Posts Tagged ‘parkrun’

A lovely parkrun. It’s a three-loop course and largely flat. Busy but a possible PB course if you started at the front. Lots of nice scenery, too, as well as toilets and a cafe. This ticks off my south on the compass club challenge so I just need an east to finish it now.

Oldham parkrun takes place in Alexandra Park, Oldham. It is well worth a visit from Leeds as you can take the A672 and get some beautiful views over the Pennines.

Alexandra Park itself is lovely with toilets, a large playground, a cafe, tennis courts, lakes and lots of other interesting features. The playground and the toilets could use some love, though. The parkrun uses the slogan “like hills? Love Oldham parkrun” so I was surprised at how flat it was: three laps of mostly running from one side of the park to the other, with a hill at each end. So there are hills but nothing compared to Temple Newsam, Chevin, Middleton Woods, etc.

It is a three-lap course and there were plenty of marshals on the route. Thank you to everyone at Oldham for having us.

Isabel Trail parkrun takes place in Stafford and follows and out-and-back along the Isabel Trail. It’s mostly tarmac with some gravel bits. It’s well organised: when I turned up there was a marshal explaining where I could park. They had a megaphone for the announcements, too, but there were a few dogs that screamed the whole way through so I have no idea what was said. It was well marshalled for an out-and-back.

Isabel Trail is currently the most northerly I parkrun, which makes completing the Old MacDonald challenge a tough one for us Northerners. Luckily, I already have one I from Illaunmanagh. Still need a second E, though!

Jubilee parkrun is located in the town of Spennymoor, just over the border into County Durham. It’s a lovely park with a bowling green, two playgrounds and some sports fields. The course is four laps of the park and despite it being quite a mild slope, as each lap goes up and down twice, you end up with a lot of elevation gain from going from the bottom of the park to the top nine times.

Jubilee means I finally have my J. Just Z missing from my alphabet now. Thank you to all of the friendly volunteers for making the trip worthwhile.

North Yorkshire Water Park is an inline water park offering swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding, wakeboarding and other such activities. They also have a parkrun on a Saturday morning that involves two laps of the trail around the lake. It’s a lovely venue with toilets and a cafe offering hot cooked food.

I needed a north for the compass club challenge, adding to the west I got from Newcastle West.

There is never a bad reason to visit Doncaster. But it is especially nice when you are there to do Sandall Park parkrun. It is two-and-a-bit laps around the park, tarmac and grass, and flat by Yorkshire standards.

This ticks off the snakes challenge for me: Skipton, Selby, Shanganagh, Sport Ireland Campus, St Anne’s, Stormont, SETU Arena, Sligo, Sheffield Castle and Sandall Park.

Sheffield Castle parkrun is a proper Sheffield parkrun: hilly. My watch recorded over 100m of elevation gain. It’s difficult to know how accurate that is, but it is believable that it is hillier than both Temple Newsam and Cabo. It takes place at Manor Fields park and there is no castle. Full-size castle, I should say, as there is clearly one in the picture. Everyone was friendly and they even had water on the course during the heatwave.

This is my 9th parkrun beginning with S.

Roberts Park is in Saltaire. The parkrun is two laps of the park and an extended bit down the river. There are a couple of choke points that slow everything down but its reasonably scenic and they had an army of volunteers. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

A wee bit of touristing in Knaresborough. It’s a two lap course with a few short but steep hills in, and a large amount of trail. I ran into Pip on the start line. Didn’t manage to spot Paul but later learned he was also there too, so a good showing from Harriers.

This was the last “c” I needed to finish the Pirates challenge: Cross Flatts, Chevin Forest, Corkagh, Cabinteely, Carlow Town, Christie, Conyngham Hall and Roundhay.

Goole parkrun takes place at West Park and is totally flat. It is two and a half laps that partially follows a horseshoe shape. Some of it is tarmac with the rest of the course being on gravel trail, mud or grass. Plenty of friendly volunteers to cheer us on: thank you to everyone who was there yesterday.

Goole was the last one I needed for the Staying Alive challenge: Burnley, Bramley, Bushy, Griffen, Gorey, Goole.