h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In Orkney, no runs up here

Winchester Parkrun takes place adjacent to the Riverside Park Leisure Centre in North Walls Recreation Ground. It is called 'Riverside Park' because many of the tributaries of the River Itchen pass the area, meaning that 7 of the 10 sides ran are next to a river. Though the course is flat, the park gets very waterlogged and muddy in winter. Most of the course is on grass.

The course involves a loop of two cricket pitches before crossing the river and doing a loop of the rugby field. You start heading north to the end of the first cricket pitch close to a river, turn right (east) and run to the last tree before the central bridge and do a swift U-turn around the last tree and head back west in the second pitch on the only stretch of tarmac on the run. So then do a full loop of the second pitch, north, east and south, all next to a river, before returning to the central bridge, which you cross over east and then head north next to the river along the outside of the rugby field, then east next to the river, then south next to the river and at the bottom head west, zig-zag across the southern bridge and back to the outskirts of the first cricket pitch, running east back to the starting northern bit.

Do 3 full laps.

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https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/ni-parkruns-queens/

Queens is run at the eponymous University's playing fields,and the facilities are excellent. It's a particularly frost-resistant one, so numbers tend to be above 100 on icy mornings. 2 laps, which is always nice, you know when you're halfway! I found the paths a little bit narrow and hemmed in for the first lap. This was my second visit (and so unsurprisingly I got a pb, even though it's a minute off my lifetime best time), and it was Minnie's first time, showing off her "addidog" T shirt..

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/ni-parkruns-comber/

NI's newest one, though I attended its 37th event. Smallish crowd - 60 on average, and a rather boring route - 4 figure-of-eight loops. But very flat. I started off at a cracking pace with the big boys, and I was keeping the first lady in my sights, envisioning a 2nd lady position for myself! But as usual I had a poor finish, and was overtaken by 2 other females in the final 100m.

Best after-run goodies though - scones with jam, home made coffee cake, as well as the usual biscuit tin and sweeties.

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/ni-parkruns-bangor/

I attended the first event last year, but took NO photos! So even though I'd done my blog write up back then, I was quite pleased to revisit it this time and take a few more pictures, for it is a lovely park. That said, I don't like the course - narrow and twisty.

I was there to do my sighted-guide training, which is another story....

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/02/21/ni-parkruns-carrickfergus/

Lots of snow and ice this morning - and more than a few cancellations! Thankfully the one I'd planned to go to was still on, and I bumped into a pair I'd met previously, who are doing all 19 NI runs during 2015. Annoyingly, they overtook me on the last lap, and scooped up 2nd and 3rd female spots!

3 laps of Tralee Town Park, starting near the entrance by the Ashe Memorial Hall. A nice "largely flat" course along concrete paths so plenty of PB potential.

One challenge of a 3 lap course is lapping slower runners/walkers, and it was interesting to see just how many people were either run-walking, or just walking. When I ran this (in week 6) a much higher proportion of participants were walk-running or just walking the whole course than I've seen at any other parkrun, and it's great to see how inclusive the event was and how many people participated (129 in only their 6th week of operation).

But it did mean a bit of weaving in and out because many people walked in groups across the whole path, which was a bit frustrating at times. I don't think it would take much to establish an etiquette to let faster runners through, but the last thing I'd want to do is to put anyone off - this was by far and away the most inclusive event I've seen.

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/ni-parkruns-antrim/

Very nice run - by my reckoning about my 75th parkrun, my 16th different event, and my 13th of the Norn Irn ones.

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/ni-parkruns-armagh/

Lovely grounds, tough course with mixed terrain.

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/ni-and-other-parkruns-crystal-palace/

2 and a bit laps of the lovely Crystal Palace lake - uphill on the way up, gentle downhill on the way back, nice wide flat paths. Sadly you don't gain on the downs what you've lost on the ups.

