#347 Event Report

Posted on June 3, 2023 by eastcoastparkoffice

***Event Report Delivery***

This week’s event report is another corker written by regular parkrunner Imran.

It's a cheer for our new RD Shireen and all our hi-vis heroes. An ode to our Singapore Shufflers and celebrations for all our milestones and achievements!

Everyone is a winner at parkrun!

Read it in full here:

ECP parkrun 347

The amazing Shireen Bailey took the mantle for her first parkrun as Run Director! To be honest - she was AMAZING and she has set quite the standard for the rest of us to live up to.

Not to take away from her amazing performance but the other story of today was: The day of the Daniels.

All 3 first finishers today were Singapore Shufflers - well done to all of you!!

We had 2 Daniels finish 1st and 2nd with quite frankly diabolical times in this heat and humidity.

Daniel Allender took gold with a personal PB with 16:40. I think I was still chatting away at the start line whilst he crossed the finish line.

Daniel Leow took silver with 16:42. He was 1 second off matching his ECP PB of 16:41 - which would have still not quite taken gold today!

Noboru Matsumoto an ECP regular took the bronze with 17:11.

ECP welcomed 34 Singapore Shufflers today for their monthly 5k time trial.

The visit from the Shufflers resulted in a super 129 parkrunners today.

I ended up taking the group photo of the Shufflers and I think we should introduce a parkrun dress code which stops all these ridiculous Shufflers going topless and putting the rest of us with Dad bods to shame!!

Now back to the event…

Along with Daniel Allender we had 19 personal PBs today - which is phenomenal on this weather!!

We celebrated a wonderful 25 volunteer milestone by the ever-charming Pris Chew who gave everyone a very entertaining first timers welcome!

We welcomed visitors from UK, South Africa and New Zealand and Australia today. Including a lovely family from Australia “The Lees” who brought their three girls with them with the youngest Isabelle finishing with a great 54:14! Well done also to Caitlin and Ruby - great job girls!

Also, a great well done to young Gemma Soh for finishing her 3rd parkrun even whilst being held back by her mum Li Ying. Well done young lady!!

Finally, a thank you to all the Hi-Viz heroes:

Shireen BAILEY, Simon BAILEY, Priscilla CHEW, Roberto DE VIDO, Karianne DI SALVO, Norman LOCKHART, Valerie LOCKHART, Punam OWENS, Martin OXLEY, Pranav VENKAT, Riko WATANABE, Imran ZAFFAR

We are always looking for volunteers so please do get in touch!! Ta

Report: Imran Zaffar

Photography: Shireen, Karianne, Pris and Karianne

Thank you, Imran! You always leave us with a smile on our face!

Well, that's a wrap from us. Please do get in touch if a hi-vis bib has you name on it for next week and we'll see you all then!

#345 Event Report

Posted on May 21, 2023 by eastcoastparkoffice

EVENT REPORT

This weeks event report is written by regular parkrunner Imran.

Imran starts out with a very important plea, and then the reports takes on a decidedly futuristic theme, you will want to read to the end:

Plea! Before we start todays event report! We had a wonderful turnout of volunteers today as we usually do on the weekend of a big race (OSIM Sundown - good luck everybody) - however next weekend and for June the volunteer roster is looking empty and we need the help of our amazing community to host these events!!

Now on to the main report - I forgot to do a Star Wars style parkrun event report on 4th May - so I am doing a belated one today!

A long time ago in a park not too far way…

The East Coast Park parkrun was in session with event 345!

Today Emporer Renee VAN DE BULT was in charge of proceedings at todays podrace (aka parkrun). She was ably assisted by her legion of stormtroopers:

Shireen BAILEY, Simon BAILEY, Damaris CARLISLE, Les CHAPPLE, Karianne DI SALVO, Alexandra HARVARD-WALLS, Nicholas HILLIER, Kaita IGARASHI, Stuart MCINTOSH, Punam OWENS, Martin TAY, Diana TOAPANTA, Renee VAN DE BULT, Riko WATANABE, Imran ZAFFAR

88 Runners of all abilities gathered to participate in the free, weekly, timed 5k event.

The course was flat and fast, and was perfect for parkrunners and walkers of all levels. The event was timed, so runners could see their official time for the run with a barcode scanning system, so runners could collect points towards their parkrun milestone scores.

