07/25/2026
Today marked Happy Hill parkrun’s third event, and it was a bit of a wet one! The forecast was indecisive on whether we’d get rain, but it remained just a mist until we were wrapping up. So our 18 participants didn’t have to get too soaked, as long as they managed to dodge the couple of puddles on the trail! So long as the trail is safe and accessible, Happy Hill parkrun commits to being a rain or shine event!
More eventful than the weather at today’s parkrun was our wannabe first place barkrunner! We had two dog participants today: one well-behaved Oshie and one overzealous Cinnamon, the latter of whom escaped her harness at the start line and tried to take first place! In the words of our first finisher, Phil, “I’m disappointed that you chased her down and stopped her, because she was pacing me pretty well.” We love barkrunners, but we will ensure for future events that they stay controlled on a leash! Remember Cinnamon, parkrun isn’t a race, so no need to rush into first. ;) Unfortunately the dog antics occupied our photographer a bit, so we don’t have as many pictures as the past few weeks; guess you’ll just have to come back next week if you want a pic of you crossing the finish line!
With that excitement, today's event would not have been possible without the help of our incredible volunteers. Huge thank you to Daniel, Melody, Braden, Jason, and my brother JJ for expertly manning the finish line while I helped wrangle Cinnamon, and also thank you to my girlfriend Rachel for tail walking and my mom Jane for helping with setup!
We had three finishers who completed their first ever parkrun with us this morning: William, Ben (who’d been a big help marshaling for our first event and running the course with me on our test event), and Brian R (whose sons ran high school cross country with me! So thanks for visiting, and sorry I didn’t get a big chance to chat!). In addition, 8 other participants today were first timers to Happy Hill parkrun specifically; whether you were just passing through or might wind up being regulars to parkrun in Winston-Salem, we appreciate you joining us today!
And on the topic of visitors, we had multiple tourists from parkruns near and far! Phil, Gordon, Dave, and Faith joined us from Durham, NC; Brian K. and Victor came from today’s canceled Creekside parkrun; Bryan S. joined us from Charlotte; and John and Kristen came all the way from my family’s very first parkrun: Baltimore and Annapolis Trail in Maryland! We love all the support from other parkrun communities, and thanks to John, Kristen, Phil, and David for joining us at Panera afterwards!
Last up, we have a parkrun regional ambassador coming to next week’s event (where we should see our 100th finisher!), so in honor of that we’re doing a parkrun get-together dinner the night before! So on Friday, July 31st, all are welcome to join us at Mellow Mushroom in Winston-Salem at 6:30 for some carb loading and conversations the night before our fourth event!
