Category Archives: parkrun

parkrun tourism: Clevedon Salthouse Fields parkrun

by Lolly

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.

A family group preparing to run — One day we’ll get good at this…

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.

Marine lake and sea, as seen from upper promenade — Not just another puddle

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.

Three runners going past a skate park — How long has Lani been able to levitate?

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?

A family group in front of a sea view — With thanks to the guy who made sure to include the pier in photos for at least 4 groups of tourists

parkrun tourism: Tamar Trails parkrun

by Lolly

Since running at Torbay Velopark back in July, Tamar Trails parkrun has been the only event in Devon, and the only event south-west of Taunton, that we had yet to complete. And so in an attempt to rectify this, and have a family weekend away in a beautiful location at the same time, we made our very first Airbnb booking for the weekend at the end of half term.

During the week, it became clear that the weather fairies would not be in our favour, with weather warnings for wind and rain appearing across the South West. We arrived in Gunnislake on the Friday evening in less than desirable conditions, and spent the evening watching the ever-growing parkrun cancellations list. By the time we went to bed only two events in the extended area were still hoping to go ahead – Eden Project and… Tamar Trails.

After spending the night listening to rain hammering down, I was convinced that it was going to be cancelled on the day. So it was a bit of a shock at 7:50 when I refreshed my Facebook feed and saw that it was actually going ahead. Happily we were staying only a 5 minute drive (or 1 mile run if you don’t have two small children and a buggy) away. We easily found the car park, and after a slight panic on arrival realised we could pay for the parking by phone (disorganised family strikes again).

Family preparing to run — Ok, so not our best picture, but you should see the other attempts…

Tamar Trails parkrun is set, unsurprisingly, at Tamar Trails, which is a network of trails amongst the forest designed for cycling, running, walking and other outdoor activities. From the car park we followed the other runners towards the start – I believe we may have taken a longer route due to a fallen tree, but definitely allow a little time to get there. The run brief covered all the essentials – conditions underfoot were wet and muddy, course was mostly downhill except a kick at 2k and then 4k onwards. Everyone who ever speaks about Tamar Trails talks about the hill at the end, so that wasn’t much of a surprise.

We were all prepped for storm conditions, with KK kicking the unfamiliar rain cover and Lani wearing her splash suit over her running kit (“but how will they see my 10 top?”), but as we set off in the dry I wondered if we’d gone over the top. There were puddles right from the start, but the terrain was fairly solid as everyone worked into the correct positions. We’d decided way ahead of time that Ben would run with Lani and I’d have the buggy, and while Ben had offered to swap when we saw the conditions I decided it was a good opportunity to face some demons.

We quickly got to a short section of puddle-covered mud. The puddles were clearly the safest parts to run on, and while I slowed down both the buggy and I got through intact. I realised that running by myself I’d likely have tiptoed through that section, and so the 3 extra points of contact with the ground, along with pigheadedness, clearly did me some good. I later found out that Lani had completely lost her footing here, and if it wasn’t for Ben holding her hand she’d have faceplanted and their run would have been over near the start.

And then the storm appeared. Any thoughts of having over-dressed the kids were replaced with parental guilt, as the heavens opened and the visibility dropped. It was just a case of focus on how pretty the trees were and try to keep going – particularly as I’d forgotten my watch and so had no clue how far through I was.

The trees opened up, and the views and terrain changed to an old mine. I was surprisingly happy to see a hill (particularly given I had to walk it) as it meant we must be around 2k. There was a rare sighting of some marshals halfway up the hill, but with the rocky conditions I wasn’t even going to try to run past them. The views at the top were spectacular, if a bit hazy through the rain. As we re-entered the trees I saw some signs off to one side, which Ben later explained were markers for mountain bike routes.

A view of hills and trees — Ben took this later in the day; there was less visibility when we ran. Also, Lani pushed Ben into that puddle.

The next section was back to tree-lined trail path. I was lucky as despite the small turnout I was running near a couple of guys, so didn’t feel like I was going it alone. A marshal appeared in view down the path, and a glance to the left revealed we were about to be pointed round a hairpin to a big descent.

Long-time readers of this blog will know that off-road downhills are my biggest weakness. What makes them even harder is having a buggy that is determined to get down as fast as possible. Mostly I did a lot of quad-braking to try to remain in control. At one point I got a bit concerned, so gripped on the handbrake only to realise that when the wheels are wet and muddy that achieves nothing. Happily at that moment the trees opened up, and I saw the path was straight at the bottom of the hill, so I was able to stretch out and nearly enjoy the last bit of down.

And so we carried on along the trail paths, until reaching the marshal who pointed the way to the much-foretold final kilometre. I immediately slowed to a walk, and it has to be said it wasn’t the fastest of walks. The two guys quickly overtook me, as I had to squat down to get power to push the buggy. On a tarmac path it would have been fine, but this was pretty rocky, slippy off-road and so a whole other beast. A woman went past me, hobbling slightly but very complimentary about my efforts.

parkrun volunteers at the finish — Truly heroic hi-viz

Eventually the path veered to the right and flattened off, and I very much enjoyed stretching my legs to the end. Tip for parkruns everywhere – however tough your course is if you give people a good chance to sprint finish they’ll love it. The very soggy finish volunteers were super supportive. I checked my phone and had nothing from Ben, which meant they were still out on the course (as oppose to dropped out in the cafe).

Despite all the rocks, KK had fallen asleep in the buggy, so I stayed and chatted to the volunteers, cheering the next two runners in. And then a shout came out that the tail walker had been spotted. I looked down the path and saw the unmistakable pink of Lani’s splash suit, her trademark finish acceleration kicking in as soon as she spotted me.

A man and girl run on a forest path — I spy with my little eye, something beginning with L

It was a short walk down the path to barcode scanning, and then we continued across the car park to the cafe. Bacon rolls, toasted teacake, and a massive piece of victoria sponge were all very much enjoyed, before we headed back to our Airbnb to fight over the shower.

