIGH • John KEES • Jill DALY • Ian WILKS • Marian STANLEY • Pam GREEN • Timothy STANLEY • Louise TURLEY • Helen CRASHLEY • James DAVEY • Caroline FRANCIS • Lee NICHOLSON • Gemma FARNSWORTH • Bob GILES • John VALENTINE • Frank SHEARD • Craig BRIGGS • Andy HORNE • Johnathan COOK • Andrew TOOKEY • Stuart COOK • Paul CRASHLEY • Lee PROCTOR • Paul PHILPOTT

✈️ We had visitors from: Norfolk, York, Barnsley, Manchester, Cambridge, Rossendale, Evesham, Warwick, Rotherham, Aldershot & Hensall to name a few that came forward at the first time / visitor briefing. I know we had at least one person completing their Full Ponte - Well done.

And a huge congratulations to the group from Verallia who completed their Couch to 5k with our run this morning.

🤍💜❤️
Milestones;
25 Chris Spooner, Chris Coupe, Andy Birch, Jelica Salta, Rachael Savage.
50 Mayan Williamson
100 Hilary Clarke - thanks for the chocolates - they went down well with all the participants and volunteers.

150 Mark Sutton
350 Chris Garnett

The baton is now with Jo, for next weeks event. As ever if you can help fill our volunteer slots over the coming weeks, any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. I'll pop the rota link in the comments.

Until next time 🥰

Marian 🌞

🧡

04/09/2026

Hi Folks

Happy parkrun eve.

The roster is looking okay for tomorrow but I hope you are okay queueing for your finish token and scanning.

I need a 2nd person to hand out the tokens once you've finished, and at the moment I only have one scanner, if you want to help out please let me know via this post. If you are a quick runner you can run and then scan afterwards even if it is only for the main rush around 25 - 30 mins.

Please also let me know if there are any milestones or celebrations you want me to mention in the run brief.

I'll be shouting go at 9am.

Marian

02/09/2026

Happy Wednesday .......

Just looking at the roster for this weekend and its not looking too bad but at the moment but I've got no-one to hand out tokens and no-one to scan them.

If you are running a race over the weekend (including the Leeds Country Way Relay) and want to rest your legs please consider volunteering this weekend. If you are a quick runner and want to get double points you can scan after your run to help out as well.

Please contact us via messager / email or comment on this post and I'll add you to the list.

Let me know as well if there are any milestones, birthdays or shout outs for this weekend as well.

I'll be shouting go at 9am.

Marian

29/08/2026

Pontefract parkrun Event 720

This week’s Run Report has been written by tourist, Andrew Meadows …

In honour of Dolly, we were all raring to going for our 9am to 5km this morning, no need to earn a living, thanks to all the fantastic volunteers putting this event on for free.

Not sure what I can say about the course that hasn't already been said, however as first timer here, I would encourage everyone to attend at some point, scenic lap of the lake, and then a long singular lap of the race course and a nice incline to come back to the lake. I also liked how the finish line just appears from around the corner. The most similar course to this that we have in Wales is Haverfordwest West. However, that is mostly on the actually horse part of the track, neigh bother.

I would like to thank all the volunteers for putting this event on for all of us today, and a special thank you to Frank for his wonderful and humorous guide to Pontefract.

Also Muriel, for ensuring that we could all hear the briefing at the back and for dealing with a very brief moment of rudeness with integrity. I would like to mention that we should always treat our fellow runners, volunteers, other park users, and all the barkrunners with respect.

Lastly, to the gentleman debating with his young child about who was faster out of the two, I can confirm that as they were in a pram and finished first they are 1000% faster, (not a race 😉 )

OK, for us statistic enthusiasts.

Today we had

393 Finishers
23 volunteers (🙏✍️)
10 absolutely super first timers
69 first timers to Pontefract
57 event or personal PBs 😱

Now on a long train ride home to Merthyr Tydfil, which will feel like no time at all, thanks to the feel good factor at Pontefract parkrun.

Thanks again
Andrew Meadows

Thank you so much Andrew for a great report (how did I miss the 9am - 5k 🤦🏽‍♀️).

