The Stats - 1st Jan 2015

This is the third of my updates where I try to rank the difficulty of the various Parkruns I've tried. I said i'd do it every three and with the completion of Kings Lynn i'm now at 12 so here is an enthralling start to 2015 for you all.

It's worth noting that a lot of this is based on personal opinion. Also conditions on the day. I've done Horsham twice now, for example, and the muddy conditions made a huge difference second time around. Take some of these stats with a punch of salt. I've tweaked a couple a little bit since last time as well so these could contradict what i've said in the past. I wasn't going to because it makes me seem even more clueless but on the other hand, if I have run them a few more times then it does make sense to update them with my latest theory. Basically I have just moved Hove up a place and adjusted the compensation figure. After a re-visit and new PB I realised Hove was easier than I had given it credit for.

I'll also say that I include my PB mainly just to help benchmark them against each other. They aren't listed to get a pat on the back for my efforts!

So, in order of difficulty, the easiest (in my opinion) first:

1) Preston Park, Brighton - total ascent: 32m - PB: 20.01

2) Hove Park - total ascent: 52m - PB: 19.22 - compensation vs Preston Park: +0.25%

3) Nonsuch Park Course B, Cheam - total ascent: 33m - PB: 20.24 - compensation vs Preston Park: +0.5%

4) The Walks Course B, Kings Lynn - total ascent: 19m - PB: 19.54 - compensation vs Preston Park: +1.5%

5) Horsham - total ascent: 45m - PB: 20.14 - compensation vs Preston Park: +2% (3% when conditions are muddy)

6) Bushy Park, London - total ascent: 21m - PB: 20.19 - compensation vs Preston Park: +2%

7) Richmond Park, London - total ascent: 57m - PB: 20.37 - compensation vs Preston Park: +2%

8) Eastbourne Summer Course - total ascent: 18m - PB: 21.05 - compensation vs Preston Park: +2%

9) Banstead Woods, Surrey - total ascent: 76m - PB: 21.36 - compensation vs Preston Park: + 3%

10) Tilgate Park, Crawley - total ascent: 63m - PB: 20.52 - compensation vs Preston Park: + 4%

11) Clair Park, Haywards Heath - total ascent: 89m - PB: 20.45 - compensation vs Preston Park: + 5.5%

12) Lloyd Park, Croydon - total ascent: 63m - PB: 21.22 - compensation vs Preston Park: +7%

The compensation vs Preston Park (the one I now deem easiest) is based on all conditions being the same. Obviously my PBs don't back up these figures, but this is because they were all run at different times and in different states of mind! I reckon that for each of these runs, if you ran them at your peak fitness with no illnesses in the same weather conditions etc, the figures I have added in red will be a fairly accurate indicator of how much additional time you can expect to add to your 5k for each of the ones on the list. This blurb will never get read so I can literally say anything here. Penguin.

Horsham parkrun

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/horsham/

On Saturday 6th of September a small group of us from Burgess Hill Runners went along to join a parkrun that was special for very different reasons to the long running Bushy Park. Horsham Parkrun was launching its very first parkrun although, as a few observed, you wouldn’t know. If the organisers had had any fears as to whether anyone would turn up, they needn’t have worried as 366 runners showed up to sample what it had to offer. I don’t know whether other ones in the area, such as Tilgate, took a hit or whether Horsham is just going to have a huge pull from the immediate locality, but it was great to see a fledgling event host so many keen runners.

The course is 3 laps of a gently undulating park opposite the train station. Having commuted to Horsham for work for a year, I can say that despite the change of trains at Three Bridges, it does make it a viable option for public transport. The 3 laps were no walk in the park (have I already made that joke before? Probably!) and it was weird how the small inclines seemed to feel so tricky and every lap seemed longer than previous, but it wasn’t the hardest one i’ve sampled. The start of the course was very cramped and I got shoved into a lamp post as everybody eagerly legged it off the start line. Hannah says she had to walk over the start line due to the bottle neck. I won’t whinge, I know the organisers of Parkruns study the various options they have available and I imagine they thought it was better to start there than essentially alongside where the finish funnel would be. 

There was a bit of mixed terrain on this one, with some concrete paths, light trail and grass all of which could be tackled easily in road shoes but may get churned up in the Winter.

For all the difficulties we experienced at the beginning, the rest of the course opened up and allowed for some overtaking. The finish funnel was extremely well organised and despite huge queues, there was a feeling that they were coping well with the numbers. The locals turned out to cheer on the runners which also made for a positive experience. 