The East Coast Park parkrun is a great way to get fit, meet new people, and enjoy the outdoors. On this particular day - it felt like we were running in the desserts of Tatooine - it felt HOT!

The parkrunners lined up at the start line, eager to get started. The starter gave the signal, and the runners were off. They quickly spread out across the course, each runner running at their own pace. Imran as usual started out like a Pod speedster and ended up limping home like a Bantha!

The park was especially beautiful today with a stunning sunrise! And some of the trees looked like they were from the Jungles of Naboo.

Todays podrace winner was parkrun debutant Ezra Ganske running his first ever parkrun with a hyperdrive time of 19:25 that puts the Millenium Falcon to shame!

Joining him on the Kessel Run podium were Viraaj Mehta and Stephen Ramwell who came 2nd and 3rd.

We had 13 parkrunners who completed their first ever parkrun today! 5 of whom came in the Top 30! The Empire is still deciding whether to punish these individuals with double the entry fee for next weeks run for being far too fast for us mere mortals!

A huge galactic commendation must go to Zoe B (in the 11-14 age group) who was running her 2nd ever parkrun and finished as the fastest female finisher with a time of 24:12!!

A special mention to young Alex Ko who joined us for parkrun today after hearing about it on veteran parkrace speedster Pris Chews running blog (prischew.com).

The runners ran and ran, until they reached the finish line. They crossed the line, cheered by the volunteers who were there to greet them. They collected their finish tokens and their barcodes, and they headed off to the Starbucks to enjoy a well-deserved drink and a chat with their fellow runners.

It had been a great day at the East Coast Park parkrun. The runners had enjoyed the run, the company, and the weather. They had all made new friends, and they had all gotten a little bit fitter.

And as the runners headed home, they all knew that they would be back next week for another parkrun.

May the force be with you…

Report and Photography: Imran Zaffar

Thank you your highness, Imran. Truly wonderful the event report is.

And that is indeed a wrap and we look forward to seeing you all again same time, same place next week!

#341 Event Report

Posted on April 23, 2023 by eastcoastparkoffice

A big thank you to Clara for this weeks event report.

It was just super to be back parkrunning at East Coast Park and Clara captures the morning beautifully:

April 22nd marked the return to East Coast Park after a six week break. I missed my regular Saturdays here so much and was delighted to be back.

Conditions were hot and humid but that didn’t stop our 11 volunteers from running a great parkrun. Thanks to all of you hi-vis heroes; you are absolute stars and make parkrun what it is. Big thanks to our run director Damaris for getting us back into the swing of things. A special mention to David Allan who completed his 25th parkrun volunteer milestone today; thank you for your dedication and here’s to the next 25!

In other milestone news, Suyen Goh completed her 50th parkrun and Rebekah Brown celebrated her 25th. Well done! A remarkable 40 of our participants were first timers at ECP; 12 of whom were first timers to parkrun.

One of the lovely aspects of parkrun is the accessibility and inclusivity, there are so many events to choose from in so many parts of the world and everybody is welcome. Whether you are flying to the finish in 17:23 as Noboru - our first finisher - did today or making sure everybody gets to the finish line safely and without the fear of being last - thank you Punam for tail walking - or one of the many others in between; you have a place at parkrun.

Post-run coffees were lively today with interesting and informative chats. If you have time after the event, it is a great way to meet new people and make friends.

Another week of parkrun complete. Well done all! It's not always easy to get up to make it for 07:15 and to do 5k (or in the case of volunteers, to make the 5k happen) so give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Report by Clara Sofillas

#337 Event report

Posted on February 13, 2023 by eastcoastparkoffice

This week we have not just one, but two event reports to share with you.

We'll start with Russell, Australian parkrun adventurer who was touristing with us for the second time. It was great to have you back Rusty!

Here is what Russell had to say:

East Coast Parkrun - # 337

Todays event No.337 was another Prime Number to acquire , for those many of us acquiring gains in Challenges on the purple 5K parkrunner results App.

