A NOVEL volunteer appeal was trialled for this week's Barry Island parkrun - a reworded version of the Frank Sinatra classic, My Way - resulting in a very healthy list of willing helpers.

With the sunshine pre-order being suitably fulfilled, a very pleasant morning greeted the 29 helpers and 136 runners.

Barry was targeted as the tourism event of the week by Brackla Harriers and we were pleased to welcome 15 members of the club to the course. It was members of Brackla that took four of the first five places, the clean sweep only being thwarted by Phil Cross splitting them in 3rd place. 1st and 2nd went to Chris Jeynes and John Lloyd in times of 18:55 and 19:27 respectively. First lady home was Jo Donnelly in 20:28 - her 11th first place in 18 visits. Jo was followed home by Long Eaton RC's Katie Cotton and White Rock Runner's Claire Curtin.

Forty-one runners were first timers to Barry, and despite the warm conditions, 21 runners beat their previous best Barry Island times. A few milestones were also ticked by a couple of runners, including Cheltenham's Lucy Bevan making Barry her 50th different parkrun venue.

One runner that couldn't fail to be seen was Caitlin Williams. Caitlin completed her 100th parkrun and was appropriately 'decorated' for the occasion. Caitlin has completed 90 runs at Barry and has been the first lady home on a number of occasions.

First time visitor to Barry Island parkrun, Dan Davies, said: "I’ve done 60 different venues now and I have to say Barry Island was the one I was most surprised by in terms of what I was expecting versus what it was actually like.

"I'd expected a nice flat seaside promenade job for a stab at a sub-20-minute time, only to be undone by some pretty challenging climbs!"

Dan finished 7th in a time of 20:23, a mere 24 seconds outside his personal best.

Run Director for the event, Dave Shields, said: "Parkrun only exists due to the kindness of the volunteers giving up their time or their Saturday morning parkrun, and I'm indebted to all those that helped make this week a huge success.

"The conditions were ideal for volunteering, but a bit tougher for the runners! We had a number of visitors and all feedback highly praised both the marshals and the location."

This week's volunteers were: Alexandra TOMBS, Amber CONDY, Beverley WARBURTON, Beverly OOSS, Colette MCGOWAN, Denise APLIN, Emma ARSCOTT, Gary GOULD, Helen KEEGAN, Helen LEWIS, Helen MCCARTHY, Ian JENKINS, Ian THORNE, Linda CHAPPLE, Lynette MCNABB, Mark CURRIE, Nick EVERITT, Nicola HARDY, Owen KEEGAN, Richard STREET, Russell THORNE, Ruth DAVIES, Sally BLOOMFIELD, Sarah THOMAS, Sarah WESTERN, Sophie JAMES, Tessa MATTHEWS and Tracy BUCKLE.