Although the weather was clearly not ideal, we all ended up having a great time visiting. The Autumn leaves, while slippy, were beautiful to see. The route was fairly straight forward to follow, but a few more signs would have been nice to confirm you’re still going the right way – particularly when running slowly it’s easy to notice every small path off to the side and wonder if you were supposed to take it.

It’s definitely a trail shoe course, and very much falls under the category of buggyable as opposed to buggy friendly. This was by far the hardest buggy run I’ve done to date, and has been a big confidence booster. Very much recommend it, just try not to go during a storm.

And so with Devon now complete, we’ve run every parkrun south-west of Taunton. And we will maintain this target for all of a week, until the next event in that direction starts this Saturday. Lots more family parkrun adventures await!

parkrun goals

by Lolly

Our trip to Rogiet parkrun took us up to 50 different events, so it seems a good time to reflect on my current parkrun goals, both short and long term.

Milestones

I’m currently on 138 runs, so my next milestone of 250 is well over 2 years away. Being on exactly 50 events means I have another 50 to get to the Cowell club, which will most likely take me even longer. So milestones aren’t exactly something I’m working towards, they’re just something I see as an eventual result of turning up at parkrun.

The black top just goes so well with Tikiboos…

Time

At the moment, my parkrun PB is 25:41. If I actually train at some stage this should be easily beatable. And, of course, I have a big goal of going sub 25. My ultimate ultimate time goal at parkrun would be 23:16, as that is exactly 15 minutes faster than my very first parkrun. I don’t know that I could ever get that fast, but that would be the dream.

Geographical areas

We’ve talked for years (literally) about trying to complete the South West region. We’ve made pretty good progress on the whole, but a few different factors are making us consider the feasibility. Firstly, the regions are becoming much less visible in parkrun, making it harder to track what goes where. Secondly, with two small children, one of whom gets car sick, there’s only so much distance it’s fair to cover at a time. And finally, while we’ve already been wondering how on earth to deal with the events on North Gloucestershire, someone has classified an event in Herefordshire as the South West. Which sort of makes a mockery of it.

So we’re looking at some sub-regions to focus on. We’ve only got one parkrun south-west of Taunton left to do, and obviously we’d also like to finish Somerset again some time (2, soon 3 left to go). Further afield than that, a few tourists use the idea of everything within a certain straight-line distance of where they live, but unfortunately for us that quickly includes a lot of Wales. As a result, we’re looking at creating our own line of virtual pill boxes to mark out our own South West sub-set.

Further afield

It would be nice to do a parkrun in a different country one day. It’s not going to happen this year now. A country that we absolutely love should be getting its first parkruns next year, so that will be very tempting. Longer term, it would be amazing to parkrun somewhere like New Zealand or Australia, but I wouldn’t want to make the trek over until the kids were old enough to appreciate it.

NT & FC

It’s no secret that I love both National Trust and Forestry Commission parkruns. Fantastic courses, and great places to have a family day out afterwards. Although I know that completing all of them is not in any way practical, it would be great to get through more of them. For the National Trust, Penrhyn stands out, but it’s a pretty long drive away with windy roads. For the Forestry Commission, Whinlatter Forest is on my radar, but it’s even further away. Definitely some proper planning needed here.

Family with a statue of the Gruffalo's Child — Moors Valley remains one of my favourite parkrun experiences (how small are the kids?!)

p-index

There are loads of obscure parkrun challenges out there, and the vast majority don’t interest me. The p-index is one that does, however, as it encourages visiting the same event multiple times. It’s calculated as the number of events you have done that number of times or more. So if you have done 2 events at least 2 times it’s 2, if you’ve done 10 at least 10 times it’s 10. My p-index is currently 3, as I’ve done Longrun Meadow, Burnham and Highbridge, and Minehead at least 3 times. I’ve also done Killerton 3 times, which means to increase my p-index to 4 I need one extra trip to each of Minehead and Killerton. Increasing to 5 would mean an additional trip to each of those and 3 or 4 trips somewhere else (depending on the event I picked). Definitely a long term project!

Volunteering

I have two favourite volunteer roles – marshaling at junior parkrun, and barcode scanning. Family life and a need to keep my balance means I don’t do either that often, but that’s just how it is right now. My current goal is to try out some different volunteer roles. I recently did a First Timers Briefing, which I really enjoyed. My current wish list includes Funnel Manager, Pacer and Results Processing. Pacer is something I can do at my second home of Burnham and Highbridge. Results Processing is a little trickier, as most people only let you do it if you’re in the Core Team, but I think I’d be good at it.

Miscellaneous events

There are a couple of parkruns that for various reasons I would really like to go to.
Barry Island – In a straight line, Barry Island is 26 miles away from Taunton, and as such has often been our NENYD on the Tourist Tool. The actual driving distance is 90 miles, so it will be a pain to get to, but it would be worth it.
Rushcliffe – Bit of a random one, perhaps. I see Rushcliffe Country Park every few months, but always mid-week during work trips. One day it would be nice to go do the parkrun, if only so it doesn’t nag me the next time I visit with work.
Bakewell – Pre-kids, we had a couple of lovely trips to the Peak District, and I really loved the place. One of the highlights was walking on the Monsal Trail, and that is exactly where Bakewell parkrun takes place.

The Biggest Goal of All

The most important thing for me is to keep turning up at parkrun, keep creating precious memories with my family, and keep the focus on what it means to me. In the tourist world it’s easy to get sucked into other people’s goals and dangerous comparison games. But that’s not what it’s about for me. So I guess my important goal is to keep parkrun as my happy place.

Oh, and to not forget my barcode.

parkrun tourism: Rogiet parkrun

by Ben

Rogiet is a village in Wales which is more or less at the end of the Prince of Wales Bridge (the second Severn Crossing), and is pronounced with a hard g: “rog-it“. Until recently, Rogiet parkrun was not really on our radar to complete, as it is in the Wales region, rather than the south-west region. A couple of things have changed our priorities. As we’ve discussed before, one of our children gets car sick, which limits us somewhat for many of the south-west region that we have not completed yet, as they are quite long drives. Secondly, regions sort of don’t exist anymore.

