So firstly thanks for such a lovely welcome, possibly the best we have ever had – and we have had some nice ones before! They are very keen on us coming back next year, so maybe we will.

So I think the Churches involved were Berry Lane Methodist, Good Shepherd, Chiltern Church Runners, Grace Church Dulwich, Selsdon Baptist Church, Holy Trinity Wallington, Croydon Jubilee Church, Refresh Church, St Patrick’s Tigers, Croydon Vineyard Church, Epsom Vineyard Church (thanks for coming to join us at short notice), The Salvation Army and Springfield Church. 

So 13 churches in all with 64 runners between them – a very nice turn out.

Well we had 224 volunteers & runners at parkruns all over the country, and beyond – Lake Claremont parkun – Australia – for Rupert Quested of Holy Trinity Wallington was our furthest afield.

So another gentle run at Lloyd Park, and another year done. 55 runners for 11 Churches completed, and at least a couple more started but needed to pull out – thanks for trying folks. A slightly late reminder email to club captains on my part may not have helped with numbers! Also a little reminder that if you are not listed against your church club, and have alternatively not sent us an email saying you can be named against a church then we can’t list you in our results – GDPR I’m afraid.

We covered positions 2 to 277 and made up nearly 20% of the field.

A cracking day with beautiful weather and an amazing turn out – over 100 runners, and 3 additional volunteers, along with several spectators, and single lap runners from the Churches as well. Easily our biggest event since Roundshaw 2019 pre-pandemic.

Thank you all so much for coming, 8 ran for Chiltern, 5 for Holy Trinity Church Wallington, 9 for St Patrick’s Tigers, 5 for Grace Church Dulwich, 1 for  Selsdon Baptist Church, 1 for Croydon Jubilee Church, and 4 for the Salvation Army  – 33 runners in total, and one non-running volunteer.

So folks we won’t hang about too much – 259 runners, walkers, and volunteers – a huge amount of Christian witness there. And without further ado, here’s the results…

Firstly thanks to all of you who came a fabulous turn out of 65 runners and 12 Churches -really nice to see so many of you there.

by Emily James

William Wordsworth once wrote:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

I’m not sure Wordsworth was thinking of a sky quite like the one we had above Roundshaw Downs on Saturday, but at least at the mob match we were not lonely. With a hundred and sixty-one parkrunners including forty-eight churchrunners, and twenty-two volunteers including two non-running churchrunner volunteers, we had quite a crowd descend on the
course (albeit not Wordsworth’s crowd of daffodils). Nor were we wandering, with several new PBs and some very close competition for the podium spots.

For 2023, the National Virtual Mob Match took place a little later than usual, on 18^th February, with a decent turnout at many parkruns around the UK and beyond.

In total there were 230 volunteers, walkers and runners participating for 25 Christian running groups/churches.

A big thank you to parkrun and all of the volunteers who make events up and down the country (and across the world) happen through their dedication and commitment to their local communities.

It was fantastic to be back, and I’d love to do a big report to do it justice, but circumstances mean a little something is better than nothing!
With some late additions we had 91 running for the Churches – a great number.