A few more stats in the form of milestones

💜25
Stephen McCabe
Stuart Thompson
Jonathan Glazzard
David Sambrook

🖤100
Millie Dyer

Arbatory but impressive 300
Liam Parkin�
I’d just like to add a thankyou to everyone who listened to the funnel rant and made the results processing a piece of cake 👏🏼

And a big thank you from me to the 23 volunteers who made today possible
�Muriel JOHNSON • Hannah SKELTON • Martin PLACE • Rosemary ELLIS • Marian STANLEY • Andy JACKSON • Pam GREEN • Timothy STANLEY • Gary MOXON • Peter COLLIER • Gemma FARNSWORTH • John VALENTINE • Adam FEATHERSTONE • Frank SHEARD • Billy MARSH • Michelle MARSH • Neal MAY • Andy HORNE • Stuart COOK • Colleen HORNE • Joe BENNETT • Paul PHILPOTT • Andrew MEADOWS

Marian is in charge next week, so please think about volunteering early, to ease the stress.

Thank you again and enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday weekend

Pam

28/08/2026

Afternoon all

It’s the last Bank Holiday before Christmas 😱, what better way to start than parkrun. After all - there’s no crime in giving yourself over to pleasure.

My roster is looking pretty healthy, although I could do with:

support for handing out tokens; and

someone to keep Muriel company as she tail walks.

Whilst we are not officially doing anything to celebrate the lives of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry - do not let that stop you wearing your cowboy hat and sequins or your best basque and stockings (Skeltons - I might be looking at you).

If you have any milestones or tourist shoutouts, let me know

See you tomorrow when I shout GO at 9am

Pam

25/08/2026

Pontefract parkrun
Event number 719
22nd August 2026

This week 416 people ran, jogged and walked the course. We had a whopping 101 first timers at Pontefract with 22 of them first time parkrunners, we hope you all enjoyed yourselves and some of you will come back and see us again. Congratulations to the 60 people who recorded new Personal Bests.

This week's event was made possible by 22 super smashing volunteers! A big thank you to:

Gregory SKELTON • Wayne HEPPENSTALL • Mark JOHNSON • Muriel JOHNSON • Hannah SKELTON • Rosemary ELLIS • Ian WILKS • Amie GARDNER • Andy JACKSON • Pam GREEN • Gary MOXON • Andy EVANS • Jane DARLEY • Chris SMITH • Peter COLLIER • Matthew HOWLETT • Gemma FARNSWORTH • Bob GILES • Frank SHEARD • Stanley S • Billy MARSH • Neal MAY.

Congratulations also to everyone who achieved a milestone today. Round of applause to:

Harry V - 10 parkruns

Leanne Matthews and Sharon Davies - 25 parkruns

Matthew N and Michelle Gilmore - 50 parkruns

Harry Bromley - 100 parkruns

Kathy Martin - 250 parkruns

And a couple of unofficial but still noteworthy milestones:

Bev Brown - 200 parkruns
Adrian Leach - 750 parkruns

A little extra note, we had a few issues with the results this week. Please could all participants remember to only cross the finish line once and to make sure if you do cross the finish line you take a finish token even if you don't intend to have it scanned. You can still cheer on/accompany other participants but if you're not finishing for the first time or not willing to take a token you will need to peel off before the finish and not enter the funnel to avoid affecting the results of others behind you.

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Pontefract parkrun Results Page.

Pontefract parkrun started on 7th May 2011. Since then 25,218 participants have completed 183,045 parkruns covering a total distance of 915,225 km, including 27,157 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,633 individuals have volunteered 12,954 times.

20/08/2026

We're nearly set for this weekend's parkrun. The roster could just do with a couple of barcode scanners to keep things running smoothly. If you can help please comment below or send an email or Facebook message with your parkrun ID.

If you're celebrating a milestone or a birthday let me know and I'll add you to my list of shout outs.

See you on Saturday for a 9am GO!

18/08/2026

This week's event report was written for us by parkrun tourist Jennifer Hamilton. Thanks for volunteering Jennifer, glad to hear you enjoyed our parkrun and some good old Pontefract hospitality.