So, how has our touring being going lately? Well… it hasn’t. As Lolly mentioned in her Summery Summary, we stopped for the summer holidays. Basically because I get travel anxiety and had no desire to be stuck in queues. Also, I like sleep. This makes me a bad parkrun tourist. Our last tourist parkrun was Torbay Velopark, on 6 July. In the interim, while Lolly has run parkrun almost every week, I have done it only once, a 21:07 at Longrun Meadow in early August.

After all this time, we were itching to get back out touring. Well… Lolly was. I had sort of got used to a Saturday lie-in. We quickly homed in on Rogiet, basically because it was the closest parkrun up the M5 for us. Although Bridport is a little bit quicker to get to, the road quality is somewhat lower, and so more… risky for car sickness. I’m sure we’ll bite the bullet soon, but not first week back.

I think Lolly was trying to get a nice atmospheric pre-run photo. Lani and I had other ideas…

The drive was a doddle: M5/M49/M4 and then come off and double back on ourselves through Magor and Undy to Rogiet. There was plenty of parking, and the event course page very usefully suggested an alternative car park which was next to both the toilets and a children’s play area. Both of these are pretty on-brand for us, so it was great to have that information. After arriving in what seemed like plenty of time, by the time we had used the toilets, got changed (me), got buggy out, and generally had to manage the children, we were getting a little bit pushed for time.

From the car park we were in (Rogiet Playing Fields car park, essentially the railway station overflow car park, which is free at the weekend), it was a relatively short walk over the railway bridge and down into the park. Despite our worries, we arrived in enough time for the run briefing, though we missed any first-timers briefing which might have happened.

As we gathered together for the start, I suddenly realised quite how few people there were. In fact, the attendance of 68 makes it my second smallest parkrun event, after the 49 people at Mount Edgcumbe back in 2016. Even in such a small field, there were two other buggies, which is great to see. When I started buggy running with Lani in 2014, I was something of a novelty, but now it is rare to go to a parkrun and not see at least one. (In fact, I’m coming up on a buggy milestone: Rogiet was my 46th buggy parkrun.) I lined up on the right-hand side of the pack, a couple of people back from one of the other buggies. (The third buggy was tailwalking.)

Before the run, I didn’t know much about the course. I knew that it was mostly on grass, and Lolly told me on the way that it was three laps, and multi-terrain. That was the full extent of my knowledge. I had guessed that it might be another of the flat, bland sports field courses. It was not. We headed out on a grassy track; it was lumpy and scattered with wild growth. I frequently drove the buggy straight through little shrub things right in the middle of the path.

Wedged between the motorway and the railway line, but you wouldn’t know it!

After weaving its way all the way to what I assume is the end of the park, the course turned a sharp 180 degrees, with cheery mini-marshals offering high-fives just before and after. The only ‘hill’ of the course comes immediately after the turn, a short shallow climb immediately followed by the corresponding descent. Even with the buggy this wasn’t much of a climb. The course was pretty narrow along this stretch back for a time, giving no overtaking chances, especially for a buggy.

The route kisses for a short two-way section before forking back off to the right, for the rally segment. This part, in the field we had started in, was very up-and-down side-to-side, which really tested both the buggy’s suspension, and my ability to keep the buggy upright at speed. It was a lot of fun though!

Rinse and repeat, and repeat. After taking it relatively easily on the first lap, I eased quicker as I went along, and managed to run the whole thing with progressive splits. Despite the small field size, I was shocked to finish in 7th, in what was my third-quickest buggy time (23:23), trailing Longrun Meadow (22:56) and Torbay Velopark (22:58), both of which are naturally quicker courses.

Blimey, they do look like they’re enjoying it, don’t they?

After the run, I was pretty thirsty, but had stupidly left my water bottle (along with my phone) back in the car. I accordingly stole both items from Lolly as they came around to complete their second lap. (Her water bottle and phone, obviously. She didn’t miraculously have mine.) While I waited for them to finish their third lap, I had a nice chat to the run director, while KK had fun playing with the cones in the finish funnel. Once Lolly and Lani had finished, we hung around for a little bit being sociable, before heading over to the play park.

Rogiet is a lovely little parkrun. Severn Bridge, just up the road, attracts all the headline tourism in the area because of the novelty. Honestly though? This was a much nicer location for a parkrun, and was such a great, friendly event.

Next up? I don’t know… can I have a lie-in again?!

parkrun tourism: Torbay Velopark parkrun

by Lolly

In our never-ending quest to conquer the South West region, Torbay Velopark has started to stand out as being merely a few minutes over an hour away. There was a reason we hadn’t been yet. When the event first started, early reports were of it being unsuitable for buggies due to waterlogging. Then we decided to go just the two of us, but got caught in traffic and went to Exmouth instead. But we heard on the grapevine that ground conditions are pretty much perfect for buggies right now, so decided it was time to make the trip.

Torbay Velopark parkrun is, perhaps unsurprisingly, based at Torbay Velopark, which is an outdoor closed road circuit used primarily for cycling. More surprisingly, if you don’t know the area, is that it is in Paignton, as Torbay is actually the council area and not the name of a town (Ben will laugh when he reads this, but I genuinely had to Google it as I got so confused). It’s attached to a Leisure Centre, and so is signposted from a little way out. The course page lists Clennon Valley car park by name, which was pretty handy in finding where we needed to be.

Having left home when planned, we had a smooth journey and so arrived in plenty of time to get set up and visit the leisure centre toilets. Runners were clearly visible gathering in the entrance to the Velopark, and the kids were able to have a bit of a run around and play. Ben was still wrestling sun cream onto Lani as the call went out for first timers, so as is traditional only half of us went to it. I didn’t catch much (some tourists bizarrely went over for the briefing but then talked through it), but I did hear that the course was two laps of the Velopark, one lap of a big field, and a lap of a small field.

