The first time I met James Elson, he recognised me, out of context, from a photograph when he was at mile 135 of an ultra. In fact, he not only recognised me, but also put a name to me. All within the space of about 10 seconds.
It blew my mind, not least because I would struggle to recognise my husband if he turned up unexpectedly when I was 24 hours into an ultra.
I was reminded of it today as a runner passed me on the North Downs Way and said “Hello, Louise”. I’m ashamed to say that despite wracking my brains, I still can’t place him.
So. If you were taking part in the Gatliff Marathon today and passed me on the North Downs Way, “Hello! I hope your race went well, and I’m sorry that I am so bad at putting names to faces.”
abradypus 
1) It wasn’t me.
2) I will have to keep checking back here to read the comments just to see if the person that it was identifies themself.
3) That’s really a bit sad of me because if/when they do, it won’t really mean anything to me. I’m just nosey.
Themself!?
*shocked face*
😂
James is a special case – he recognised me at TP100 having not seen a photo (that I know of). But I know what you mean… names are hard and it’s soooo annoying not being able to reciprocate when someone recognises you.
Maybe he works for the secret service…
Brilliant! I hope the person comes forward to say who it was!! 🙂
Hello – I only found out last weekend when running Sheffield Graves parkrun that the “100 venues club” is the Cowell Club. I’ve now done 70 parkruns – at 70 different venues. The aim is to complete 100 at 100 venues without ever repeating one which (I am told) has not been done before – please let me know if you know otherwise! I enjoyed reading your summary of all 100 – I can confirm that they don’t blur into one: I remember all of mine. Favourites included Killerton, Conkers, Sewerby, Huddersfield (home), Clumber Park and Pymmes. Two weeks ago I did my first overseas one , in Copenhagen (does that count towards the Cowell club?). I did Lloyd Parkun in a howling blizzard, my slowest ever.
There are two different tables, the UK most events and the Global most events. If you’ve run an overseas parkrun, then you get to celebrate your Cowell twice – once for your Global Cowell and once for your UK Cowell. More cake 😉