The #notaparkrun course that can only be run by one person: me.

When and where?

Every Saturday at around 8/8.30ish: Around Beaumont Park (ish)

The Route

The best thing about this route is that it sets off from my house. No need to run around to keep warm until the start time!

The downside is that the route does use roads and with cars starting to come back, this can prove to be tricky!

Once I reach Beaumont Park, it gets very confusing. Joining in from the Dryclough Road entrance, the route runs down the main strip and up and around to the top corner and running a loop, back to the bottom entrance. Then, I exit the park and run up Beaumont Park road to the top entrance and down and round the main strip before exiting the park once more. The final part is running up Beaumont Park road to the top entrance before turning left and running to the house at the end. 5k. Boom.

This is confusing on purpose, for social distance reasons… obviously.

Race Conditions

It’s a weekly ‘race’ so conditions vary from week to week weather wise. There’s always people with dogs not on leads, which can be a pain! Do you remember those amazing Parkrun briefings though… ‘We are not the sole users of the park!’

My Performance

To put it nicely, it’s pretty shit. I do find it very difficult to run alone and lockdown has really affected my pace. I’m on average 2-3 minutes slower than my pre-lockdown Parkrun times.

The joy and the adrenaline just isn’t there to push me on. Even trying to do a sprint finish is difficult. Running is very much a mind game.

However, it is nice to run the same course every week and try and push myself on certain areas of the course.

Would I Recommend?

Not really. It’s a very confusing route, that leaves from my house and then each loop of the park is completely different.

It’s great for me during lockdown to maintain some sort of routine and it is nice to be able to run through such a lovely park.

Current Course PB: 27:47