The briefing location meant that we pretty much just turned on the spot to line up at the back of the field for the start. There were a big group of Couch to 5k graduates near us, which lifted the atmosphere. Lani and I were wearing new leggings, and we were already getting lots of positive comments from our fellow runners. We actually heard the start (yay), and set off around the Velopark. The high quality tarmac surface made for very easy running, and the meadow-like surroundings helped make it feel less like running on tarmac.

The shape of the circuit meant we quickly had people going past in the other direction, which always adds to the community feeling. Lani wasn’t quite feeling it, and so our run/walk balance was a bit more in favour of walking. We ended up skipping, which got some nice comments from people lapping us that really helped lift the mood. Then I spotted that Ben was on track to lap us, and suddenly we were running.

The second lap round the Velopark was actually really nice. Lani enjoyed knowing that everyone she could see was on the same lap as her, and I really appreciated the different views in different directions. Facing inland gave a surprisingly spectacular view of the houses staggered higher and higher up the hill. Having stopped to take a stone out her shoe, Lani was pretty determined to make some places back up.

Finishing our second lap, we turned right to join the path down towards the field, getting high-fives from Ben and KK on the way. The path was similar to parts of Longrun Meadow, with lots of loose rocks in places. Then we reached the field, and to the excitement of my running buddy were then on good quality grass. The path around the edge of the field was well marked out with cones. Like most field sections, there was good visibility that meant lots of other runners were in sight. Or ‘targets’, as I think my increasingly determined 5 year old was viewing everyone.

Having run round the main bit of the field (and made up several more places), we reached the start of the loop for the smaller field. The marshal at this point was fantastic, giving us loads of support and making the effort to give Lani a much-appreciated high-five. There was a (very) short stretch of trail path through trees, which opened out into the (very) small field. The big surprise here was the hill. Sure, it was a small one, but the rest of the course had been flat.

We took the option of walking up the hill, but got our aeroplane arms out to zoom back down the other side of the field (and pass some more people), before making the sharp turn back out towards the main field. The marshal was fantastic again, giving a great boost for the last section of field. Ben and KK were waiting for us at the start of the path. Lani didn’t even mention the surface this time, as she sped up to the finish. Overtaking a group of people just before the line, naturally.

Barcode scanning was easily located a little further down the path, as was the parkrun photo frame. In a break from recent habit, we skipped the café and headed straight back to the car. The long drive of about 5 minutes round the corner took us to Paignton Zoo, where we had a fantastic family day out.

Torbay Velopark is well and truly in my happy parkrun memories section. I loved the course, which had a bit of something for everyone – although Ben said that with the buggy he’d have happily just kept going round the Velopark. The community atmosphere was fantastic. Oh, and Lani smashed her PB by over 2 minutes! A great parkrun experience to start a great family day out. And we’re already planning to go back at the start of next year.

But until then, we’ve got more events to visit. When we first decided we wanted to be regionnaires there were 33 events in the South West (one of which has sadly finished) and we’d done 7 of them. We’ve now done 40 out of 60. So while our quest may be never-ending, we’ve already come an awfully long way. Now, where to next?

parkrun tourism: Tamar Lakes parkrun

by Lolly

After the success of our Eden Project weekend, we were quick to book another trip. The destination seemed fairly obvious – of the 7 Cornish parkruns (for now) we’d done all but 1. So a trip to Bude and Tamar Lakes parkrun was in order.

Tamar Lakes parkrun takes place at Upper Tamar Lakes, near Bude in North Cornwall. It’s about 1 hour 40 minutes’ drive from Taunton, but with two small children (one of whom gets car sick) there was no way we were driving down on the day. So we stayed at the Premier Inn in Bude overnight (possibly one of the nicest Premier Inns I’ve ever stayed in) and so had a drive of less than 20 minutes instead.

The postcode from the website took us to the right area, with signs guiding us the rest of the way. There was a car park marshal guiding people to free spaces – although we arrived before they’d taken up position. The kids were quick to spot the play park, and we had the obligatory chat about not visiting it until after the run. The first thing I noticed, on the other hand, was the absolutely stunning backdrop of the lake.

A lake aurrounded by greenery and the edge of a weir — Not a bad first impression to make

Toilets were easily located at the back of the car park, and with the buggy assembled we headed down to the lakeside. The Start sign was clearly visible on the dam, and the kids had fun running across. I mentioned to Lani that perhaps it would be better to save her energy for the actual run, but she insisted that she was just warming up (which she backed up with the entire junior parkrun warm up). We eventually managed to get KK back in the buggy, just in time for the run briefing. There wasn’t a first timers’ briefing that I noticed, but the main briefing included a course description (round the lake) and other details. Crucially, for those of us starting at the back, it was run on the right pass on the left.

As we lined up to start, the other two buggy runners were discussing avoiding the gully down the middle of the dam. Always good to have a warning. Ben asked me if I’d seen the finish, and wished me luck. A glance over showed that the finish was on a grass incline. Not the best thing to be thinking about, but good to know at least. As is traditional, somewhere in the midst of lining up I missed the start. But I quickly tucked in behind the other buggys (being honest about your pace makes for a much easier parkrun life) and set off across the dam.

People walking over a weir next to a lake — Pre-run course exploration

The paving slabs were a little uneven, and with the congestion it was tough to avoid the aforementioned gully without almost grinding to a halt. But we were soon across the dam and onto the main compacted gravel path around the lake. The surface was pretty familiar, being virtually identical to that at Longrun Meadow. What was less familiar was the beautiful backdrop of the lake. Oh, and the undulations. Because there was a surprising amount of up and down for going round the lake.

Unsurprisingly, I had passing conversations with quite a few people. Including the Event Director, who was running her 100th parkun (congratulations!). She confirmed that while it’s a gorgeous place to run in good weather, it’s pretty unforgiving in the wind and rain. I settled into a sort-of rhythm, holding my ground on the ups and doing my overtaking on the downs to work my way into the right place.