I put in a hard effort with this one, although kept in mind that I had a league race the next day. This gave me a time 17 seconds away from a PB. I’d say that this one will always bring me in with a slightly slower time than the likes of Preston Park and Hove.

A great start for this further alternative option and I really hope it thrives.

Pictured: Starting to plot these on a map of South East England. The dots are roughly in the right place (and in BHR colours)!

Bushy Park

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/bushy/

Yet again I’ve been a bit delayed in writing these up but I’m sure you have coped and have found some other things to do with your time. Perhaps things that are even more exciting than my blog? On the 23rd of August, mainly thanks to the logistical overlord Neil, a handful of us (actually it was probably two or three handfuls) from Burgess Hill Runners went to visit Bushy Park in London to try out the Parkrun that started the whole Parkrun explosion. 

First off, as residents of Mid-Sussex, the concept of going to London for a Parkrun seemed a bit like planning a trek in the Andes, but as it happened it wasn’t as long a journey as you might think (many thanks to two of our awesome friends from BHR who drove us there). In fact, at probably an hour’s drive away there are almost certainly Parkruns within Sussex that would take us longer to get to. That in itself was quite an exciting thing to take in for a Parkrun nerd like me, although I appreciate that as a non-driver I am reliant on the kindness of others a bit!

Obviously, being such a long running Parkrun it was absolutely rammed….there were just over 900 runners I think. We’d experienced three hundred and something runners a few times but this was unlike anything we’d seen before. Being a chap that likes to run off quickly at the beginning I tried to push as close to the front as possible but really didn’t make a lot of progress. For the first time ever at a Parkrun, when the race started I had to walk to the start line then sprint as fast as I could to make up the time. It’s not a great way to run and I probably started the run almost burnt out already!

However, although I would’ve liked to have clocked sub-20 there, I knew right away it wasn’t going to happen and settled in to absorb the experience. This Parkrun is just one lap as the park is enormous. It’s a scenic park with a relaxing feel to it and although my heart was pounding like it wanted to get out, it felt like an enjoyable place to be with various wildlife hiding somewhere (I saw the poo, dead giveaway that is!) and some early morning boot campers doing their thing. 

The course is mainly on dusty trail and probably better for road shoes than off-roaders. It was also as flat as a pancake. What did I say before about not enjoying flat, one lap courses? I guess it does have some PB potential versus some of the other ones we’ve done but I never seem to find the flat ones comfortable.

Having been going for 10 years it did have some real boasts though. Firstly, they are obviously very well organised in terms of the race logistics and so that went really well and although the massive finish funnel tricked me into starting my sprint finish a bit too soon, it also made for easy filing at the end. Also, having seen a massive turnover of runners in their many years of existence, the runners were all very receptive to a chit chat and it was great to be approached by a few and asked about, where we’d come from, our local Parkrun and what we thought of Bushy Parkrun. There are a few cafes in the park and we stopped to have a coffee in one before leaving which was great as a post-race social. 

I’m really glad to have ticked this one off as it is such a special Parkrun and it was made all the more enjoyable by my fellow BHR day-trippers. 

Preston Park (Brighton)

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/preston/

Ok, it’s pretty remiss of me but I forgot to post a write up of the Preston Park parkrun I did the other day as I got too giddy with the facts and figures. Today we actually ran the Bushy Parkrun but as Neil has written a superb blog on that I’ll stagger mine for another time. Mine will be comparatively boring of course but got to keep the old blog going!

So yeah, Preston Park. This was the venue for my running training for years. Actually, it’s where running began for me as a hobby to be honest. I tagged along with some colleagues who wanted to get fit and ended up whizzing around like a sort of over excited puppy feeling like I had a basic knack for running. Preston Park was just up the road from where I worked and it’s a park i’ve used multiple times for all sorts of different types of training due to its sexy flat bits and its moody hills! It was a nice feeling to run here for that reason, sort of completed a little circle for me.

It was also a superb Parkrun. To be fair to Preston Park, you rarely have stunning scenery and an easy race all under one roof/lack of roof and this one was one that was more conducive to a decent time than a little look round at paradise. But it’s nice enough there, don’t get me wrong. I felt that the course profile was finally spot on for a decent time and you’ll notice I put it at the top of my list for PB potential. Sure enough in fact, I did my first km in 3:30 (with a little bit of help from starting slightly down hill) although I gradually eased off that pace, partly out of fear I’d run myself into the ground. 

