Skip to main content

Irchester Country parkrun

Running in Salcey Forest last week was refreshing, and so I was looking for another forest/woods-based run this week. While checking the event map, I saw that Irchester Country parkrun had popped up - an event I had heard was mainly in woodland, but also quite hilly. I hadn’t run a hilly event yet, so this extra dimension was enough to confirm my destination for this week.

The area

Irchester Country Park is located on the outskirts of the village Irchester, in the south of Northamptonshire. The village was noted in the Domesday book 1086 under (then spelt Irencestre), and elements of the village still survive from that date.

The maturing woodlands that cover the majority of the Country Park were planted around 1965, and sit on the site of a former ironstone quarry. Ironstone extraction continued until the deposit’s exhaustion in the 1960s. The remainder of the site consists of meadows and a miniature railway museum.

The course

The course is described as a lollipop, and begins in the small meadow adjacent to the railway museum to the west of the park. From there, runners proceed east along the gravel path, before transitioning to trail as you enter the woods. The 2nd to 4th kilometers are rather lumpy treks through the woods, while the final kilometer levels out to the finish on the grass meadow near to the cafe.

Ample paid parking is available on-site, and toilets are open before the run starts. The Cafe is also open as the run finishes.

The run

This was a tough one! Still being new to running, I was perhaps too naive about how much hills impact things! I set off at around the same pace as usual, and when the inline started, I tried to keep the same or similar pace. This was a bad decision! I sapped all the strength from my legs before we had even finished “licking the lollipop”, and it took all I had to hold on to the end. Lesson learned - don’t take hills for granted!

One thing that did stick out on the trail hills, that I want to keep in mind for next week, is that I was running in road shoes, whose grip was probably not quite up to the task at Irchester, as I wasn’t completely sure-footed all the way around the course this week.

Ian struggling to run up a hill

Thank you to all of the volunteers, who made this run a very pleasant one!

Links: Run report | Results | Strava

Labels:
Location: Irchester Country Park, Gipsy Ln, Little Irchester, Irchester, Wellingborough NN29 7DL, 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

Markshall Estate parkrun

Having spent a number of weeks focussed on events in the north of the East of England, I decided that this week I would pay some attention to the south of the region and visit Markshall Estate parkrun while still in the best time of the year to visit an arboretum. The area The Markshall Estate (interchangably the "Marks Hall" Estate) is the remains of a former country estate located in Coggeshall, between Colchester and Braintree. The hall itself was demolished in 1950, leaving its grounds to be converted into an arboretum, featuring trees from around the world. Coggeshall has been a settled area since at least the Saxon area, and was later served by Stane Street; a Roman road stretching from modern day Colchester to near St Albans. The course The route follows just under two laps of the arboretum, starting at the top of a hill, and finishing at the bottom, meaning this is a net down-hill course. The course is run on a mixture of tarmac, concrete, gravel, trail an
Read more

Aldenham parkrun

Icey conditions in days leading up to parkrun day meant many events were cancelled this week. While I would have ideally been able to visit another event in Essex, I decided that I valued having options more in the event of cancellation this week, and so I instead headed to the cluster of events surrounding the Watford area. The area Aldenham Country Park is located near Watford, and centres on Aldenham reservoir, with grassland and woodland surrounding the reservoir itself. The reservoir was excavated by French prisoners of war during 1795 as part of the wider management of the Grand Union Canal's water levels, and now serves as a reserve water supply. In addition to the reservoir, the country park also supports the breeding of a number of rare species of farm animals, including cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep. The course The course follows two laps of the reservoir, with the second lap skipping the inner peninsular. The course is flat, and is run mainly on trail pat
Read more