The greenery to the left (lake side) became thicker and thicker, until we’d veered away from the lake and could see only trees at each side. Around this point (about halfway through) I realised two things. Firstly, the course at this stage was very reminiscent of Southwick Country parkrun. And secondly, I was very tired and didn’t feel like I was going to manage to keep running. This thought mostly lead to spiralling thoughts of how little I’ve run recently, and how it was highly unlikely I’d actually make it to the end without walking.

Two runners on a path next to a lake — Another gratuitous lake photo

As the path rejoined the lake, I found myself more and more having to keep to the right as people overtook me. Which was a slight issue, as there was a relatively smooth track on the left and significantly more rocks on the right. Just before the 3 mile mark a path veered off to the side, and so there was a marshal pointing the way. I realised this was the first marshal we’d seen, and was slightly worried how Lani would be given this was her first single lap course and she normally relies on cheers from marshals to get her round.

We quickly reached another marshal, who guided us past the front of the fishing permit hut towards the end. That just left the simple matter of the uphill grass finish, marked out by cones. Literally the only thing that kept my legs turning over was that I wanted to prove to myself I could run the whole thing. I parked up the buggy and released KK, giving him the important role of handing my finish token to the scanner.

People running up a grass hill towards a finish funnel — Every buggy runner’s dream finish

We had a little walk round while we waited, including talking to the second marshal (who it turns out was originally from Bridgwater). Lani was clearly tired when she came into view, but as ever managed a decent finish and got a good reaction from people watching. It turned out her warm up had worked a little too well, giving her a fast first mile that tired her out.

While Ben went out for a more structured training run, the kids and I headed to the play park. It was fantastic, and easily kept us occupied until Ben was back. We then moved to the café to enjoy the range of breakfast choices on offer. Well most of us enjoyed it – KK tried to escape back to the play park. Which we did of course pay another visit, before heading back to Bude to hit the beach.

Two children climbing a play park net — In case you’re wondering, he climbed right to the top

So would I recommend a visit? Let me think about that. Buggy friendly, beautiful backdrop, lovely people, great café, fantastic play park. I actually texted two of my friends saying they should go some time before we’d even left. And I’m pretty certain Lani will be keen to visit the area again soon as well.

But by the time we make our next trip to Cornwall, there may well be a new parkrun event to explore…

Start line selfie substituted with “just before we go back” selfie

parkrun tourism: Severn Bridge parkrun

by Ben

Since it began in August 2018, Severn Bridge parkrun has been a hotspot in the parkrun tourism community. There are various reasons that parkruns achieve this sort of ‘cult’ status. Jersey parkrun had it for a long time due to the fact it was the only UK parkrun to start with the letter ‘J’. Fountains Abbey has it because it is so beautiful. Bushy has it because it was the first parkrun, and remains the biggest in the UK. For Severn Bridge, the attraction is threefold; the parkrun spans two countries (Wales and England), it is run almost entirely on a huge bridge, and it is literally right next to a motorway. Any single one of these elements would have been an attraction, but the three together make it a very unique parkrun.

Before we can run across it, we have to drive across it!

When the event was first started, the bridge tolls were a hindrance for us, as the run starts on the Welsh side of the river, and it would have cost us £5.60. However, the tolls were scrapped in December, making it freeeeeeeeee (other than the circa £12 it cost us in fuel). In fact, despite being outside the South West region, this was probably the quickest parkrun to get to, of those we hadn’t yet done. Parking was well signed and marshalled, but it did fill up early, and is a five to ten minute walk from the start. There are toilets near the car park, at Thornwell Football Club, which is also where people meet up afterwards for a drink.

Runners congregate in the M48 underpass for the pre-run briefing (although it does have to be noted that the volunteer in question was shouting “race briefing” 😲). Honestly, I couldn’t really hear anything of the briefing, despite the fact they used a speaker system, and I was stood relatively close. Having not looked up the course before we arrived, I wasn’t prepared for another walk, up from the underpass to the bridge, where we apparently started. By which I mean, we were still walking towards the start when I heard a noise, and the run had started.

We met, and later finished, at the M48 underpass.

Honestly, I was a little miffed; I wasn’t even that close to the back, so some people would still have been a fair way back down the path, walking along, with no idea that parkrun had started, and they were against the clock already. In fact, Lolly and Lani were more or less in this situation. Anyway, it wasn’t ideal, but it’s not like I’d be getting a PB anyway: I was running with KK in the buggy, and Severn Bridge is NOT flat.

The course runs on the bridge for essentially 4.7 of the 5 kilometres, a simple out and back. The path is about four runners wide, so wide enough for two in each direction; though with the buggy, four was decidedly uncomfortable. As such, the start was pretty congested and slow going with the buggy. I had intended to start a bit further forwards than I usually would with the buggy, expecting the congestion. But never mind!

It took me until about a quarter of a mile in to get above nine-minute miles, as I weaved through runners, and around the odd piece of car shrapnel. There was a ‘gentle’ wind, which seemed like it was diagonally, a combination of a cross- and following-wind. More on this later. The bridge is quite a significant climb to its centre, which I had heard before from club-mates who had run the Severn Bridge Half Marathon, but it’s still something of a shock quite what a hill it forms. We actually went beyond the middle too, so started to drop gradually down the other side before the turnaround point.

Early on during a parkrun with the buggy, the greatest challenge can be not wiping out runners!

And then, oh boy. It was not a ‘gentle’ wind. As usual, what is a barely noticeable following wind turns into a horrible gale-force headwind. Okay… it wasn’t really that bad, but it sure felt it for a while, particularly when pushing what is, in essence, a rolling windbreak. I had been looking forward to the return leg, as it was mostly downhill, but the wind made it such hard work. Still, after passing the tail walker, I knew that I had the full width of the path at least! We continued back to the start point, and then followed the path down off the bridge and motorway to the underpass. In the damp conditions, this path was pretty slippery, though this was probably exacerbated by the fact that I was running sub-6 minute mile pace.