The course is all on tarmac paths and as I say, starts slightly down hill. It finishes gradually uphill but nothing that will make your eyeballs fall out. The only other real obstacle are 3 tight turns (1 on each lap) which turned out to be un-supervised by marshals in favour of a yellow dot on the ground about the size of a postage stamp. I over shot this by some way on the first lap but turned in the correct place afterwards. 

All in all, if you are local and want a PB, this is the place to go to. It’s even easier than Hove!

The Stats - 26th July 2014

This is the second of my nerdy updates where I try to rank the difficulty of the various Parkruns I've tried. I said i'd do it every three and with the completion of Preston Park i'm now at 9 so here it is! 

It's worth noting that it is all my personal opinion as I've said before. 

One amazing revelation I have come to since last time (thanks to the pancake flat Eastbourne) is that I don't actually think flatness necessarily equals easiness. The presence of Preston Park and Hove Park near the top are because I think there is the 'right amount' of hill....for me anyway. I don't represent everyone!

So, in order of difficulty, the easiest (in my opinion) first:

1) Preston Park, Brighton - total ascent: 32m - PB: 20.01

2) Nonsuch Park Course B, Cheam - total ascent: 33m - PB: 20.24 - compensation vs Preston Park: +0.5%

3) Hove Park - total ascent: 52m - PB: 19.57 - compensation vs Preston Park: +1%

4) Richmond Park, London - total ascent: 57m - PB: 20.37 - compensation vs Preston Park: +2%

5) Eastbourne Summer Course - total ascent: 18m - PB: 21.05 - compensation vs Preston Park: +2%

6) Banstead Woods, Surrey - total ascent: 76m - PB: 21.36 - compensation vs Preston Park: + 3%

7) Tilgate Park, Crawley - total ascent: 63m - PB: 21.02 - compensation vs Preston Park: + 4%

8) Clair Park, Haywards Heath - total ascent: 89m - PB: 20.45 - compensation vs Preston Park: + 5.5%

9) Lloyd Park, Croydon - total ascent: 63m - PB: 21.22 - compensation vs Preston Park: +7%

The compensation vs Preston Park (the one I now deem easiest) is based on all conditions being the same. Obviously my PBs don't back up these figures, but this is because they were all run at different times and in different states of mind! I reckon that for each of these runs, if you ran them at your peak fitness with no illnesses in the same weather conditions etc, the figures I have added in red will be a fairly accurate indicator of how much additional time you can expect to add to your 5k for each of the ones on the list. This didn't make sense last time and therefore it still won't, but hey, these stats aren't the bible, and I'm not God!

Eastbourne parkrun - Summer Course

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/eastbourne/

Last week (yeah, I know i’ve been slack writing this up) Hannah and I travelled to Eastbourne for a stab at their Summer parkrun course. It meant leaving quite early as Eastbourne has been one of our longest travel times so far and without much idea of what the postcode was for SatNav we pre-empted trouble finding it. As it happens, it was quite complicated as typing “Shinewater Park” into my phone wasn’t adequate and took us to the middle of a nice new housing estate. After finding a few cars parked at the side of the nearby road with luminous attired people in we decided to follow suit and then…follow them.

Our first stop was the call of nature and after pondering whether there were any toilets we were guided by a very helpful, friendly lady to the nearby bushes. Well I say “guided”, she pointed, she wasn’t THAT friendly! I won’t criticise a parkrun for the lack of a toilet as it’s not something that tends to bother me and the bushes were spacious and luxurious, albeit a heaven for the exhibitionists out there.

We queued up for the start, 50% of the people seemed to be facing one way, the other 50% the other way but eventually we worked out which way it was going and the pre-race briefing was good. The course itself was a little odd and a very different experience to other Parkruns. For the most part it was flat as a pancake and covered a mix of gravel paths, concrete paths and grass. It started off going in what seemed like circles and I entertained myself by singing “Round and round the garden like a teddy bear” (although not out loud of course). It then went off on a huge loop away from the start allowing the race to essentially call itself a ‘one lap course’. Finally you come back past the start and are punished with another 800m or so which includes the only slight incline in the course before looping back to the start. Luckily I was mentally prepared for this, as not only did my watch say 4.2km when I went past the start, but I’d also overheard someone describe how that was ‘torture’ before we began.

