In the absence of our own rose (Linda had to pull out) we ended up finding our own!

The weather turned cold and miserable pretty quickly once the sun went down, so just the 2 regulars remained.

This time we went the other way round to Redbridge roundabout. grass had gotten too wet and slippery to climb the slopes to continue clearing the hidden stash of beer bottles, but we still ended up filling 6 bags, a paint bucket and adding more car parts to the existing piles.

Next round, 2 March - Babybank!

Valentines day fell on a Saturday... so a few extra numbers were to be expected at Valentines Parkrun. Not sure anyone could have predicted this volume though...

After a surprise surge last year, with numbers doubling the usual attendance, the main crew planned well to be able to cope with things this year. So well organised, no need for more people to sign up for volunteering, including Goodgym crew.

Ofcourse Ed is the exception to that, since he is very much part of the core parkrun volunteers - he took up his usual position marshaling the main car park. Linda joined Ed to give him a hand while I joined another regular, Liz, at the 2nd car park.

James, Julia & Jenny braved the crowds and ran, while Sharon took her time walking round and taking selfies with people (you might recognise a famous face in some pics...)

A few of the pictures give a hint of how busy it was, even early on - the queue to pose with the parkrun sign was significant at 8.30... not sure I'd want to know the toilet queues at any point! Guess the main indicator how extremely busy it became was when there was a 1/4 mile queue for the tokens and thus finish line... just about everyone was happily chatting & socialising making their way to the end though

So.... in case you were wondering, number... Normal attendance at Valentines is about 350-450, today at event #715 the finishers seem to total.... 2331

Huge admiration and compliments to the Parkrun crew for sorting it all out