A sharp right turn at the bottom of the hill was followed by a (roughly) thirty metre dash to the finish line. Competitive Ben took over, and I out-sprinted someone to the finish to come in 39th at Severn Bridge’s 39th event. KK was pretty adamant that he wanted to get out of the buggy, which was fair enough, so we abandoned the buggy in the underpass, and went for a walk up to the bridge to cheer on Lolly and Lani when they came through. They’d taken somewhat longer, as they had apparently taken time to appreciate the alleged ‘stunning views’. I wouldn’t know, having spent my time focussing on running…

It can be quite intimidating when big lorries go past!

Severn Bridge parkrun was my (arbitrary) 150th parkrun, and Lani’s 10th, earning her membership of the 10 club, one that neither Lolly nor I were ever able to be in. The t-shirts are out of stock at the moment, but hopefully we’ll be able to order her one soon.

All done, we headed back to the café for post-parkrun breakfast. I’m pretty sure that Lani considers this the most important part of parkrun, and KK is quickly heading that way too. The clubhouse only offer bacon baps, so Lani and I opted for one of those each, while KK had a glass of orange juice. Lolly picked up a wrap from the Tesco up the road as we left, as she’s not too keen on meat at the moment.

Severn Bridge parkrun is well worth the trip, and has opened our eyes to the possibilities of hitting more Welsh parkruns, as many of these will be closer than a lot of the South West parkruns. But next up, we’ll be heading back down to Cornwall to tick off the last Cornish parkrun (for now) we haven’t done, but one we’ve wanted to do for a long time, because it looks stunning; Tamar Lakes parkrun.

parkrun tourism: Eden Project parkrun

by Lolly

Ever since we did Lanhydrock parkrun last year, we’ve been planning to have a weekend in Cornwall to go to Eden Project parkrun. But, as always, there have been so many reasons for it to not happen. Happily, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law recently had a baby, which gave us the perfect excuse to head down to see them… and take in a parkrun on the way of course.

Eden Project parkrun is, unsurprisingly, based at the Eden Project, near St Austell in Cornwall. In case you’re not aware of it, the site is an old clay pit that was transformed into spectacular gardens, with two giant biomes housing plants from around the world. We stayed over on the Friday (and Saturday) night at the St Austell Premier Inn, which is approximately 10 minutes drive away (parking space to parking space) and so we managed a fairly laid back start to the day.

Building in car park — Meeting point. If I’d taken the photo at 8:30 not 15:30 it would have been a bit busier…

The parkrun course starts in the car park, and so as long as you park in ‘Banana’ it’s really straight forward to find. Having set up the buggy and walked over, we made use of the toilet block, and then decided we all had too many layers on and sent Ben back to the car with an armful of them. Had we wanted to keep coats or hoodies on a little longer, there are bags provided for the volunteers to take your layers to the finish for you (which I imagine is most welcome in winter).

The first timers’ briefing was very well attended – not exactly a surprise that on a sunny May weekend we weren’t the only tourists. From the course description I picked “2 and 3/4 laps”, “hill” and “go past the big tyre 3 times”. The hill part (which we were well aware of before arriving) was the bit that worried me. Particularly as Lani had decided to run with Ben, and so I had KK in the buggy. And hadn’t really had a proper run since Glastonbury.

Family gathered for run — Still need to work on our start line selfies…

The actual start is on nice wide road. At the briefing here we were reminded that the route we were about to take into the Eden Project is not regular pedestrian access – you need to make sure to leave through the main visitor centre. After a quick countdown (which we could actually hear from the back!) we were off. It was quite busy near the back at first, so Lani and Ben initially got away from me (with being able to weave through), but I slowly started to pick my way through. My legs were feeling pretty rough, and so the slight incline didn’t help to warm up. But we quickly turned a corner, and the downhill began.

When you’re on solid path (which we were), running downhill with a buggy is pretty fun. My biggest worry was weaving round various people as I tried to find where in the pack I should be. This continued for almost half a mile, at which point we joined the main lap and were well and truly inside the Eden Project. Now surrounded by beautiful plants, the path took a sudden turn up. Around this point I found myself running with two BHAM runners and a guy from Shepton Mallet – somewhat of a Somerset takeover!

We quickly reached the top of the hill, with my thoughts consisting of “Oh that wasn’t so bad” and “Hmm I bet that will feel harder later”. We passed the massive tyre mentioned in the briefing. Looking at it later, it is from one of the trucks that worked on the clay pit. The actual truck is the size of a 3 bedroom house! I was a little confused, though, at it being used as a lap reference as we didn’t seem to be anywhere near the finish yet.

Top of zigzag path, with biomes in background — By the end of this path, you’re down at the bottom of those giant biomes!

There’s then a short sharp drop down, which is great for getting some momentum going again, that takes you to by the visitor centre path. The next section of the course is amazing. It’s called the Zigzag through Time, and is the main path that sweeps down from the visitor centre towards the biomes. There’s so much to see, with plants and information panels surrounding you. My main efforts focused on a) making sure I was in control not the buggy and b) not knocking into anyone, but I still managed to appreciate the scenery.

At the end of the zigzags you turn right and continue down towards a marshal. The path then follows to the left to go around the back of The Core and, you guessed it, has another little incline followed almost immediately by more downhill. The path on this section was much narrower than other places, and felt almost like a tunnel of wildlife. We then re-joined the main path and headed alongside the front of the Mediterranean biome, towards the stage area.

Running alongside the stage area, the finish line was in sight ahead. Except, of course, we had to turn left and do another two laps. And so begins the proper hill. Steep uphill zigzags, with just a short section of down a little way in for relief. Particularly challenging for me was staying to the left of the path. We’d started being lapped a fair way earlier (due to long first lap), and so I had to stay tucked in on sharp turns I would normally take the outside line for with the buggy. Not helped on a couple of these where the runners lapping me decided to cut to the left to take the inside line for a corner!

Path surrounded by plants, with drop visible to left. — Look at the height Lani is stood at compared to the path…

By the time we made it up to where we’d joined for lap 1 I had nothing left, and so slowed to a walk. Which I should point out is not exactly a rest, as fast-walking a buggy up a steep hill is arguably harder on your arms than running it is. Needless to say, I was relieved to get to the top and enjoy the downhill. Although I was surprised to see at this point that my average pace was still pretty good. The zigzags down did not disappoint, and I managed to read a few more information signs on the way past. The trickiest bit of this lap was the narrower path round The Core, as I was both lapping and being lapped at the same time. Typical timing!