Wonderfully the substantial overnight rain didn’t affect this beautiful and very flat parkrun course with any pathway puddles.

Large groups of parkrunners from England, South Africa and myself from Australia were fortunate to experience perfect overcast running conditions with a nice very slight coastal cross breeze to lessen the normal high Singapore humidity.

1st finisher was of the 129 participants, was very speedy Darren Southcott in 16:05 just 13 seconds away from his PB .

2nd position was Singapore Shuffler Noboru Matsumoto in 17:44.

3rd finisher was Mr Consistency, Kei Suzuki with 18:08 , a PB by 4 secs.

Lei’s 5 parkrun times have been 18:12, 18:17,18:08, 18:07 and 18:02 over at West Coast.

Power on Kei , a sub 18:00 time is within reach.

1st lady was Isabell Rudd Rossler in a quick 19:38 just 12 seconds away from her PB.

Another speedy Singapore Shuffler member was a new friend I met on my previous tourist visit to East Coast park , exactly 6 months ago to the day, in Gil Madrid with a fine time of 20:04 for the M55 age category runner and just 36 seconds slower than Gil’s PB from 6 years ago !

A extraordinary high number of 46 people experienced East Coast Parkrun for the first time and a good number of 18 PB’s were recorded by regular or returning participants.

Personally after 13 consecutive weeks of tiring international travel, I had a fine run of 23:48 just 35 seconds away from my M70 age group time of 23:13.

Thanks to all 14 enthusiastic volunteers that made another successful parkrun happen at this fabulous Singapore location.

Next parkrun for me is Copenhagen, Denmark next Saturday. Farewell for now.

Russell Johnson,

Australian Parkrun Adventurer

Safe travels Russell and we look forward to you visiting us again soon.

We'll share our second event report with you a little later in the week so we can enjoy reminiscing about last weekend while looking forward to our next parkrun day!

New Years Eve 2022 #331

Posted on December 31, 2022 by eastcoastparkoffice

Event #331

I’m home from a lovely wholesome morning at parkrun. As usual, it was the best start to my Saturday and I couldn’t be happier to close 2022 in the company of my new parkrun family. This morning was positively cool for Singapore standards; the air wasn’t too heavy and the sun glinted out from behind the clouds. There is something so special about running nearby the water as it glimmers, passing by the palm trees and seeing the most precious dogs as you’ll ever see.

100 participants showed up for parkrun today. We had 12 volunteers: Alan, Alexandra, Damaris, Ekaterina, Hua Peng, Karianne, Kristina, Les, Martin, Pris and Punam. An enormous thank you to all you wonderful wonderful hi-vis heroes who make parkrun happen. Damaris, thank you for running the event. It was a fantastic finish to the parkrun year and we are very lucky to have you. Pris, you did a super job on the first timers briefing, what a lovely introduction to ECP for our 38 first timers. 14 of those first timers were first time ever park runners! Prepare to say goodbye to your Saturday lie-ins…

Today was a big day for Natasha Agars who ran her 100th parkrun!

Congratulations on a brilliant achievement. We also had 13 personal bests today. With a new year around the corner, I’m sure lots of you are thinking about new year’s resolutions. Why not consider being a volunteer and giving back to the parkrun community? With a wide variety of positions available, there is a role to suit everyone. If you want to walk/run as well as volunteer, you could do the first timers briefing, the report, be the tail walker or do the event day course check. The volunteer team at ECP is inclusive and so friendly; shoot them an email at eastcoastpark@parkrun.com if you fancy a fulfilling Saturday morning.

And with that, our year of 2022 parkruns is over. If you’re not too tired tomorrow morning, see you at Bishan park for special Sunday parkrun to welcome 2023.

Report written by Clara Sofillas

#328 Event Report – A Spontaneous Singapore

Posted on December 11, 2022 by eastcoastparkoffice

A huge thank you to Josephine Johnson for this weeks event report. We think you will agree, it's a heartwarming read:

#328 10/12/22 – A Spontaneous Singapore

On Tuesday lunchtime I was all set to meet friends at Colchester Castle parkrun (England). Then I got the text from my partner, saying he had to fly out to Singapore for work on Thursday and would I like to join him. I automatically knew there would be a parkrun involved (that’s why he’s a keeper lol) a few phone calls to reschedule this & that later and my flights booked BOOM… I’m on my way!

