Skip to main content

Upton Court parkrun

My target for this week was a "U" event. Of the few events that exist which begin with a "U", several are in the south east of England, and therefore a relatively short distance from me, while the other "U" events in the UK all seem to be in Scotland!

With my goal settled, I selected Upton Court parkrun, both based on convenience, but also due to the fact that should it be cancelled, neighbouring events begin with letters I also need to tick off.

The area

Upton Court Park is located in Upton - a suburb of Slough. Positioned within commuter distance to London, Slough serves as home for many global company headquarters, having the highest concentration in the UK, outside London.

Upton Court Park is located in the south east of the town, and adjacent to the M4 motorway. The park is in the process of being renovated to its Victorian prime, and has views of Windsor Castle to the south.

The course

The course follows two laps of the park, primarily on grass, with some gravel paths too. The first lap is slightly larger than the second, taking in an additional field.

A view of the start area with the main grass field in the background

A free car park is available a short distance from the start, and toilets and a cafe are available within the rugby club.

The run

The surface was quite muddy and slippery this week, and I think that slowed down a lot of the field, as they were being more careful with their footing than normal. Fortunately for me, I had brought trail shoes, and so it felt like I was running on a dry surface.

During the run briefing, we were reminded to look upwards at the northern corner to see Windsor Castle. The sight served as a good marker after the lap of the field to help break up the run before entering the wooded area.

I was slightly surprised with my finish position today - last week (at Oxford) I finished position 238, while I finished 5 seconds quicker this week and in position 62! I knew there were a lot of people in Oxford last week, but didn't realise quite how many.

Ian running with a group of other runners

Thank you to all of the marshals, especially considering the wet weather we've been experiencing in the run up to this event.

Links: Results | Strava

Labels:
Location: Upton Court Park, Upton Rd, Slough SL3 7LU, UK

Popular posts from this blog

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

Mildenhall Hub parkrun

This week I decided to make some more progress on the Fibonacci Sequence challenge by attending event number 5 of the new Mildenhall Hub parkrun! The area Mildenhall is a small market town located between Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds. The modern town's population is heavily influenced by the two airforce bases located on the outskirts of the town, with up to a third of the town's residents being born in USA! The town is also where the Mildenhall Treasure was discovered - a collection of Roman silverwar considered to be perhaps the most important and valuable Roman treasure find in Britain. Owing to its importance and value, the treasure is now on permanent display at the British Museum. To the west of the town lies Mildenhall Hub, a newly built community centre, and host of this week's parkrun event! The course One lap of the course follows an initial out-and-back section, followed a lap of the adjoining meadow, with runners following the route two and a hal
Read more

Ally Pally parkrun

Now that I have completed the UK Alphabet, my focus has turned towards the East of England region. As there are so many events to choose from, I'm going to start by working through events in alphabetical order again, with an emphasis on working east to west, which for me, effectively orders events furthest to nearest. During my initial exploration of the challenge, I did make a mistake however, which I only realised after running this event - I didn't realise that Aldenham parkrun was in the region, and so I started this phase of parkrunning by running Ally Pally parkrun instead! The area Ally Pally, or Alexandra Palace, is a purpose built community centre in Haringey, North London. Unlike other palaces in the UK, Ally Pally has no royal connection, and instead has been entirely community oriented since its conception. The palace houses a theatre, concert hall, a convention centre, an ice rink, and has facilitated BBC broadcasts an
Read more