PARKRUN director Cat Lane went all 99 on those turning out for Saturday’s Ross 5k – by dressing up as an ice cream and handing out Flake chocolate bars to mark the 99th running of the weekly event.

This Saturday coming, organisers are hoping for a big turn out for the 100th event at the Sports Ground, when someone will earn the event’s 1,500th personal best time, and they could see their 10,000th runner.

Cat not only celebrated the 99th event by donning the ice cream suit, she also doled out chocolate to the 76 people who ran, jogged and walked the 5k last weekend, plus volunteers.

First home was Dudley-based visitor Ben Witham running for the fabulously named ‘Crazy Flying Monkey Space Invaders!’, who just squeezed out MonRoss Trailblazer Gavin Jones by 14 seconds crossing in 20.09.

Dan Sandford, who runs for Forest of Dean and Trailblazers was third fastest, nine seconds further back, with Jonathan Lloyd-Jones fourth another 20 seconds behind.

Trailblazer Grant White was seventh in 22.17, with Niki Raine first woman home in 24.53.

Second woman was over-60 Forest of Dean AC runner Rachael Wheeler in an impressive 25.31.

Twenty six runners were Ross first timers, eight were new to parkrun including a graduate of the latest Monmouth ‘Couch to 5k’ course, who travelled over the border when the local event was rained off, while 15 different clubs were represented.

Cat said of this Saturday’s 100th milestone event: “It’s all going on, we are throwing in cake and the option to showcase your milestone t-shirts or fancy dress if that’s your thing!

“You might have noticed we love a bit of fancy dress here!

“All we need are a handful more volunteers and we are good to go.

“Please get in touch if you can help at www.parkrun.org.uk/rossonwye/futureroster/

“We are very much looking forward to seeing lots of new faces, including our own new ‘Couch to 5k’ that kick started the programme this week!”

The free weekly parkrun is open to everybody and meets at Ross Sports Ground on Saturdays at 9am.

New runners simply have to register with parkrun beforehand.

Full results and information can be found at www.parkrun.org.uk/rossonwye