Skip to main content

The end

Hi! I’m Ian!

Welcome to my parkrun tourism blog!

Big boy

My story begins in 2019, when, I think it’s fair to say, I was a big boy. I had brought an end to my previous hobby of weightlifting without reducing how much I ate anywhere near enough, and those calories decided that they needed to live somewhere.

My accumulated chonk was often becoming the limiting factor in many things I wanted to do, and so wanting to get back in some sort of non-wobbly shape, I thought to myself, “...running’s a thing!”

Ian relaxing, leaning on a fence

First steps

My very first run was a very exhausting half mile. I was so out of breath from such a short distance that I remember being so frustrated with myself for allowing the chonk to grow unchecked. Needless to say, my determination to become less of a big boy went through the roof!

I continued running, slowly increasing the distance until I could manage the occasional 10k long-run. The challenge began to shift though! For 6 months, I had largely been running the same few routes, and I knew that I needed to do something different if I wanted to stay engaged with running.

A new challenge

Not wanting to push the risk of burnout too far, I began researching possible running events I could take part in for a change of scenery. I quickly found lots of one-off races, but I wanted more - I just didn’t quite know what yet...

It took several days of soul-searching until I understood what my ideal solution looked like. I wanted something where the same/similar group of people take part in a multi-stage run over several different courses, probably one stage per week.

  • Same/similar group of people: friendships, comradery.
  • Multi-stage: sense of progression and achievement.
  • Run: not really fussed about finish times, positions, etc.
  • Several different courses: different scenery.
  • One stage per week: frequent enough to become a habit, without taking over.

The closest comparisons would probably be the Tour de France, or WRC, only weekly and non-elite, rather than daily and elite.

Multi-day ultras

The closest concept I could find in the running world was multi-day ultra-marathons, which were both too frequent (daily stages), and a little beyond my ability!

No out of the box solution then, but what if the emphasis was different? It was at this point that I found a blog post about completing the parkrun alphabet challenge, and there were mentions of other challenges too! I realised that I could complete the challenge with a lot less travel than the post suggested, and it was at this point my old Saturday morning routine came to an end forever!

Chasing the ideal

I do still occasionally wonder whether there is appetite for my “ideal solution” out there. parkrun ticks a lot of the boxes, especially when accompanied by the various challenges, but not all of them. Perhaps it’s something to explore in more detail in the future…

Labels:
Location: Bedford, UK

Popular posts from this blog

Coldham's Common parkrun

As my recovery from injury is still underway, I decided that I would attend a flat course this week to avoid any potential for reaggrevation. Unfortunately this means I will need to pause my completion of the Essex events, as the remaining courses are all somewhat lumpy. Having visited all of the other Cambridge parkruns, including Storeys Field parkrun, Fulbourn Hospital parkrun, and Cambridge parkrun knowing that they are all relatively flat, I decided that this week I would complete the Cambridge set. The area Coldham's Common has a long history, serving as both a hospital during the 17th century smallpox outbreak, and a quarry during the 19th century, as well as a rifle range also during the 19th century. The course The route follows two laps of the perimeter of the common through an hour-glass shape, connecting two fields through a five-bar-gate. The course is all on grass, and is all flat. Limited parking is available nearby, while toilets are available in...
Read more

Delamere parkrun

Being the festive season, I decided to pause my exploration of the East of England in favour of visiting events closer to family in Liverpool. While there are a number of events closer to Liverpool, I decided to visit Delamere parkrun, being somewhere I hadn't explored when living in the area previously. The area Delamere forest is all that remains of a much larger forest in the area. The forest spent some time as a Royal hunting forest, before being handed to Forestry England. The course The course follows a single lap of a lollipop route, through forests, and around the Blakemere Moss lake, starting and finishing near the visitor centre. The visitor centre includes paid parking, toilets, and a cafe, while free parking is also available in some of the other forest car parks, though they are further from the start line providing a great opportunity for a warm up! The route is all on a mixture of gravel and trail, and is mostly flat except for one short but steep incl...
Read more

Brentwood parkrun

This week I decided to return to making more progress towards completing all events in Essex by visiting Brentwood. The area While the modern town of Brentwood is a popular commuter town, being served by the Elizabeth line, it is also where the first events of the Peasants Revolt took place. Locals refused to pay a poll tax imposed on them, and instead rioted, threatening to kill the commissioner trying to collect the tax. Word of these riots spread to the wider country, initiating the wider revolt, including at Littleport , Billericay and North Walsham . The town is surrounded by countryside, and in the west lies Weald Park; the remains of a former country estate. The park was originally considered as a possible location for the mountain biking course during the 2012 Olympics, before the committee ultimately decided that Hadleigh would prove a more challenging course. The course Owing to the wet weather, today's run followed an alternative route nicknamed "The B...
Read more