#342 Event Report
#340 Event Report
parkrun #340 @ ECP
My 20th parkrun! There was a lot going on at todays parkrun. Today was a day of 2's. We had a visiting world record holder in not 1 but 2 running events! We also had 2 “features” (aka diversions).
Singapore had been hit with torrential rain all week, but for some reason it eased up just before our parkrun making it the perfect weather for some quick PBs - however that proved tricky.
Unfortunately our intrepid ED Damaris had to deal two major roadblocks running right through our path due to engineering works!
A special round of applause must go to the volunteer marshall’s for acting quickly to divert the course and get it ready in time!
I strolled up at 07:15 far too late for a volunteer and started my first timer briefing at 07:25. (Terrible I know).
We then had the run briefing before we all made our way to the far left of the path to start!
We had 100 parkrunners and walkers today! A cracking turn out given the weather…
Now on to the big event! We welcomed Steven and Joasia on their way to Australia. Joasia “Jo” Zakrzewski (don’t ask me to pronounce it) is a double world record holder. Joasia is a professional runner (just like me ) and represented Scotland in her home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.
Last year she broke the British 24hr road record completing 247.985km in the European Championships.
She bettered that accomplishment 3 weeks ago when she broke three records completing an amazing 411.5km in the 48hr race in Taiwan (I don’t think I could do that distance in a car in 48hours).
She broke the British women’s record of 366km which had been held since 1988. Not only that she beat the British men’s record of 401km which had been held since 1991 and even more impressively she beat the World record of 403km which had been held since last year.
Unfortunately Joasia cannot even attend parkruns in her current home Australia as she works on Saturdays as a GP. Talk about overachiever!!
Joasia and Steven if you are ever back on our little island we would love to welcome you again to ECP!
We welcomed 35 first timers to ECP for 8 of whom it was their very first ever parkrun! Thank you to all of you for choosing our parkrun - hopefully you catch the parkrun bug like the rest of us weirdos…
We welcomed tourists from the U.K. and Australia and also from Ireland and the US.
Congratulations to Katie Boorer who decided to visit us for the first time in order to celebrate her 50th Parkrun today! Amazing achievement!!
One of our recent volunteers Syed Wazir looked far too relaxed and casual as he lapped me and put in a ridiculous time of 23:00 - a personal PB for him.
A huge big wave and well done from all of us at ECP our regular ECP parkrunner Pris who is in Japan and recently achieved a PB at the Osaka Marathon!
Finally thanks once again to our Hi-Vis heroes without whom the event wouldn’t happen! If you wish to volunteer please don’t hesitate to contact us on Social Media or via email.
See you Next Week!!
Imran
#339 Event report
We had a tinge of sadness as this parkrun day arrived, but only as it was on the last day of a fabulous four week holiday to South East Asia. The holiday was meticulously planned so that we would be in Malaysia on a Saturday and also in Singapore on a Saturday – you can work out why! Unfortunately on our Saturday in Malaysia both the parkruns there were cancelled – but East Coast Park this week more than made up for that!
It was a parkrun with several firsts for me (not my finish position though!!). I have never arrived at a parkrun in a taxi before, I have never arrived at a parkrun in the dark before, and I have never done a parkrun in 85% humidity before! All of which made it exciting and memorable.
We arrived in plenty of time and sat and watched as it got light and the parkrunners started arriving. The first timer’s welcome was informative and well attended by lots of tourists and new parkrunners. After which we had the main briefing from our fantastic and very friendly Run Director, Karianne. Tourists from all over the world were welcomed – Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, UK and probably more…….
Several people were achieving milestones which were congratulated. Rachel Hillier and Neil Stanbury were running their 50th parkrun and Andra Durbin was running her 100th parkrun. Congratulations to you all and also to the 13 people who were running their first ever parkrun, and who were told that they will soon realise that the days of the week become Friday, parkrunday, Sunday.
After the briefing there was a short walk to the start and then we were off on the out and back course along the wonderful sea front scenery of East Coast Park. As well as the beautiful park and sea front itself, we also passed a Tai Chi class taking place. I was curious about all the ships that seemed to be parked in the bay and had been told that many of them belonged to companies that had ceased trading during the pandemic and had just been abandoned there, some still full of cargo. I have no idea whether this is true of not, but I’m not one to let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Not everyone likes an out and back course, but personally I do. This was my 218th parkrun and you’d think I’d have got quite good at judging how far a 5K run is…….but I haven’t. On a one lap course I can be convinced I must be near the finish, only to look at my watch and realise I’ve barely done 2K. At least on an out and back course I know when I’m halfway!