I do keep reading these and thinking I should do a bit more Park Run tourism, but I'm so busy at the moment I barely make my home run. And next week I won't because I'll be working at someone else's brewery.

I want to visit Crystal Palace and see the dinosaurs.

I'll be doing a spot of Parkrun Tourism next Saturday when I'm up in T'North Mainland and hope to do the last remaining Leeds Parkrun – Temple Newsam, which will be my 49th. Feel free to come to Eastleigh the week after when I'll be celebrating my 50th, there'll be

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Temple Newsam is a Tudor/Jacobean mansion just outside Leeds which is open to the public and has a very good family farm too. The Parkrun course begins close to the outbuildings and after an uphill stretch to start, passes right by the front of the house, next to the formal gardens before heading towards the M1 down a very steep drop, then it is into beautiful Yorkshire countryside along a gravel country lane and heading back up to the start.
The second lap is about the same, except close to the end you turn right to pass the ornamental lake and run up through the ornamental gardens. Very pretty it is, too, but a steep uphill section is a very tiring finish.

No cake table, though. How many Parkruns have a cake table? (At Eastleigh the rule is, if it is a significant run, you bring cake. If it is your birthday, you bring cake. If you haven't brought cake for a while, you bring cake. Volunteers get first choice of cake).

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Catton Park in Norwich is run on a flat course with a slightly confusing figure-eight circuit. It has a mixture of surfaces - tarmac, woodland trail, grass. It was bone dry when I ran it, but I'd imagine it gets muddy. Just under 250 runners including a greater proportion of kids than I've seen elsewhere.

Start position is key as the first KM or so is along a fairly narrow winding forest path which makes overtaking extremely difficult - I made the mistake of starting far too far back and lost a bit of time there. But after that first K there's plenty of space.

With the right start position, on a nice flat course, with favourable pre-race weather, there's definitely PB potential.

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/ni-parkruns-enniskillen/

Beautiful National Trust grounds in a lovely part of the country - fairly flat, one lap, decent running surfaces.

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/05/09/ni-parkruns-limavady/

My 20th different event! Yay! I am a parkruntouristextrodinaire.

There is a "most events" table, for the 20+ runners, but I don't see myself on it just yet. We were hit by gremlins - the scanners didn't record properly, so they had to facebook appeal to everyone to submit their barcode numbers, position, time, as known, and try to upload manually. AND I left my yellow jacket there....

My 5th different Parkrun, and second in Ireland... seems that Irish Parkruns start at 9:30 rather than 9:00 as in the UK. I approve.

Kilkenny parkrun is in the castle grounds in the centre of the city, though the start/finish isn't visible from the castle and is a short walk into the grounds. The course is two full laps and one shorter lap along paths in the grounds. While there are no steep hills, there's a gentle descent on the first half of the lap, and then a windy climb up towards the end of the lap/finish line that's surprisingly draining. Because the climb is through woodland, it's easy to lose track of where the finish line is and get the pacing wrong... you don't see the finish till you're almost through it.

Although it's 2.5 laps of the course, I didn't see any problems with faster runners lapping slower runners - by the time that happens runners are well spaced out and the paths are quite wide. There are other park users on the course... walkers and dog walkers, but everyone seemed well used to the Parkrun and as far as I could see everyone gets on nicely.

The grounds are very pretty and well maintained... trees, bluebells.

https://dancingatlunacy.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/ni-parkruns-larne-carnfunnock/

Wow, my 21st different event.

I'm aiming to do my 100th on 10-10 (no, I'm not an accountant geek person, no no no...)

And I hope to do all the NI ones before then (3 to do...)

Aaaaand....I get to do Bushy Park next week!

You'll definitely have to do my home one at Heaton Park in Manchester at some point!

It looks like if I was staying with my inlaws and got a 7am train from Leeds I could get to either Manchester Victoria or Picadilly for 8amish on a Saturday, and the tram goes from near Victoria to Heaton Park, but how regular are they first thing on a Saturday morning?

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