New Year’s Day is a special day in parkrun world. Not only can you run a parkrun on a non-Saturday, but you can actually run (and register times at) two different parkrun events on the same day. Neighbouring events set their start times to allow runners to ‘do the double’. We’ve done it once before, running Ashton Court and Pomphrey Hill in 2016, but since then have only managed one parkrun on New Year’s Day. This year we were determined to get somewhere new, and seeing the option of Penrose and Heartlands on the list was a dream come true.
We ran the original course at Penrose back in 2015, and they changed their course not long after. We had good intentions to go an run the new course but the timing never quite worked out, and once there was another event local to Ben’s parents our odds really decreased. Which is why we were excited at the opportunity to run two new events AND return to Penrose in the space of a few days.
Having run Trelissick on the Saturday, we enjoyed a couple of days being holiday tourists in the area before getting an early night on New Year’s Eve. As is well documented on this blog, I am almost always tired, for the similarly well documented reason of having small children. And so it should come as no surprise that our son picked that night to be wide awake for as long as possible. Not like I was planning to run the furthest I’d run in months, or anything.
Penrose parkrun
The Penrose Estate is an area of woodland, coastline and parkland maintained by the National Trust. Penrose parkrun starts right on the edge of the estate, next to a big car park in Helston. Which is handy because a) there’s parking and b) Ben’s parents live in Helston. We allowed plenty of time, as we weren’t sure how quickly the car park would fill up, and so actually had a time to look at the start of the course and confirm it was indeed tarmac path.
For a parkrun away from home, we had a lot of company. We’d parked next to Helen from Pomphrey Hill (who we’d met on the Saturday), and were also joined by Ben’s family. The run briefing was held in the field between the car park and the run start, and contained the usual mix of information and celebration. Unsurprisingly there were lots of tourists, but happily there were a few first timers as well, including Ben’s sister. They also mentioned that someone was going to try for the course record.
It was a bit of a squeeze getting to the start on the path, and so I opted for socialising with other tourists instead of trying to barge through into an approximate position. As is becoming customary, I didn’t notice the start and just started my watch when I saw people moving. It was slow-going to start with, and with the number of people close together it was hard to make a move through. Then I noticed on my watch I was doing 11:15 min/mile and realised I really had to get a move on.
At this point, I really regretted my choice of road shoes. While the surface was good throughout the run, sections had a mud covering, and the point I was trying to mass-overtake also had lots of mud round the edges that I’d have happily sped through in my Parkclaws. But I did eventually make progress, helped immensely by trying to stick with a tall guy from Exeter.
I was pretty pleased to hear the 1 mile beep on my watch before the first runner passed me going back the other way. There was a gap before the next few runners, but then people started coming past thick-and-fast, which was a great addition to the atmosphere. I even remembered to acknowledge my brother-in-law and husband. The path is surrounded by trees on either side, and after a while you catch glimpses of Loe Pool off to the left, which is a pretty distraction.
Either through excitement or exhaustion, I’d forgotten to double knot my shoelaces, and I could feel my left lace loosening. Stopping to re-tie my laces was so frustrating when I’d got good momentum, and I was a bit concerned if I’d get it back. Immediately after restarting, I crossed the bridge and went up the hill to the turnaround point – a fairly significant up when a) the run has been flat and b) you’ve just restarted. This is the first course I’ve run that is an actual out-and-back, as in we turned around a post rather than having a lollipop loop.
What goes up must go down, and I sped back down the hill, powered mostly by a fanatical obsession with re-joining the runners I’d been with. I was so focused I almost missed my sister-in-law running the other way. Oops. The rest of the run back was a bit weird, as there had been so few landmarks on the way to count back down. And I was pushing myself quite hard. So I was quite glad for the 3 mile beep, the cheering spectators, and the inevitable being out-sprinted by tall people.
The barcode scanners were just behind the funnel, which made them easy to find. I also noticed various signs dotted around reminding people not to leave with tokens. After saying hi to family, I went to the car to sort bits out while Ben went back along the course to run in with his sister. She finished her first parkrun with a burst of speed (welcome to the community!), and my mother-in-law took a family group photo to celebrate.
Having said goodbye to most of the family, Ben, Lani and I got in the car and joined the train of vehicles heading to Heartlands.
Heartlands parkrun
The drive from Penrose parkrun to Heartlands parkrun was less than 25 minutes, and took in some amazing mining scenery. Heartlands is a visitor attraction area in Pool, Redruth. I hadn’t really looked into it before we arrived, and so hadn’t been sure what to expect. We found it easily, obviously helped by following a line of cars, but also the SatNav postcode provided on the course page was spot on. There’s a huge pay and display car park, but surprisingly there’s free on road parking right outside the car park, which is where we stopped.
We walked over towards the start area, and Ben checked with Lani that she had her barcode wristband on. She did, but the guy walking in front of us patted his pocket and promptly headed back to his car. As per usual, we asked someone in hi-viz where the toilets were – happily very close by and with not too long a queue. Then we had time to appreciate the area while walking back to the start. A mix of crisp, modern buildings and paving, with historic mine workings. Amazing.
As we all gathered round, someone stood up and announced that the course was going to be reversed, and described the new route. I didn’t really take it in – partly the description was very specific and made lots of references to the previous route, and partly the people around me got lost too and started talking so I couldn’t hear. There were then a couple of minutes chatting (and taking photos) with other tourists before the actual run brief.
