Parkrun Tourist

I love Parkrun.

I love the concept of it. I love watching the runners arrive and the numbers grow as it gets closer to 9am. I love the kids and their enthusiasm. I love the feeling at 10am on a Saturday of having done a 5km run and already being back home and ready to start my day.

To be fair, I don’t always love the actual run!

I do think that open water swimming could try and do something to help get people involved and into the water – but maybe more about that some other time.

Last night my son and I were visiting friends in Huddersfield, so I decided that his morning I’d be a parkrun tourist.

The course in Greenhead Park in Huddersfield consists of one short lap, followed by two longer laps of the park – and to be honest, it’s a bit of a pig! Huddersfield is of course situated in an undulating West Yorkshire and the parkrun course is a microcosm of that. You are constantly going up and down and turning tight corners, so it can hard to get into any sort of rhythm. I can imagine once you know the course it becomes a bit easier, but I found it tough.

It didn’t help that it was a very windy day (and because the course took so many different turns the wind was coming from every different direction) and that the recent rain had left a MASSIVE puddle in the middle of the course (just behind the cafe if you know the park).

Many people tried to run around the edge of the puddle, but it was very muddy and slippery around the edges, so the best thing to do was just run straight through it. In fact that was probably the best of the whole run – although the next few paces with soaking wet feet wasn’t great!

Anyway, a windy day, a massive puddle, a new course and all after a very active week. So although it felt like a tough run, I’m pleased I did it.

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