Run Report Pontefract parkrun
Event Number 719 - 15th August 2026

When travelling to parkruns across the country, few have been so enticing as Pontefract. The home of Haribo, the home of a quarter of the 'Fully Ponty' challenge and a lovely course nestled somewhere between a racecourse, a ski slope at Xscape and the M62 - all with the distant smell of Haribo in the background - I am a fan of a Pontefract Cake! There were plenty of other tourists at the event with people travelling from Hambleton - Selby, Dunfermline - Scotland, York, Halifax, Takeley, Essex, Whitley Bay, Poole- Dorset, Leeds, Harpenden, Mansfield, Nottingham and Whitley.

Pontefract parkrun is a lovely one lap (with two laps of the lake at the beginning and end) mixed terrain route that starts going round the racecourse on a downhill loop and finishes going back up it on the other side. There is plenty of free parking and the car park marshals did a sterling job of directing parkrun folk this week even with changes to the usual car park. The route is suitable for buggies and has plenty of places nearby either as a walk or a short drive away to grab your coffee and breakfast fix after. I broke rule four of the Pontefract parkrun non-negotiables and decided to take a tumble on a recovering ankle injury about two kilometres in and was just amazed at the friendliness and helpfulness of the people around me - thank you all - particularly to Jo who then walked the rest of the route with me.

This week 347 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 73 were first timers and 51 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 42 different clubs took part. The first finisher this week was Tom Davey with a truly incredible time of 17:01 and an age graded result of exactly 76%. The first female finisher was Treena Johnson with a satisfyingly similar time of 20:20 and an age graded result of 99.67%. Unsurprisingly - this was also the highest age-graded result of this week's parkrun - what an incredible feat and an enormous congratulations!

We know that without our pink high-vis heroes, our parkrun events could not go ahead so to them we are truly thankful. This week's merry band of 22 volunteers were;

Sheleen LAWLER • Andrew DONNELLY • Lesley JONES • Ian WILKS • Andy JACKSON • Merv DAVISON • Pam GREEN • Chris SMITH • Peter COLLIER • Chris COUPE • Varrie WARDROPE • Frank SHEARD • Jane WILLIAMS • Craig BRIGGS • Neal MAY • Andy HORNE • Jennifer HAMILTON • Anne BANNISTER • Ruby COUPE • Ann SOWDEN • Josie-Anne FREEMAN • Amy PEARCE

Today's full results and a complete event history can be found on the Pontefract parkrun Results Page.

Pontefract parkrun started on 7th May 2011. Since then 25,117 participants have completed 182,629 parkruns covering a total distance of 913,145 km, including 27,098 new Personal Bests. A total of 1,631 individuals have volunteered 12,932 times.

To sum up Pontefract parkrun in a few words - pretty perfect with an incredibly friendly, helpful and caring core team. Thank you!

13/08/2026

Midweek request for volunteers and important information regarding parking for this Saturdays upcoming parkrun.

The centre car park located next to the play ground will be closed! We will be opening the field to use as a temporary solution and politely request that all parkrunners use this car park to allow the other car parks to be used for the general public and gym users. Please note that the temporary car park will be closed at 10:30.

We are still needing volunteers to make sure the event goes ahead so please consider helping out if you’re not able to run.

We desperately need the following volunteers:

Tokens x2

And we will take the following extra:
Park walker
Run and scan

Also if there’s any milestones, birthdays, tourists or special occasions then please let me know for a shoutout!

See you all Saturday,
Neal

11/08/2026

🧡 The Ken Bingley Memorial 10k this Sunday 16th August 10am.

There are still places available via this link. https://racebest.com/races/3x797

🌳 For those that don't know why we promote this local 10k. Ken Bingley was a fantastic runner, a super supporter and a stalwart volunteer for us at Pontefract (plus Frickley and Nostell too) Ken's Corner on our course is named after him, and you, our fabulous community raised money for a bench and gym equipment in his name, when he sadly passed away.

This run is a great way to remember him and it would be amazing to see our parkrun community there. Several members of the Pontefract parkrun core team will be taking part, after having had an intense training programme led by RD 'Coach' Greg over the last few weeks, appropriately named the Couch to Ken 10. Some of the team have done more training than others, so lets see how we all get on!! 🤔🤣

💙 The event is being organised by local running club Ackworth road runners and is to raise funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the MS trust.

Let us know in the comments if you'll be joining us

# A race to remember. A memorial event to celebrate the life of Ken Bingley and those close to us we may have lost