Our ‘to do’ list of South West parkruns contains some events that were around long before we got our barcodes. There are some events that we want to get to soon, but haven’t had the right practical opportunity. And there are some where the timing works perfectly. Like when a beach parkrun starts a few weeks before you have parents visiting.
Woolacombe Dunes parkrun is, unsurprisingly, in Woolacombe, Devon, and takes place on the sand dunes. The terrain meant we needed to leave the kids at home, and so while we would probably have preferred to parkrun a little closer to home after our trip to Cornwall, the timing of having my parents available to look after the kids was too good to miss. And so we found ourselves leaving the house at 7am to head for the coast.
Once we were in Woolacombe itself, the directions on the course page easily took us to the long car park, which is free in the off-season (November-March). We did misread the facilities information, and so after checking with the RD had to head back into the village for toilets (just a couple of minutes away). On attempt 2 we still easily found a parking space, in a car park that’s slightly above average for its outlook.
It’s entirely possible Ben stood on the car to take this photo…
We quickly located the start (mere metres from the end of the car park), and then returned to the car to get the right layers sorted. Ben went off for a warm up (sensible, given the temperature) and I chatted to a lovely lady from Cardiff who’s getting closer to the Most Events table. There was a call for the First Timers’ briefing, and what felt like everybody (over 50% were first timers at the event) huddled round. Except, of course, Ben and the other people warming up!
The first timers’ briefing was delivered with a PA system (big tick) and was sensibly split to cover the course elements first, so that us tourists could disappear and leave the actual newbies in peace. The microphone was then handed over to the RD for the actual run brief, before we all went over to the start. Some time around this, I saw Ben sprint past towards the car. It turned out that after his warm up he’d decided to ditch his Parkclaws in favour of his Speedcross. I own far fewer pairs of trail shoes, so it’s much easier for me!
Unusually, I actually heard both the countdown to the start and the start itself. The first section is downhill on a cross between rocky trail path and bad road. This didn’t last long, before we turned right onto the sand dunes. To start with it felt like any other trail path – compressed mud with a fair few rocks – but soon some sand started creeping into the mix. Over the dunes it became less trail and more beach, with a few steeper descents.
It’s fair to say, I’m still pretty rubbish at running downhill, but I coped reasonably well to start with. And then there was a fairly steep downhill. With a bend in it. Entirely on loose, sinking sand. I lost my footing a little, and with it my nerve. I actually stopped to the side to let a few people past, and when it became clear that walking would just make me sink took a deep breath before running down to the beach.
The beach is spectacular. The section lasts from around three quarters of a mile in until around 2 miles in. This was the first time I ever stopped during a parkrun to take a photo. I slightly regretted it when it took me ages to get my phone back in my pocket, and when I found out Ben had also taken a photo. But it was amazing. The tide was fairly low when we ran, so there was a nice wide area and also plenty of damp sand to make it as compact as possible.
This is Ben’s photo, as witnessed by the small number of people ahead.
I probably could have run faster through this section, but I ended up running with (I assume) a father and son, and enjoyed the company. It was also far too much fun to over-exert myself. After a mile of flat (albeit on not the easiest surface), the uphill to re-join the dunes was pretty intense. Particularly with the soft sand surface. Yes, I walked it. The terrain changed back to being more compacted, and we started a steady incline back up the hill. Or so I thought.
Being down on a beach and looking all the way up to where your run started is pretty intimidating. Being up on a dune, looking all the way up to where your run started, and realising the next section is downhill is a little demoralising. But we did indeed spend a third of a mile descending, as the path through the dunes went a little closer to the beach.
Then the uphill arrived. Steep uphill to start with, part of which led us to re-join the path we’d taken down to the beach. More annoying than my lack of fitness to tackle the hill was the fact that I had to stop to re-tie a shoelace. Again. The gradient got a whole lot friendlier as we turned back onto the track at the top. I did have a momentary blank as to which way to go, as there was no marshal or arrow here, but the runners around me pointed out the people off to our left.
Ben ran down from the finish area, and ran me in the last section. Which was pretty helpful, as it made me actually run rather than crawl. The kid I’d run with on the beach put on a massive sprint finish and sped past me at the end. Which is unsurprising given how children run. Scanning was right near the end of the finish funnel, which made it easy to find.
We chatted to a few people, including the RD, before heading back to our cars and round to the Beachcomber Cafe for second breakfast. Once it opened (at 10), the place was absolutely packed with happy parkrunners.
View from by the cafe. I look well rested, as usual.
At the time of writing, the course description says that buggies are allowed, however I personally don’t think that the course is buggy friendly, particularly with the downhill sinking sand. It probably goes without saying, but this is definitely a trail shoes course.
Woolacombe Dunes is a pretty special parkrun. It has to be right up there with the most stunning locations we’ve visited, if not at the top. The long stretch on the beach makes it truly fantastic, and I’m always a fan of anywhere you can listen to waves the whole time. I imagine in the summer months they will get a fair few holidaymakers, and what better way to spend part of your holiday than running such a scenic parkrun.
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.
Waiting for the briefing
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.
1st, 141st, 3rd and 112th parkruns successfully completed. Remind me not to stand next to Callum in photos.
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.
How cool is this to run past?!
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.
Ready to jumper drop
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.
Up from the start, round to the right and all the way round the outside 3 times, then cut across, loop round the bottom section, then cut across and round to finish.