So, on to a few parkrun stats. 104 parkrunners and parkwalkers as well as 15 volunteers took part. In addition to the 13 people running their first ever parkrun a further 25 did their first East Coast Park parkrun. Despite the heat and humidity 15 people achieved a PB – bravo! Congratulations to them and also to anyone who got a result for their parkrun stopwatch bingo, position bingo, or whatever other challenges you are doing.
I like to find out a bit about where I am visiting. Singapore is one of only a few City-States in the world…..the exact number is debated but Singapore, Monaco and Vatican City are the generally accepted ones. East Coast Park itself is 185 hectares and built entirely on reclaimed land. In fact, I think quite a bit of Singapore is on reclaimed land. The famous Raffles Hotel is now several blocks inland but is on Beach Road, presumably because it was at some point near the beach……..
Everyone who volunteers at parkrun is great, but at East Coast Park they were truly exceptional – so friendly and good humoured. A special mention and massive thank you to Karianne and Punam who were so helpful with advice on how to get to and from ECP, and for being so friendly and welcoming.
We are back home in the UK now, still slightly jet-lagged, and my next task is to start on my TripAdvisor ratings. Without a doubt, East Coast Park parkrun would get a five star rating from us.
Thank you for a fabulous parkrun, we hope we will see you again sometime!
Sue Martin
#338 – Event Report
This week’s event report has been written by a regular at ECPp, Imran.
Another super write up of yesterday’s event .
parkrun 338 @ East Coast Park!!
Today 118 park runners and walkers were guided by Damaris our amazing Run Director on a bright and beautiful Saturday morning!
Of the 47 runners who were new to East Coast Park. We were honoured to host 20 who chose todays event for their first ever parkrun, I am sure many of them will have caught the parkrun bug like the rest of us!
We had a wonderful cast of volunteers today with a few new faces (some teenagers from Eton College school who were volunteering as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award).
Today's first finisher was Sabri Hammami with a great time of 16:21 on only his 2nd parkrun. With such a quick time he probably entered the finish funnel before I had even passed it on the way out.
An even bigger achievement was by the running machine known as Yen Ling Lim who was the first of 37 female runners placing 39th with an amazing 22:54 and a ridiculous age grading of 87.19%!!! To get sub 23mins in her 60s is not just impressive it’s world class!!
Emmanuel Vergara and his family were visiting us for the first time from Queensland and even at Katja’s first timer briefing I could tell they looked quick, and he proved me right with an amazing 17:25 and 3rd place. His lovely wife and baby also had a lovely parkwalk exploring our beautiful East Coast Park.
Talking of tourists, we welcomed not only our friends from down under but also tourists from the U.K., South Africa, Japan, India, and the US.
Congratulations to the 15 runners who achieved PBs today and well done to Becky Smart for achieving her milestone 50th parkrun!
A huge, good luck to our regular park runner Pris who will be away for a couple of weeks as she runs the Osaka Marathon!
I also watched in amazement as the amazing WS Yong and his family completed todays 5K at the tender young age of 82!
Tech tip: There are a couple of apps that help you track all your parkruns and any parkrun challenges you may be aiming for.
(Editors note: there are volunteer challenges too!)
5k parkrunner results app by Michael Clayton. (Only on the U.K. appstore)
Running Achievements app by Ford Hollet (on the international appstores)
Another great website to know is dfyb.run which allows you to add your parkrun barcode to your Apple iPhone and Watch.
Imran Zaffar
Thank you Imran
We can't wait to see you all again next week!
#337 Event Report part II
What a beautiful start to the morning, which as usual resulted in a hot parkrun.
As per usual the worst part of parkrun is getting up at such an ungodly hour!
The glorious sunshine was out early and was a great wake up for those of us out last night!
We had an amazing 129 parkrunners and walkers, just 21 off our record!
Today was not a day for PBs, unlike last week where we had a break in the rain perfectly timed for parkrun and leading to many PBs. So it’s even more impressive that 18 parkrunners got their PB today.
We welcomed some lovely tourists from South Africa, Australia, the U.K. and Thailand to our wonderful parkrun, including Judy who was running her 444th parkrun with us today and Annie from Sheffield who ran her 409th parkrun.
Annie showed extra commitment to join us this morning having spent the whole evening playing Rummikub until 06am this morning and then running to join us from car park E.