And so to lap 3, by which stage I was definitely feeling tired. I ended up slowing for a walk considerably earlier than on previous laps, but this did give me extra time to enjoy the scenery. And got me a couple of complaints from my buggy buddy. At the top of the hill I lapped Ben and Lani. I could hear Lani saying that she wanted to catch up with me, but as I launched myself down the zigzags one last time she had no chance.

Other than getting stuck behind someone on The Core path, I managed to finish the rest of the lap feeling strong. And even correctly aimed the buggy into the finish funnel. Tape guided you from the tokens to the barcode scanning. There were a few steps in between, but someone kindly helped me carry the buggy down.

Having scanned in, I took everything out the buggy so I could leave it there and head back to find Ben and Lani. KK had a great time exploring round the path, and trying to get into the stream when he thought I wasn’t looking. My aim was to get somewhere I could take a nice photo of Ben and Lani running. Naturally, irregular toddler pace meant that I actually ended up just near a corner when they came past and so I didn’t spot them in time.

People running through gardens, with biomes and stage in background. — There are worse places to run!

Once we were all gathered back at the finish, Ben grabbed the buggy to take it back to the car (and pick up our backpack). The kids and I headed straight to the café, which was selling bacon rolls, spinach & mushroom rolls, and an insane collection of cake (the cinnamon buns are AMAZING). Once Ben had joined us and we’d finished our food, we got changed and headed off to explore. Because, as if this parkrun wasn’t already amazing enough, you get to stay in the Eden Project as long as you want, for free!

I can’t really recommend this parkrun highly enough. The surroundings were simply beautiful, with so much variety that there’s no chance of saying multiple laps is boring. The volunteers were fantastic – apparently on the final trek up the hill Lani was given a high-five by every marshal. And the course was challenging and yet surprisingly accessible.

One word you cannot use to describe it is ‘flat’. I think over the entire 5k there was about 50m where we weren’t going either up or down. But the surface was solid throughout, the worst of the hills were in sharp bursts, and it was massively net downhill. There’s no denying I’m in pretty good shape at the moment (just think how good it would be if I actually trained), but there was no way beforehand I expect to walk away with a buggy PB. I think what I’m trying to say is, don’t be put off by the hills, just be aware of how you handle them.

We’re already planning our next parkrun weekend trip, this one was so much fun. But with only one new-to-us course left to visit in Cornwall (for now), I’m pretty sure we’ll be making a return visit to Eden Project parkrun in the not too distant future.

Family on path surrounded by plants, inside biome. — Exploring the Mediterranean Biome.

parkrun tourism packing list

by Lolly

There’s a list picture that often does the rounds on social media, with the things runners have to take to parkrun (their barcode) vs the things the core team have to take (lots and lots of stuff). The idea being that given the long list of things required to make a parkrun happen, asking a runner to take a barcode along is pretty reasonable.

While technically true, and a good point to make, it is slightly amusing given how long it always takes us to get stuff ready to go out to parkrun. And how often we forget to take something vital. So with that in mind, here is the list of stuff we (should) pack when we go parkrun touring.

Running buggy/ies

Pretty essential. Just one if Lani is definitely going to run. Two if she definitely isn’t or isn’t sure. As the item that the car is packed around, we’ve always remembered this one.

Buggy rain covers

Fairly critical if it’s raining, windy, or even just plain cold. These have been left behind on too many occasions. Special mention to the time we took the wrong rain cover for the buggy we had.

Mobile phones

Used for so many things. Double checking the post code and directions. Playing music in the car to keep the kids happy. Using Google Maps when we don’t trust the car sat nav. Answering any questions about the course that pop up on the way. Taking photos. Always remembered, but we have occasionally had to charge in the car.

Garmins

Kind of obvious here. We’re fairly good at remembering these, but have forgotten on occasion.

Ventolin inhaler

So a responsible asthmatic should carry their reliever inhaler at all times. Particularly when exercising. Sadly I don’t seem to be that responsible, so I need to work on that.

Correct type of running shoes

Ideally taking a spare just in case of last minute change of plan. We’ve definitely had a few misses on this one lately.

Runners waiting for parkrun to start — I spy with my little eye… road shoes on a hybrid course

Nappy changing bag

Kind of self-explanatory when you have a toddler. Probably the single most forgotten item on this list, which has lead to a fair few leaking nappies by the time we arrive back home.

Nappies and wipes

Yeah, we took an empty changing bag one time…

Water bottles

Between travelling and running there’s a lot of need for water. We rarely take enough for everyone, which leads to a lot of groggy Saturday afternoons.

Snacks

Depending on timing this could be for before the run as well as after. As with water, we should take more.

Money

For car parking, cafe, and post-parkrun adventures. We usually remember some form of money, but don’t always remember to check we have change.

Tissues

Between the four of us, someone almost always has at least a bit of a cold. Bizarrely, even though this is something we could keep in the car (or the elusive changing bag) all the time, we rarely have them.

Contact lenses

Running wearing glasses is just not as comfortable, and is a pain when it rains. Usually put them in before leaving the house, but sometimes take them with us for longer drives. Or sometimes just forget.

Running gloves

When it’s cold, buggy running without gloves is pretty painful. I should know, I’ve done it when I’ve forgotten to pack them. Now I’ve (finally) worked out to store my gloves in the buggy pockets.

Suitable layers for the kids

Again, particularly when it’s cold. Remembering that a kid sat in a buggy is not going to warm up when running is pretty important. We find puddle suits good for blocking both wind and rain. That said, we’ve had a fair few times when we could have done with taking more layers.

Child in running buggy wearing parents' jumpers — Possibly we had to supplement her layers with our jumpers…

Wellies

Essential if you’re taking kids out in the rain, or anywhere with decent exploring potential. Also pretty useful if you’re buggy running through muddy puddles on Christmas Day and you don’t want your son’s shoes to get covered. Or they would have been, anyway.