Whilst this race was seemingly easy, I finished in a time of 21:05 which was some way short of my 5k PB. I’d recently been ill and not trained very hard but I don’t attribute that to my time. If anything it killed off two misnomers for me. Firstly, I no longer believe that a one lap course is better. I guess I’d toyed with this thought before, but I think a 5k split into 2 or more laps is actually, psychologically a bit easier to pace. This one and Richmond have taught me that. Secondly, I don’t believe a flat course is easier. I’ve got decent enough times here and at Nonsuch Park and don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the hills at Lloyd Park or Clair Park are the kind of things I need in a race, but the kind of inclines you get at Hove are actually ideal. I believe that with a gradual enough incline and decent enough surface for the corresponding decline, you actually get back more than you put in effort wise. Therefore, all things considered, I think this one belongs in between Hove Park and Banstead Woods in terms of how easy it is, only beating Banstead Woods because the hill on the second lap at Banstead is just a bit too much at that stage in the race!

A couple of other things that deserve a review. Firstly the scenery which is pretty good. There are some long periods where you run along paths which are nothing special exactly, but they are in nice park areas and are unhindered by large groups of people. The paths are also wide after you have completed the first 1km or so which makes way for the ability to overtake at your leisure. Secondly, the people there were ever so friendly. We only really got talking to a couple of people, but they made a proper effort to chat to us about how we found it, what other Parkruns we’d done etc and that was a really nice feature that gave it some brownie points. As a fairly introverted person I find it hard randomly approaching others for a chat, so it was nice that they talked to us. I got the vibe from all of the runners there that they were a friendly lot and I never felt out of place. 

In summary, if you live in Sussex this one ought to be on your list. I’d suggest a little bit of caution around expecting to nab an easy 5k PB just because it’s flat. It’s different for different runners, but personally I didn’t think it was a place I’d be able to set a new PB. For that reason it’s a bit too easy to dash off far too fast and personally I burnt out a bit for kilometres 3 and 4 (those are always my slowest but I felt like it was because of how I’d started). Respect this course as if it did have a hill just around the corner and you’ll do ok!

Richmond Park

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/richmond/

After a bit of a race against the clock we scraped into the start of the 343rd Richmond parkrun today to a worried looking Oliver who probably thought we’d driven to the wrong park! It was one of those mornings where every traffic light was red and everyone seemed to be trying to keep to a steady 15mph through the centre of Kingston. We arrived at the park at about 8:50 and after some interesting navigation to the car park had a mad dash to where we could see the runners had congregated in the distance. It was one hell of a warm up though and I toyed with starting the watch early to monitor the full 6k we ended up running.

Luckily we made it in the nick of time and joined the fairly large crowd of 339 (including me, Hannah and Ollie) to meander down to the start line in the scenic royal park. After a pre-race strategy chat where I resolved to take it very easy to save myself for a club league race the following day, I threw caution to the wind and shot off like a greased pig.

I was pleased with myself as I looked at my watch as I was running at about 3:40/km and it didn’t feel flat out. 1km in and I was already doing maths that pretty much equated to a world record….well, a PB anyway so I kept it going. After covering the first 2km in 7:38 the sub-20 looked well and truly on, but looking at the profile plot from my watch we had actually been running a gradual down-hill which explains why trying to keep the pace going for the third kilometre made me feel like I was going to keel over. As well as that very gradual decline being almost imperceptible, the gradual incline over the last 2km was, for the most part, unnoticeable other than the fact that my pace just got worse and worse. I finally clocked in at 20:37 which is actually a time I am happy with, but it was quite hard work for the last 2 or 3km.

In terms of difficulty I would put this almost exactly level with Hove, because I think now I know the course profile I could pace myself a lot more consistently and achieve a very similar time to Hove. Other factors for this comparison: Richmond doesn’t have any big hills like Hove does despite a similar total incline, but in some ways that hampers you because you never really notice you are going up or down hill; Richmond has a mixed terrain including road, trail and grass which for me I find trickier than a full on road route; Richmond finishes slightly up-hill whereas Hove finishes on a nice decline; Richmond is only one lap which gets rid of any repetition. 

The field seemed reasonably well mixed and included some very decent runners. They seemed pretty friendly too, especially at the end everyone seemed very jolly but as we arrived so late I never got the chance to absorb the ‘vibe’ of this one. The setting was nice, running around a park that was largely undisturbed by anyone else. A few other runners scattered about doing their own thing but the paths were all plenty wide enough for everybody. There was no course congestion at any point, helped by the fact it was only one big lap. 

Definitely a course with some PB potential and in a nicer setting than Hove.

Pictured: Me, Hannah and Oliver. 'Selfie' courtesy of Ollie!