We moved to the start for the briefing, which meant I was mostly being nagged by Lani that she couldn’t see anything and wanted to go nearer the front. The vantage point we got at the side did at least mean I noticed the start fairly quickly. The first tiny bit is essentially moving from the wide start onto the main lap path. It’s solid paving, although there’s gravel out to the side as you join the lap that lots of us went on to end up in the right position.
The lap starts with a nice straight down past some buildings, at the end of which we came to an abrupt halt to queue to get round a tight corner. The course page currently says no buggies or dogs, and while I think this is changing (there were 2 of each on the day) the tight corner here may be part of the reason. Once through the corner, I was surprised as we switched to more trail path, verging on grass, for a couple of small inclines up to an old mine chimney. Again, I considered if Parkclaws would have been the right choice.
The downhill that followed was very popular with my running buddy, who sped down it every lap. The scenery then changes again as you enter the gardens, and wind round all the paths. This area was well marshalled, and also had cones indicating which way to go round various sections (although apparently some of the faster runners didn’t notice this first lap). Heading out the gardens, there’s a bridge back to the first area.
Running past the start, we paused to leave Lani’s jumper with Ben’s, and also have a drink from the bottle we’d left there. The second part of the lap continues through a play park. I’ve been to lots of parkruns where the route goes past or near a play park, but this actually went on the path through the middle. And it looked a pretty amazing play park. By this stage we were being lapped fairly frequently, and I have to say everyone was fantastic with the encouragement they gave Lani on the way past.
After the play park you head round the edge of a grass area (still on solid park), with a long straight section to complete the lap. We decided this could be another ‘super speedy straight’, which is what we call the one at Longrun Meadow, and Lani suitably obliged by overtaking lots of people around us. We were then lapped by Ben, and Lani made a few people smile by announcing she wanted to catch him back up.
And so onto lap 2, which was much the same but with less congestion, more being lapped, and more walking breaks. We were doing really well for pace, and so I was conscious to make sure we kept it fun and didn’t push too hard. As we headed towards the park half of the lap, I noticed some fast runners cutting up through the middle of the park at the lap point towards the finish. Always good to see how things are going to go.
Finishing lap 2, Ben gave us a cheer and made a comment about having gone completely wrong but still done 5k. Heading past the mine and through the gardens for the third and final time, we clearly weren’t being lapped any more, but were near to quite a few people and so kept a good atmosphere. Passing the start to head to the second half of the lap, Ben handed us a water bottle and said we had to do the loop of that side of the park before heading to the finish.
Lani was starting to get tired as we neared the end of our third lap, but I knew we didn’t have far left to go. I saw the sign pointing that lap 4 had to cut back across the park instead of heading to the mine works, and checked my watch for pace. We’d only done 2.65 miles. I frantically waved Ben over in confusion, and he confirmed that his earlier message had been for after the end of our lap. It turns out that the course is 3 laps of both mine/gardens and park/field, 1 lap of just park/field, and then a kick into the finish.
Ben stayed with us for the last loop through the play park. I’m glad he did, as it seems everyone else around us had got confused and finished already. When we left the play park, we were momentarily confused about directions as the marshals had started to head off already. We saw them further down the path, and they said the tail walker had been through already. Ben explained about the extra loop, and I got a little worried.
At the start of the straight we could see the tail walker up ahead, which was reassuring to know where they were. Lani was starting to struggle, so we had to take a few more walk breaks at this stage, which didn’t help my nerves. Rounding the corner to cut back across to the finish, we saw the runners in front of the tail walker turn to head straight to the finish, instead of doing their loop back through the park. And then we saw the tail walker do the same. I sent Ben ahead with one clear instruction: do not let the tail walker cross the line before us.
They stopped, and we crossed the line with the satisfaction of knowing we’d actually run the full route, and Lani’s shiny new PB was genuine. I made a comment as we crossed the line that most people around us had finished without the last loop. The tail walker, it turned out, checked with one of the core team and then actually completed the last loop.
Looking on Strava, there are an awful lot of people who ran 4.4k that day, probably lots with PBs they may never be able to beat. Changing routes is a hard thing to do, and it’s important to remember the context that Heartlands parkrun is less than a year old, and that the attendance on New Year’s Day beat their record by over 100. So they had a lot going on. The route itself is great, and would just needs a sign at the end of the lap saying “Lap 1, 2, 3 ↑ Lap 4, 5 →” and another by the play park saying “Lap 1, 2, 3, 4 ↑ Lap 5 →”. Sure, there are alternatives like moving the small loop to the start (Ben’s accidental route of going through the gardens 4 times would be too congested), but signage is all that’s needed really.
There’s a cafe on site, but we were all a bit too tired and wanted to get back for family lunch, so we said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to Ben’s parents. It’s a real shame that having run through the play park 4 times we didn’t get to try it out, but the area is now on my ‘must visit’ list for the next time we’re down that way.
This is definitely a parkrun I’d recommend. The varied route is something really special, and there’s something for everyone. Massive thank you to the team for doing a great job on results. I know there were a fair few issues with funnel duckers and double dippers, and so I was really impressed when the results came out to see Lani and I had identical, accurate finish times. That’s not something experienced teams always manage.
Overall we had a fantastically positive start to our year, and spent a fair chunk of the drive home from Cornwall discussing which events we want to visit next, and even a little speculation about where we might head for the double next year…