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…
When the New Year’s Day double of Penrose and Heartlands appeared, it became almost inevitable that we would spend New Year’s at my parents’ in Cornwall. When we realised that we could also do Trelissick parkrun if I took the Monday (New Year’s Eve) off work, it became a nailed-on certainty. We had done Penrose before, but that was on the old cliff-climbing course, while Trelissick and Heartlands would be completely new to us. But more about the NYD double in another post.
Our logistics were not without their issues. As I was working on Thursday and Friday, and parkrun is on parkrunday (sorry, Saturday), this meant we’d need an evening drive down. Unfortunately, due to various issues (us not getting our stuff together) we left home at 19:40, having not eaten any dinner. We arrived at my parent’s house at 22:10, still having not eaten any dinner. Nor even snacked. A bowl of pasta with chicken nuggets and cheese at 22:40 eventually counted as dinner. This was not an optimal fuelling strategy, to quote a couple of the guys that I race against in the Somerset Series.
For a change, we were able to leave the children behind and head out alone. In general, we like to bring the children along, even if we have babysitters, so that they can be involved in the parkrun atmosphere, but after the night’s antics, we let them rest at home. (Wow – how many commas did I manage in that sentence?!) It was, for us, a short drive to a tourist parkrun: about 25 minutes.
Run briefing gathering.
The parkrun is hosted by a National Trust property, Trelissick Gardens, though the run itself doesn’t enter the gardens. As a result, there are copious amounts of parking, free for NT members or £3 for non-members. Runners gather by the cafe and toilets for the run briefing, before a walk through the gardens to the start. While we were waiting, we noticed a couple with cow cowls and an apricot declaring ‘Yeovil Montacute’, and so got chatting to the lovely Dave and Deb Stanfield. During the run briefing, Ola then got chatting to another tourist, this time from Pomphrey Hill parkrun – Helen Spilsbury. It was great to meet all three, and it was far from the only time over the parkrun holiday!
Anyway; paragraph 5, the run.
I hadn’t really researched the course. I had heard that there was a hilly field, and so in my head, the whole thing was on undulating grassy fields. It turned out the undulating was spot on, but not so much the grassy fields – for the most part, anyway. We started next to the River Fal by the King Harry Ferry – and a huge ship moored up out of the way. It was a downhill start on a woodland/coastal style path – compacted mud with a fair smattering of rocks and tree roots. It turned out that this was actually the terrain for the majority of the route.
The fast downhill start set the trend for the first kilometre and a quarter: though it gently undulated, we gradually dropped down to basically sea-level. I hadn’t really noticed from the running itself (though I should have realised that it felt too easy), but I did twig that the river had got a lot closer! Unsurprisingly, the first kilometre was my fastest. We crossed a bridge and had a short (like 20m? horizontal) climb followed by more path.
The view from the start. Bang average.
Just short of the two-kilometre mark, we reached the field that I’d heard about. And yeah – it had a climb. First, we more or less doubled back on ourselves, running the other side of the hedge from where we’d just come, and then took a sharp right up the hill. It wasn’t awful. Roughly 30 metres vertical gain at about 20% gradient at the worst. That said, it was relatively dry – I imagine that it’s pretty awful in the wet, slippy mud. The beauty of the loop around the field though was that what had gone up had to come back down. The descent was less steep, making it more runnable for most (personally, I’d clearly prefer it the other way around, but I firmly believe that parkrun courses should be as accessible as possible). It was still a fun-enough descent, and saw me hit my quickest pace of the run; a not-too-silly 3:14/km.
Back onto the path, and after the short run back to the bridge, there was no avoiding that it was going to be something of an uphill slog to the finish. I tagged along with a young lad (JM11-14) through this section, but eventually I had the legs on him and eased ahead. Between him, and another couple of runners, I managed to keep myself honest towards the end, when I really just wanted to take it easy and plod back. The hill kicks on steeper at the end, and a “120m to go” sign was a mixed blessing! The finish is further up the hill beyond the start line, making it technically an uphill course. That final stretch from the sign was one of the best finishes that I’ve experienced at parkrun. The nature of the course means that the spectators line the river-side of the path, creating a little cheering funnel up to the finish. Sadly, for those finished later than about 30 minutes, most of the spectators had left with their families, resulting in a far quieter finish for those runners.
I headed back down the hill after finishing to cheer Lolly in – I think she appreciated the shout of “Push, push up the hill.” [Editor’s note: she didn’t.] We both hung around for a while to cheer people in, before grabbing our hoodies, socialising a bit more, and heading back to the toilets and car, to rescue my parents from our children. Or should that be our children from my parents?! Just our short walk through the Gardens had shown how pretty they were, and we returned with the whole family in tow on New Year’s Eve. With the added advantage of being not in smelly running gear! It was really nice, and I’d recommend allowing time for a visit to the Gardens if you’re in the area.
More average scenery.
Trelissick was a stunning parkrun – possibly in my top-three. I’d love to come back and run it when I’m at my peak, but that mostly depends on no more parkruns starting up in west Cornwall before we next visit my parents! The attendance at Trelissick didn’t quite set a new record, but was only 13 short – it seems that we weren’t the only ones who realised that a trip to Cornwall over New Year’s was a good way to tick some of the further parkruns off the list! (To my parents, if you’re reading: I do love you really!)
