We’ve never really got back into the groove of blogging since the parkrun pandemic pause. Since parkrun returned in July 2021, we have visited 20 new venues. Of those, we have only blogged about two: Stratford Park, Stroud and Somerdale Pavilion. Which is a shame, because we’ve visited some amazing new places and had some great adventures. At some point, we’ll probably try and go back through and write up what we can remember, but it is much more of a chore, so I’m going to skip ahead to our most recent travels.
On 17 September 2022, we visited Marlborough Common parkrun, based on ‘the Common’ on the edge of Marlborough, in Wiltshire. It was our 78th different parkrun location, and our 62nd of 77 active south-west locations. The Common was given to the town during the reign of King John (1196-1216), and has a whole array of sports fields: football, rugby, golf and tennis, at least. There are 10 acres of open space for walking, or in our case – running.
This hadn’t actually been our first choice parkrun for the morning. I (Ben) had been on a work trip to Germany for the week, and spent Friday night in the Heathrow Airport Premier Inn, while Lolly and the kids were at home in Taunton. We had decided to meet at Seven Fields parkrun. However, Seven Fields was cancelled by the landowner due to the impending funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, so we had to alter our plans. Thankfully, Marlborough Common was similarly roughly equidistant for us.
This relatively late change of plans did mean that we hadn’t done too much research on the course, which we found out was a two-lap course all on grass. Toilets proved to be a little bit of an issue – there are none on the Common, the nearest are in (or near) Waitrose in town, which is roughly half a mile away. This is well advertised on the course page, but for Lolly and the children, just added a bit more time onto their travel, and is worth bearing in mind. Parking in on the Common itself, which is very clearly signposted, and well marshalled.
On the morning, our five-year-old (KK), who hates running, shocked us by declaring that he wanted to run with Mummy. (A few days later, when we were talking to someone about him having done his second 5k, he piped up with “I didn’t know that was a 5k.” So, maybe he didn’t realise what he was letting himself in for…) Anyway, as a result of this, Lolly ran with him, while I ran with Lani.
Due to our faffing around, we missed the first-timers briefing, despite the fact that I had originally arrived at the park at around five past eight! Even so, the main run briefing was detailed enough, and other than a slight hiccup when we were told to walk over to the finish, rather than the start, we were soon away.
The course starts in the southern corner of the park, and heads a short distance up a path on the western side before cutting in for the short out-and-back section, which runs alongside a children’s football pitch. After a 180 degree turn around a flag, you head back to the path, and then turn left onto the field to start the big lap of the Common. This takes you up the eastern side of the park, through some trees and around the parking area. It cuts into the park to skirt alongside the golf course, gradually climbing up hill. Towards the far end of the park there are a few turns to follow established tracks along the grass, and then you turn down the western edge and head back downhill, past the rugby pitch. After the rugby pitch you turn into the park again, running between the rugby pitch and the car park driveway until you get all the way across to the other side of the park, closing the loop. You then head back towards the start area, and do it all again. After completing your second lap, rather than doing the out-and-back, you turn into the finish funnel!
Lani had a pretty good first half of the run, but we slowed down between 1.5 and 2.5 miles, taking plenty of walking breaks, before speeding up again for the final run in, pushed on by the gradual downhill nature of most of the final kilometre. The course is nothing amazingly special, but I didn’t find it as dull as ‘two laps around a Common’ might sound. The sports pitches, golf course, and a few copses of trees give variety to each lap, as does the slope from one end to the other, meaning your effort levels vary through the lap. The marshals were enthusiastic and encouraging, which always helps – particularly when running with children. Lani particularly enjoyed the high-five marshal at the top end of the lap.
Once we’d finished, I walked around the second loop with Lolly and KK. By this point, it was pretty clear that KK was regretting his decision, but he continued on until eventually flinging himself to the ground about five metres from the finish line and refusing to move! A short, ahem, drag later, and we were done!
Afterwards we headed into the town centre to get some post-parkrun breakfast from Greggs, then had a little ramble around the shops (the toy shop was a favourite, shockingly!) We finished off with some time at the play park at the Recreation Ground, which is about a five to ten minute walk from either the town centre or the Common.
Hopefully we can tick off a fair few more of the south-west parkruns over the next few months, but where we can’t or don’t fancy travelling far enough to visit new ones, we’ll be trying to return to some of those that Lolly and I have done but Lani hasn’t.
