Saturday 6 January 2018

Parkrun tourism

Waterlogged fields at Winchester have meant recent parkruns there have been cancelled.  I've taken the opportunity to visit a few of the local alternatives.

This morning I ventured over to Basingstoke parkrun in the War Memorial Park and joined 570 others.  Almost entirely on paths around the edge of the park there were no problems with waterlogged fields.   Only stretch on grass was the walk from the briefing to the start.
First timer briefing 


Finish line



On New Year's day I headed down into Southampton to be part of the huge event they have there on the Common.  Mainly on tarmac paths round the park, squelchiest part was around the finish, collecting my position token and getting barcodes scanned.  Notable for being the first park run where I've finished before 200 other participants....mind you it was also the first time I've had over 680 finish in front of me !
after the finish

My first exploration of other Hampshire parkruns was on 30th December when I visited Eastleigh and their decidedly muddy course.   Pretty much all on grass and the only one so far when the welcome briefing included mention of a water jump !  Good fun though and a chance to try out a new pair of trail shoes designed for just that sort of terrain, and happy to report they worked very well.

Before....
...after




















Finally for this post, and not due to a cancellation in Winchester this time but rather due to being in Great Yarmouth staying with friends for the weekend, my first piece of parkrun tourism was a visit to Gorleston Cliffs back on 18th November.  The course description mentions how you have to "climb the cliffs" on one of the circuits but don't be put off by that .... these are Norfolk cliffs.  Terrific location for a parkrun, great to be alongside the sea.

Gorleston

I saw mention recently of someone who'd completed the A-Z parkrun challenge which I'm assuming is to complete at least one parkrun starting with each letter of the alphabet.   With my recent tourism I'm now up to grand total of 5 ( B, E, G, S, & W).



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