Skip to main content

Oaklands parkrun

Today, I am breaking my alphabet streak in favour of attending the With Me Now Pow Wow at Oaklands parkrun!

I found the With Me Now podcast during the first lockdown, and have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the back catalogue, in addition to the parkrun show's back catalogue, and I've learnt a lot about parkrun and its history from these two podcasts. While it doesn't contribute towards my East of England goal, being sociable triumphed this week, and it only made sense to meet some other listeners!

The area

Oaklands parkrun takes place in Oaklands Recreation Ground in Birmingham. Birmingham is the UK's second most largest city by population, and as one would expect, has a long and varied history, but on this occasion, I didn't get the chance to explore it in any detail on this occasion.

As one of the conditions of Tesco building a new supermarket as part of the development of the Swan shopping centre adjacent to the field, the local council insisted that the field was redeveloped, which resulted in the formerly unloved site being redeveloped into what is now Oaklands park.

The course

The course is three laps around the perimeter paths of the main area within the park, alongside the smaller section to the south, with runners almost within touching distance of each other at one section. The paths are all on tarmac, and the route is relatively flat, with less than 10 metres elevation per lap.

Free parking is available in the Tesco car park adjacent to the park, and toilets are available within the Swan shopping centre. A range of cafes are situated in the shopping centre too.

Listeners gathered at the start area

The run

Today's run seemed to be non-stop! I seemed to have arrived at the same time as Danny and his contingent, many of whom I recognised from the Danny's With Me Now vlogs. I said hi to Danny, but decided to not pester them, and to instead head off for my warm up - after all, they would be in for a far busier day than me! At the start area, I met a bunch of other listeners as well as regular commenters, and we chatter until the start of the run.

Run briefing

The run itself was an extraordinarily positive experience. With so many positive people, and experienced parkrunners all in one place, one couldn't help but to be in a positive mood! All of the positivity, coupled with the cool, dry weather and smooth tarmac paths resulted in me finishing with a new PB of 23:17 - almost 1 minute quicker than at Felixstowe 2 weeks ago!

Ian running towards the finish funnel on the final straight

After runners finished their runs, we formed a mega-funnel leading to the finish line, and cheered and clapped all of the other runners in, through to the tail walker. The mega-funnel was a lot of fun - if only it was a common thing at all runs!

After the run

After the event, we all congragated, and Danny gave a short thank you speech, before the masses of people headed to the Swan shopping centre for a short time to continue chatting, but as time was pressing on, I left soon after to attend some other activities I had planned for the day.

With Me Nowers after the run

Thank you both to all of the "regular" Oaklands event team, as well as to the voluntourists! Special thank you too to the Danny, Nicola, and the With Me Now community, for hosting such an enjoyable morning!

Links: Results | Strava

References: Photo album 1 | Photo album 2 | Nicola's vlog | Danny's vlog | Podcast

Labels:
Location: Oaklands Recreation Ground, 476 Hob Moor Rd, Birmingham B25 8UB, 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

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