I’m chasing my international parkrun compass challenge so East Coast Park was at the top of the to do list. I am totally smitten! It’s a beautiful park, with lush green trees, bird calls I didn’t recognise, loads of space for cyclists, rollerbladers and the non-parkrunners. I adored running past the Tai Chi class, the fishermen busy on the beach and families just enjoying the early morning.

Today captured everything about the parkrun ethos I love. Thanks to Punam the RD encouraging me to write this report. I am very glad she did, as her team of orange bib hero’s, Alan Simpson, Damaris Carlisle, Hua Peng Wang, Imran Zaffar, Karianne Di Salvo, Katja Baxter, Michael Ballard, Priscilla Chew, Shireen Bailey and Stuart Mcintosh totally smashed the day! They were very friendly, approachable and very encouraging as I shuffled by through jetlag & the humidity. I really wanted to share what a super community it is and how easy it is to run & volunteer. If you are reading this and haven’t volunteered at East Coast Park yet, please do! The core volunteer numbers would love a local or visiting speedier participant to complete their 5K and then help with barcode scanning or a slower shuffler like me to write the report.

parkrun is all about the people and I love how strangers just “chat” as we all have that same connection. It was fab to meet Mick from Sydney who is an outreach Ambassador, Mollie who did her first EVER parkun, well done you! You soooo have to aim for a t-shirt now no excuse lol. Rebecca from Cardiff who is in town for a conference and Steve from London who is visiting his son. We all joined the core team of regulars & fellow tourists for the obligatory coffee at Starbucks. With its amazing aircon and fast friendly service and loads of space in & out, we continued our chats until jet lag called for a nap.

Well done to all to all the 74 runners, jeffers & walkers. Thank you East Coast Park parkrun I will return on my next Singapore visit!

#loveparkrun

Event Report: Josephine Johnson

#327 Event Report

Posted on December 4, 2022 by eastcoastparkoffice

Great day today parkrun volunteering for the first time overseas at the iconic East Cost Park parkrun. To explain, my home parkrun is Futakotamagawa parkrun in Tokyo - if that’s too hard to say or too long to remember, just say “FTG”.

As I’m running the Singapore Half Marathon tomorrow, today I was tailwalker and enjoyed a nice long chat with parkwalker Shireen as we tailed the course. I heard ECP had 150 walkers, joggers and runners last week and was a bit overwhelmed but today there was less than a third of that total. I guess some were staying at home because they’re running the full or half marathon tomorrow. Anyway, the important thing is that the atmosphere was homely, friendly, welcoming and inclusive (BTW, what parkrun isn’t?!).

Weather-wise, it felt very “unSingapore” as it was pleasantly mild with good cloud cover and a bit of a sea breeze from the Singapore Straight.

Shoutout to 4 year old Ethan who with his 100 parkrun teeshirt-clad mum, stayed ahead of me and completed 5k without a single moan or groan!

And of course kudos to Stephan and Witold, our two 50 parkrun milestoners today!

The great thing about parkrun - of the many there are - is how small a world it can be. To give today as an example, ECP ED Karianne is a friend of fellow FTG parkrunner, Vickie. Scanner Alan as a kid knew FTG ED Tim. And by complete coincidence, fellow FTG parkrunner and Tokyo running club Namban Rengo member, Mika turned up!

In closing, I must tell you all a story! Before parkrun was established, I last ran ECP in December 2018. Back then, I really didn’t have much idea about its workings or history. So here I am, and in my usual social self manner, I struck up a conversation with this tall British guy wearing an apricot-colour parkrun teeshirt saying “Founder”. I said to him, “What does that mean?” and replies in the most unassuming way - truly unassuming, honestly - “Umm, I founded parkrun”. Me goes “Oops, sorry!”. It was Paul Sinton-Hewitt. I saw him again at the inaugural parkrun launch at FTG the following April but am glad he didn’t remember my face nor my dumb question!

