Age is just a number. With a total of well over 3,000 years between them 38 octogenarian athletes stood together on the start line at Bushy Park Parkrun on 7th July, and all finished the 5K course despite the dust and the thermometer nudging 30C!
After the run Prosecco and cup-cakes went down well as the morning’s exercise, and past experiences of long ago, were discussed by these established runners. However, the oldest finisher, Hugh Dinwoodie from Scotland, was probably happier than most as he finished just his third Parkrun.
The first two finishers, Michael Coupe (SW Vets) and Gerald Billis (Wootton RR) both beat Ray Dare’s M80 record of 28:02, which had stood for ten years. Joe Cleverly, recently returned to competition was first M85 and the extraordinarily experienced 415 Bushy Parkruns, Madge Bradwell, was first W85. The full results contain some interesting statistics.
23 more octogenarians than the 15 who took part last year proves that George Frogley’s great idea of a special event for the oldies is becoming ever more popular, so look out for next July when at least fifty can be expected.

(HUGH DINWOODIE FROM SCOTLAND IN BLUE)

Full octogenarian results:
1. Michael Coupe 377 25:20 82.96% M80
2 Gerald Billis 547 27:51 75.46% M80
3. Joe Aspinall 570 28:10 74.62% M80
4. Mike Rosbrock 616 29:00 72.47% M80
5. Tom Hartigun 710 30:40 68.53% M80
6. Tom Everitt 722 30:54 79.73% M80
7. Leonard Gaul 727 31:01 69.48% M80
8. Keith Speed 734 31:18 67.51% M80
9. Thomas Crowther 748 31:28 66.79% M80
10. Ramon Saiz 788 32:12 68.79% M80
11. Joe Cleverley 831 33:00 73.64% M85
12. Alan Smith 881 35:01 69.40% M85
13. Richard P-K 855 33:51 71.79% M85
14. Alan Anderson 914 36:04 63.17% M80
15. Robin Campbell 922 36:24 59.20% M80
16. Robert Winning 947 37:33 57.39% M80
17. Maurice Francis 951 37:47 57.04% M80
18. Keith Morris 971 38:34 54.49% M80
19. Patrick Howe 977 39:05 55.07% M80
20. Roy Taylor 978 39:08 55.70% M80
21. Albert Yee 982 39:26 63.86% M85
22. Martin Clark 1004 40:30 51.89% M80
23. Wally Garrod 1005 40:37 54.53% M80
24. John Last 1010 40:53 54.18% M80
25. Geoff Jackson 1011 40:56 63.88% M85
26. Lillian de Lacy 1015 41:18 67.80% W80
27. Colin Robinson 1022 42:19 50.93% M80
28 Margaret Smith 1031 43:10 68.96% W80
29. Greg de Lacy 1033 43:13 54.38% M80
30. Georgina Jackman 1035 43:35 61.15% W80
31. David Jordan 1054 46:19 49.19% M80
32. John Farrow 1055 46:20 50.72% M80
33. Madge Bradwell 1063 49:22 65.02% W85
34. Les Brown 1065 50:20 41.75% M80
35. George Frogley 1069 51:58 43.84% M80
36. Ruby Campbell 1074 52:21 48.15% W80
37. John Hanscomb 1080 59:35 37.17% M80
38. Hugh Dinwoodie 1069 80:06 32.65% M85

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