PARKRUN stalwart Rob Short was first across the line this week, the Burnden Road Runner closely followed by Christian Pickford (Bolton United Harriers & AC), and James France (Darwen Dashers RC).

Their female counterparts at the head of the field of 334 runners were Janet Kenyon, Paula Pilling (Burnden Road Runners) and Carly Edwards (Darwen Dashers RC).

Junior runner Olivia Carter and Megan Grimshaw completed their 10th runs this week, while at the other end of the experience scale Richard Lord ran for the 100th time, with 94 of them at Bolton.

Notable personal best mentions among the enormous 71 on Saturday were James Woolard's 21:47, Chloe Ainsworth's 24:54, Philip Donlan's 25:19, Brendan Connaughton's 21:52, Ciaran Marland's 27:44 and Bill Vickers' 26:50.

There were 20 different athletics clubs represented this week with 50 first timers.

The run's first-timer numbers were swelled by the ranks of Darwen Dashers' regular and beginner members and a large number of parkrun tourists includingAllen Parkin (Oldham parkrun), Andrew and Rachel Parker (Heaton Park), Steve Rourke (Daventry), Andy Culpin (Ormskirk), Thomas Sharland (Pennington Flash), Katherine Hilditch (Burnage) and Irene Norris (Camperdown, Dundee).

This week's runner of the week was Stephen Rothwell who had his seventh consecutive personal best with 31:54.

This week’s volunteers were Mick Entwistle, Rowan Ardill, Dugal Smith, Ann Oliver, Brian Horrocks, Dave Dalton, David Aulton, Laurence Keighley, Malcolm Pittock, Marie Holland, Stuart Cairns, Phil Holden, Rob Short, Marisa Frot, Shirley Tull, Chris King and David Ardill.

If you would like to volunteer to help on a Saturday morning email BoltonOffice@parkrun.com