Hope to see you all again - if not on Red Dot City, then in Tokyo at FTG parkrun! Keep on walking, jogging, running AND volunteering!

Cheers
Roger Berman
A1214140

#loveparkrun

#325 Event Report

Posted on November 21, 2022 by eastcoastparkoffice

As the crowds gathered on Saturday morning, so did the clouds! But what threatened to be another very wet and rainy parkrun (who remembers the small lake that everyone waded through a few weeks ago!?) turned out to be a slightly damp, but pleasantly cool run! And considering it was the first time I have actually run at parkrun for nearly three months, I was very grateful that the sun decided to stay hidden behind the clouds and the slight drizzle kept me cool! Thank you parkrun weather fairies!

This was a week for lots of 'first times'! Out of the 101 runners that completed the course on Saturday morning, 30 were total first timers at parkrun. We had a big group join us from a local junior college - it was great to see them running the course in their college t-shirts, supporting each other on the way round! I love seeing that kind of team spirit at parkrun! We also had lots of tourists joining us from Australia and the UK.

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This week, Punam also made her official Singapore parkrun Run
Director debut - and what an amazing job she did! From being there early to welcome our runners, to getting all of our finishers safely across the line and cheering everyone in with a smile, ECP parkrun #325 ran like clockwork. Thanks Punam!

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A big thank you to all of our other volunteers as well! We also saw a couple of new faces

to the volunteer team this week, which we always love! A big well done to Imran, who was a first time first timers briefing-er - it was great to see Imran welcoming a big crowd of tourists and first timers to our event with his big smile! Imran's positivity and love for parkrun shines is always obvious for everyone to see!

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And we also welcomed first time volunteer Kate to the team as this week's timekeeper - great job! (Editors comment, Kate's partner was also a volunteer marshal this week alongside our regular volunteer Les and is pictured below. What a great team!) We hope you loved your morning volunteering with us and are looking forward to getting back in hi-vis soon.

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Pablo, our tailwalker, was also a first time ECP volunteer, visiting us from Canberra - and had a chatty walk along East Coast Park with Chris Bickhoff, who was visiting from Mirboo North, Australia.

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And finally, a big shout out to Denice Garbutt who was also visiting from Canberra. For me, Denice sums up what parkrun is about and why it is so important. Denice has recently been told by her cardiologist that she doesn't need any medication and she doesn't need a checkup for another 5 years - instead, she just needs to keep doing parkrun. On Saturday, she crossed the finish line with a sprint finish and a big smile on her face - how amazing! A big congratulations on your 199th parkrun Denice - we hope you have a great time celebrating 200 next week! Bring on 250!

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We have been loving watching the event grow since its return after the Covid-19 pause - and we want it to keep growing! So, please spread the word - tell your friends and colleagues, share things on social media, bring your friends along!

Remember, it's 5k, your way - no one ever finishes last (except our tailwalker!). We also have parkwalkers (thanks Shireen for this week!) to encourage people to walk at parkrun!

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We'll be back, same time, same place, next week. If you would like to help us put on the event by being a hi-vis hero, please just drop us an email at eastcoastpark@parkrun.com.

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#loveparkrun #lovevolunteering

Event Report: K Di Salvo

Photography: K Di Salvo; P Owens

#324 Event Report

Posted on November 13, 2022 by eastcoastparkoffice

Wow this is starting to become a habit…

We enjoyed a delightful 324th parkrun at East Coast Park, led by our amazing run director Karianne, who always goes above and beyond!

Today's parkrun was considerably drier than the swamp we waded through last week and we welcomed back our parkrun royal couple Valerie and Norman who have both done around 300 parkruns each!!

Although there was some rain overnight, we were lucky enough to have a dry parkrun and some glorious sunshine immediately following sunrise at 06:45. With sunshine comes heat and todays parkrun was a little more challenging due to the increased temperature, nevertheless it was still an absolutely stunning view across the beach.

Today the park was quite busy with training runs ready for the Singapore Marathon in less than a month, so we had to spend some time ducking and diving to avoid the flocks of marathon running machines.