Bib and kids cutlery

To make post-parkrun breakfast that little bit easier. I think we’ve remembered these once.

Change of clothes

If we’re going somewhere after and don’t want to be in our running kit. We’re fairly good at remembering this when required, but typically miss at least one item.

Oh, and of course…

Our barcodes

The only thing we actually double check before getting in the car (looking at this list, maybe we should check other stuff too). Even if Lani is intending to go in the buggy we still take hers. We haven’t yet forgotten to take our barcodes with us on tour, which I’m extremely grateful for.
I did once commit the parental cardinal sin of not taking Lani’s barcode to junior parkrun. Having spent the whole event dreading the attitude I would get all day, she cheerfully met me at my marshal point at the end and announced that the people had written her name down. The parkrun purist in me was mortified, but the rest of me was so so so thankful.

Special mention to hoodies, which we usually wear before and after running. Not something that we have to remember to pack, as we wear them when we head out the door. They are something we have to remember to bring home though. Which we sort of failed to do the first time we went to Minehead.

So there we have it, our list of things to take. Or probably our list. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty forgetful, and so there’s probably something else I’ve forgotten to mention…

parkrun tourism: Southwick Country parkrun

by Lolly

In our list of South West parkruns ordered by travel time from home (yes, we have one of those), certain events are marked out with how far they are from other key locations. For example, for anything in Cornwall we’ve recorded the travel time from Ben’s parents’ house. Southwick Country parkrun is noted as being local to Center Parcs, and so has been an obvious choice to tick off 3 times previously. Only on one holiday Ben was injured, on another we left so early we ended up going to Melksham instead, and on another we just wanted a lie in. So trip number 4 to Longleat Center Parcs it was…

Southwick Country parkrun is, perhaps unsurprisingly, in Southwick Country Park near Trowbridge in Wiltshire. Amusingly, in the very short journey there we travelled from Wiltshire into Somerset and back into Wiltshire, reminiscent of our slightly longer journey to Henstridge Airfield. We were able to park in the free car park, although grabbed one of the last spaces. As we assembled the buggy we could hear a 5 minute warning for the first timers’ briefing, which is always reassuring that you’re in the right place.

Sure enough, entering the park revealed a mass of runners assembling in a buzz of activity, and I had fun playing ‘spot the Tikiboos’. I knew from the course page that it was an almost 3 lap anti-clockwise course (Lani asked on the way there, I haven’t suddenly become organised), but the first timers’ briefing provided the clarification that you run past the statue twice and then finish next lap. The briefing also dished out ‘Top Tourist’ bibs to the two tourists who’d travelled furthest (needless to say, not us by a long way).

One day we will learn to take a decent start-line selfie…

Following a call to head to the start, we followed the crowd along the path. Quite a way along, as the start is actually a third of a mile along from the gathering/finish area. On arrival there was a call to be quiet for the briefing. Sadly, other than the odd spot of clapping, this was the only reason I was aware a briefing was taking place, as with no PA system (unlike at the gathering area) there was no chance of hearing from the back. As is traditional, I became aware that we’d started once I saw movement up ahead.

I was running with Lani again, and so Ben quickly sped past us with the buggy. The surface was pretty similar to Longrun Meadow – in fact there were quite a few similarities in terms of event feeling – and so I had to remind Lani to watch her footing with loose gravel. We quickly reached the first marshal, as the path turned the corner to be surrounded by trees. There were a few small paths off to the side on this section, but every time there was a nice obvious ‘straight on’ arrow to make the route clear.

After a pretty glimpse of some water, the path opened out to round some fields. A couple of the corners had mud on the inside, and unfortunately Lani took a tumble at one point. Luckily between me holding one hand and her breaking her fall with the other she was absolutely fine, and to the surprise of most around us got straight up and carried on running. She was definitely more cautious on that section after that though!

Definitely lap 1, as I was still cold enough to wear Ben’s hoodie

Another sweep round a field took us to the hill. Well, incline really. At the top was a cheery marshal and a cheery photographer – both very much appreciated when running with a 5 year old. Once at the top you get a clear view on the nice downhill stretch that takes you to the finish, or in this case down to start a full lap. At the bottom was the landmark statue, and yet more cheery marshals (so many fantastic marshals).

At this stage all the route was familiar, having walked the section of path before the start. By this point we were being lapped pretty continuously, but happily the path was wide enough all the way round and the runners were friendly. We got a fair few shout outs for our leggings, which always goes down well. Unsurprisingly Lani started to get a bit tired, and so the stretches of walking increased a little.

Ben lapped us on the sweeping bends before the incline. This meant that by the time we reached the top of the hill I could see him parked up at the side near the bottom, giving Lani a much-needed boost in the form of a high five. The final lap was a little slower, but also a little easier as we didn’t have to make way for people lapping us (just the odd overtaker). Full credit to the marshals who were still just as supportive. And massive credit to the photographer, who was still there when we got to him on our last lap – so many photographers sadly disappear before everyone finishes.

Just after the photographer, right at the top of the hill, was our personal cheering and high five squad. This just left the downhill to finish. One fantastic thing about our daughter is that, no matter how tired she is, she’s always up for a downhill sprint finish. All the volunteers around the finish area were great, and barcode scanning was pretty obvious in the field. Once scanned in, the four of us headed to the car to ditch the buggy.

We all headed to the packed-out cafe, managing to find a table in the outbuilding area. Thankfully there were toasted teacakes on offer, as Lani had already declared that was what she wanted. Ben opted for cooked breakfast, and I went for flapjack – something for everyone to enjoy before we headed back to enjoy the rest of our holiday.

Southwick Country parkrun feels very much a community event, and is very enjoyable for it. The atmosphere was so friendly, and it was definitely a positive addition to our day. And the array of high-quality photos means it will be even easier to look back on with a smile. I’m sure we’ll be back here at some stage, although next holiday we may just venture a little further afield…