I don’t know what it is about winter, but for some reason a lot of our touring seems to happen in the dark, cold and miserable months. Having floated through most of the year, suddenly we found ourselves creating tourism plans for November and December. This weekend we needed to be in Taunton at 11am, so we needed one of those magical events that is less than an hour away; oh and buggy friendly of course. Happily, just such an event started in September.
Clevedon Salthouse Fields parkrun takes place in Clevedon Salthouse Park and surrounding area. The easy drive from Taunton meant that, having left the house just after quarter to 8, we pulled up at half past 8. This was just as well, as we’d completely failed to read on the course page that the toilets cost 20p. So we popped down the road to Asda to use their toilets (which I feel justified doing given the small fortune I spend at Asda each week), and also noticed they have an instant photo printer by the tills (useful for forgotten barcodes).
Back at the park, we paid for our parking by app as usual (one day we will take coins to these things) and got set up. Ben took Lani to look at the marine lake, and re-iterated that she was not allowed to push him in it (unlike big puddles). Meanwhile KK and I made it round the park in time to hear the run briefing, which covered everything you could wish for, including emphasising the importance of things like not double-dipping in a friendly way. We all re-united on the way to the start.
After a very audible countdown (thank you!) we were off. The first lap is a short trip around the main part of the park. The closed-off section of car park is nice and wide, with a couple of speed bumps that went down well with KK, but the rest of the lap involves narrow paths and sharp corners. I did look at going out onto the grass to overtake a couple of times, but it was completely sodden and so not worth it. We went past the station for the miniature railway, and apparently the train was out, but I was too busy focusing on not clipping ankles.
Once we’d completed 6 sides of the field, the clear signs directed us left onto the seafront, and down to the marine pool. The path runs right along the side of the pool, and the uninterrupted sea views are a massive contrast to the fairly typical park that was left behind. The path slopes back up at the end of the pool, and we re-joined the raised seafront path.
The longest section of the lap is an out-and-back along this path, with plenty of views of the pier in the out section. Advice to keep left was made clear throughout, and repeated by each marshal. The path slopes down before the turnaround point, which was a clearly-signed hairpin round cones. Once I was back on the level path, I saw Lani and Ben heading the opposite way, so managed a high-5 as we passed.
A slope down takes you back to the main park, and the fastest runners were already heading right into the funnel as I got there. For me though there was another lap. The 3 sides of the grass were fine, but as I headed towards the marine pool I realised I was struggling. Happily the beautiful views gave me something to focus on, and I somehow dragged myself back up the slope. On the out-and-back I decided I would walk back up the slope, but of course by the time I got there I chose to focus on cheering other runners and found I got up no problem.
I passed Lani and Ben again as I sloped down towards the finish, and was sadly not feeling strong enough to take a hand off the buggy. Having been entirely tarmac the whole way round, the actual finish itself is on the grass, but thankfully it wasn’t too soggy. Stopping my watch I saw I’d taken a little over 32 minutes, which seemed a fairly accurate reflection of my fitness levels.
The queue for scanning was really long, so having collected my token I took KK out the buggy and went to take some photos. Knowing we still had a few minutes left, I let KK have a little run around on the upper path. To my surprise, I then saw Lani and Ben running towards the finish. Lani beat her PB (from Torbay Velopark) by almost 4 minutes!
It was a shame that we had to go straight home, as there was an amazing food smell from somewhere, and a fantastic looking playpark. But we did have to get back to Taunton – albeit slightly late and via an obscure route thanks to the motorway closure.
Clevedon Salthouse Fields parkrun gets the best of two worlds with its location – both park and sea. The volunteers were amazing; such a supportive and welcoming team. The course was very accessible, and clearly PB friendly! Buggies will need to remember to be patient on lap 1, and it’s worth noting that dogs aren’t allowed. We’d all very much recommend this one, and we’ll definitely be heading back in future.
So… where next?