The highlight of my day were the 6-8 ladies in pink tutus who must have been training for a charity run - they looked like they were having an absolute ball and were always happy to give us a wave as we ran past!

We welcomed 106 park runners this week of which we had 35 first timers at East Coast Park.

One of whom (Norman) got a stupendous 17:17 and 4th spot in only his 13th parkrun!! Even more amazing was Heng just behind him who came 5th with 18:58 in his first ever parkrun (and he’s over 40 like me). Heng was joined by 9 other parkrun virgins, who I now hope will have the “parkrun” bug!

We also reached some parkrun milestones with Natalie, Ioan and Arne completing their 10th parkrun today!

Naturally a huge congratulations to Malachy for not only having the coolest name on our roster but also winning todays parkrun with a quite frankly ridiculous 16:29 in his 6th parkrun. (I don’t think I could beat that time in my car)

And a loud cheer for Paulina who came first amongst the females with again a ridiculous 21:59! She literally screamed for joy when she saw her time!

And let's have a hooray for our group of parkwalker's led by regular volunteer, Shireen and this week's tail walker, Veronica who joined us from her home parkrun in Queensland, Australia safely bringing everyone home. Well done to you all.

As always we ended the event with a cup of tea and a natter at Starbucks.

My 5th parkrun and they keep getting better each time (shame my times don’t seem to).

Finally a massive thanks to all the volunteers without whom parkrun could not happen:

Shireen BAILEY, Les CHAPPLE, Karianne DI SALVO, Darren GOSS, Katasonov ILIA, Veronica LIGHTFOOT, Frances NIELD, Punam OWENS, Pranav VENKAT, Sharon YONG, Imran ZAFFAR

Event Report: Imran Zaffar

#322 Event Report

Posted on October 30, 2022 by eastcoastparkoffice

It felt great to be back at parkrun after a week away. parkrun has been such a big part of my life since 2018 – and since then, I’ve tried not to miss a week (running, walking or volunteering) where possible. However, a trip to Indonesia meant that I didn’t have a parkrun to visit!

Being away made me realise how much I love parkrun and everything it represents. I missed the cheerful good mornings from everyone as they arrived. I missed cheering everyone into the finish funnel. I missed the high fives and hugs. I missed seeing people achieve something they previously thought they couldn’t do. And I missed the coffee, cake and catch up with friends (old and new)! parkrun really is so much more than just a 5k run – it is an awesome community of amazing people and I’m proud to be a part of it.

So, this morning, when I arrived at 6:30am, I set up ECP parkrun with a huge smile on my face – I was home!

And what a great morning it was! Today, we were joined by 89 finishers and 10 super volunteers (thanks to the team of hi-vis heros!). 31 were first timers at East Coast Park parkrun – and 11 of these were first time parkrunners! Thank you to everyone who joined us and we hope you will be back!

Congratulations to the 16 finishers who set personal best times today! An awesome effort was put in by some of our younger under 11 runners today, who put on some amazing sprint finishes to smash their personal best times this week! Well done!!

As always, a big thank you to our volunteer team – but an extra thank you to our volunteer parkwalker, Michael (who completed his first ever parkrun!), and tailwalkers, Alison and Malcolm, who were visitors to ECP today! It’s always a joy to meet parkrunnners from all over the world. Thank you for helping out at ECP today!

Although this may be the last week of the official ‘parkwalk’ campaign, please remember that you can walk at parkrun every week! It is, and always will be, 5k YOUR WAY!

And finally, an appeal for help! In order for East Coast Park parkrun to take place, we need a small team of volunteers every week to fill our mandatory volunteer positions (run director, timekeeper, barcode scanner, finish token giver-outer, marshal and tailwalker). Without these roles being filled, we are not allowed to run the event! Sometimes, it is touch-and-go on a Friday evening – and we never want to have to cancel! So, if you can help us out on any Saturday, please email us at eastcoastpark@parkrun.com – every role is simple and fun, and you get to wear one of our snazzy hi-vis bibs!

Thanks to all walkers, runners and volunteers for another brilliant morning at ECP! See you next week!

Event Report: Karianne Di Salvo

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