SATURDAY saw a cold start with quite a bit of snow, this did not stop 153 runners take to Barry Island for event number 94.

This week parkrunners were back in their usual home under the Eastern shelter which had been closed to the public for the past few weeks.

Making their way around the 5km, two lap course to finish first this week was Gabrielius Stuokus of Les Croupiers RC in a time of 18:33. Second was Gareth Poston of Port Talbot Harriers in 19:20 and completing the top three this week was Matthew Ryan stopping the clock at 19:33.

For the ladies it was Rachel Eales of Hyde Park Harriers that was first to the finish line in a time of 20:35, Antoinette Nurse was a close second in 20:42 while third place for the ladies was junior runner Caitlin Williams of Seriously Mad Runners taking 24:36 to complete the seaside course.

This week saw two regular runners celebrating and taking part in their 100th parkrun, Mike James and Martyn Parsons.

Members of Barry’s Seriously Mad Runners running group decided to help to mark Martyn's achievement by wearing running bibs with his name and the number of parkruns while participating and marshalling, these were hidden until the pre-run briefing made by run director Claire Louise.

This week also saw the return of the High Street Primary School Harriers. They are an after school running group for Years 5 and 6 and are led by Jess Kingston.

A few of the members’ parents even participated in their first parkrun in order to ensure that their child had someone to run with, while other children ran with members of the group.

All parkrun's have a strict rule that all runners under the age of 11 must be accompanied by an adult (someone over the age of 18) for the entire run.

Unfortunately, if a runner under 11 is found to have run the course on their own their results have to be removed. Sadly, this happened at Barry Island on Saturday with two under-11s having their times removed. It is an insurance requirement as well as a child safety issue and is a non-negotiable rule.

This week has seen the release on social media of news of the new Barry junior parkrun which is set to take place at Romilly Park from the spring. The junior parkrun is a free timed 2km event which takes place at 9am on a Sunday and is open to children of four to 14 years of age.

Volunteer ambassador for parkrun, Lyn Evans is seeking enthusiastic volunteers to form the core organising group for the event.

If you would like further information or to add your name to the group, please contact Lyn Evans via email lyn.evans@parkrun.com

Every parkrun event is required to undertake a risk assessment which will determine the minimum number of volunteers that are needed in order for the event to take place safely.

The last few events at Barry Island have seen a decline in volunteers and the risk of having to cancel the event at the last minute. If you would like to volunteer on a Saturday morning, they only require a maximum of two hours of your time and there are various roles that need to be filled, then you can get in touch with us at barryislandhelpers@parkrun.com. You don’t even need to be a runner.

The core group and regular volunteers are a great friendly bunch and all training for new roles is given on the day. Volunteering is fun and can be very rewarding.