A huge congratulations and welcome to the parkrun newcomers - who I hope will become as addicted to parkrun as the rest of us:
Jesse WOLTER-SMITH (19:24)
Reuben Ming Gui ONG (20:08)
Andre DIBIAGIO (21:23)
Damian QUEK (21:50)
Andreas DANNERT (22:17)
Khor YI SHENG (22:29)
Ang TZE SEE (22:36)
Callum OBRIEN (24:08)
Johan Van Stiphout BLOM (24:40)
Kevan NG (27:01)
Susanne DIBIAGIO (27:22)
Alan CHEUNG (30:35)
Pepijn KETS (30:44)
Lucas KEE (35:01)
Eva CHONG (36:01)
Pitchaya PERGCHOEI (42:50)
Finally a huge thank you to the parkrun volunteers without whom we couldn’t host the event.
Imran Zaffar
#336 Event Report
Damaris CARLISLE, Les CHAPPLE, Priscilla CHEW, Karianne DI SALVO, Mark FINLAY, Mandy IRVINE, Claire JP, Niall MCDERMOTT, Punam OWENS, Supattra SUKAROM, Chris SYKES, Riko WATANABE, Syed WAZIR, Imran ZAFFAR

Today we had an amazing 123 runners grace us at East Coast Park parkrun!Of whom I’m delighted to say 9 chose ours as their first ever parkrun! We also had 18 experienced parkrunners who joined us for the first time! I hope many of you can join us again, we would love to have you!!
Although not an official milestone I think it’s amazing that Martin Tay ran his 200th parkrun at our event today!! Well done!!
Well done to the 25 of us (myself included) who got a parkrun PB today! That’s 20% of the total field who ran PBs today! Well done all!
Finally, both parkrun events in Malaysia are currently paused. If you are intending to travel to MY for a parkrun please check both events Facebook pages the Thursday before the run. I was going to travel to MY this weekend to do parkrun - fortunately I checked before booking!
#335 Event Report
#334 Event Report
At 07:25 Pris gave everyone a very friendly and warm welcome to ECP parkrun!
The weather quickly heated up as we started our parkrun around 07:30. Todays run was quite warm.
We had a number of tourists from Australia, Poland and the U.K. who joined us today, with a huge congratulations to Maciek Michalowski who was visiting from Poland and finished in first place with a time of 18:26 in his very first parkrun at ECP.
⁃ Zen Koh celebrating his 100th parkrun
⁃ Marcus Bracken celebrating his 50th parkrun
One of our regular volunteers very kindly made our very own mini selfie frame, with which we have some cracking shots!! And last but not least a huge thank you to our hi viz (and pale blue) volunteer heroes who without we couldn’t run such a wonderful event!
Imran
A7902396
#333 Event Report
It was hot and humid at East Coast Park parkrun this morning - but that didn’t stop 126 of you joining us to run your Saturday morning 5k. It was our second biggest turn-out since our post-Covid return – we are always happy to see so many smiling faces and are excited that our East Coast Park parkrun family is continuing to grow. Thank you for coming to run, walk, volunteer or cheer with us – every single person that takes part in parkrun makes it what it is, and we appreciate you all!
Today, we had 45 first timers at East Coast Park – and of these, 21 were running their first ever parkrun. Well done – and welcome to the parkrun family! We hope you had an amazing time and will be coming back soon.
We also had visitors from the UK and Australia, including our tailwalkers (thank you!) Samantha and Wayne, and uber-tourist Richard, whose home parkrun is Bushy Park (the home of parkrun) and who has visited 183 different parkrun events in 8 different countries - amazing! We hope your first event in Singapore was one to remember – and good luck on working towards your Freyne Club (for anyone who is not a big parkrun nerd and needs some context…the Cowell Club is for anyone who has run 100 different events and the Freyne Club is for anyone who has run 250 different events).
It was also great to see lots of new younger runners today – we had 3 runners under 10 years, 4 runners in the 11-14 years age category and 2 in the 15-17 years age category. parkrun really is an event for the whole family, young, old and in between!
As always, a huge shout out to our hi-vis heroes – without them, we couldn’t run parkrun every week. We are always looking for people to help out – there is no weekly commitment, just let us know when and how you would like to help. Every role is fun and easy – and you get to wear a snazzy vest and spend the rest of Saturday feeling awesome that you have helped at an event that brings joy to so many people. If you can help us out in the future, please just drop us an email at eastcoastpark@parkrun.com.
See you back next week, same place, same time – and for those that are away next week for Chinese New Year, we hope to see you back soon! Xīnnián hǎo! / 新年好!
Karianne Di Salvo