THIS week the runners taking part in Barry Island parkrun were greeted by a strong tailwind helping them down the finishing straight along the promenade.

Barry Island's 124th parkrun event saw 142 runners taking to the start line, including 20 runners that were taking on the 5km course for the first time. Some taking part in their first ever parkrun while others were visitors from other parkruns.

It was Gareth Hurman of University of Southampton AC who was first to finish, his sixth win in 11 runs at Barry Island, in a time of 17:38. Second place went to Alfie Davies in 19:25 and third went to David Brown of Seriously Mad Runners (Barry) in a new personal best time of 19:45.

For the ladies, it was first timer Kerry Jones who made it to the finish first in a time of 23:11. The second lady over the line was Caitlin Williams of Seriously Mad Runners (Barry) in 23:31, followed by Lucy Donnelly of Newcastle (Staffs) Triathlon Club in third place with a time of 24:00.

It was a day of milestones as Ruth Davies completed her 50th parkrun, while Michael Elliston took part in his 250th event.

There was also a notable landmark for Barry Island’s two event directors Ian Thorne and Lyn Evans, who were both volunteering at Barry Island for the 100th time.

As part of the core team that helped get Barry Island parkrun off the ground, they took over the roles of co-event directors two years ago and as well as taking care of all the background administration for the event, Ian & Lyn were also part of the team that brought Barry junior parkrun to the town this summer.

Lyn Evans said: "My 100 parkruns as a volunteer have gone by very quickly since we first got together as a group in early 2015.

"It’s been a pretty easy ride with such a friendly and committed core volunteer team and Ian‘s support as co-event director. The growth in the number of people parkrunning regularly with us has been great to see, as has the advent of the new Barry junior parkrun.

"I’d encourage everyone to take a shot at volunteering - it’s great fun and very rewarding."

Ian Thorne added: "Since getting involved in parkrun my Saturday mornings have never been the same.

"Seeing all those runners setting off to run an event that we’ve helped create makes all those early morning alarms worthwhile.

"Of course, myself and Lyn cannot take all the credit for such a successful event, We’re just a small part. We couldn’t do it each week without the fantastic group of invaluable volunteers that also give up their time each week."

This week there were 23 volunteers making sure every single one of the runners completed the event safely, they were: Andrea Hurman, Lyn Evans, Ian Thorne, Malcolm Bradley, Tessa Matthews, Dave Shields, Sarah Lees, Tracy Buckle, Denise Aplin, John Deakin, Mark Currie, Beverly Ooss, Nadia & Sophia Hamandi, Linda and Alun Chapple, Samantha Blake, Nathan King, Sarah Thomas, Diane Hitchcock, Richard Rendell and Lindsay Capus.

If you’d like to help out and volunteer then get in touch with Barry Island parkrun at barryislandhelpers@parkrun.com.