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!

Tilgate (Crawley) - Part 2

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

Saturday the 19th Hannah and I had another pop at Tilgate parkrun. Both of us had only run this one once before, Hannah when she first started out and me running around with her getting told I was annoying her! So with that in mind we knew we shouldn’t struggle to get a course PB. As mentioned before, I had in my head that this course could be easier than Hove so I wanted to put that theory to the test.

Given that the nasty incline that I could remember was something I’d only have to run up once, I thought that’d be less draining than running up the side of Hove Park 2.75 times (approximately!). What I hadn’t allowed for was that prior to the concrete hill some have nicknamed ‘The Travelator”, there was actually another brief incline which sort of sapped my energy before I even got to the part I was prepared for. On that basis (see previous blog entry) I realised that actually this course is a little harder than Hove.

On the start line the starter announced "welcome to Burgess Hill Runners who are making a bit of an event of this". I'm not sure what he'd got wind of, but actually there did turn out to be quite a few of us there and it was nice to bump into a few familiar faces at the end. 

I started a little way back on this one and found it difficult to fight my way towards the front after it started. This didn’t impact my time, because it gave me a bit of spare energy for the remaining 4.5km, but as the first parkrun i’ve run with a starting funnel, it was a little tricky at first. As previously mentioned you begin with a lap round the pretty lake over a bit of a gravel path….i’m not sure what the correct shoes are for gravel but I’d bet my bottom dollar someone somewhere does have special ‘gravel shoes’ for sale. This takes in a very gradual incline which you’d barely notice if you walked, but it does bring your heart rate up a tiny bit while you’re running and it shouldn’t be taken for granted. After the trip round the lake you go off for a big lap around the woods and greenery (this is where that little bugger of an incline stitches you up) before eventually mounting a bit of a climb up the aforementioned concrete slope. After that it’s mostly flat or downhill but the one extra lap around the lake means another little go over the ever so slightly inclining gravel path. As you come back round to the finish your path intersects with the tail runners who are embarking on their final lap of the lake and whilst marshals did shout “keep left” to them, I think only one of the 10 or so runners I was ‘lapping’ actually knew what ‘left’ meant so my little tip for this race is to put your sprint finish in before you actually get to the last 200m because you can’t rely on these runners to move for you. I’d never get cross with people who are out doing their best in something like this, I just sort of weaved in and out without saying anything!

I clocked a time of 21:02 against a target of sub-21. If anything I felt slightly fitter than I did for Nonsuch the week before so the 38 second difference was largely down to the course in my opinion. 

So, in summary, I was wrong about this one being easier than Hove and if you look at my previous blog entry, I even rank it as slightly harder than Banstead Woods. However, what I was right about was it is a beautiful place to do a 5k run so if you like a bit of scenery, this one and Banstead Woods are definitely the ones to go to….they just might not get you a 5k PB.

The Stats - 19th April 2014

This is the first of many updates I'll do on some of the stats from the races I've tried. This includes a bit of ranking them in order of difficulty along with a lot of other uninteresting info! I'll update this when I have done 2 or 3 more different ones, but here is my list for the first 6.

It's worth noting that it is all my personal opinion and based on the fact I am pretty poor at running up a hill! I love bombing down one though, but if you are better at hills than me you might not rank them in this order.

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

1) Nonsuch Park Course B, Cheam - total ascent: 33m - PB: 20.24

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

3) Banstead Woods - total ascent: 76m - PB: 21.36 - compensation vs Cheam: + 2.5%

4) Tilgate Park, Crawley - total ascent: 63m - PB: 21.02 - compensation vs Cheam: + 3.5%

5) Clair Park, Haywards Heath - total ascent: 89m - PB: 21.09 - compensation vs Cheam: + 5%

6) Lloyd Park, Croydon - total ascent: 63m - PB: 21.22 - compensation vs Cheam: +6.5%

The compensation vs Cheam (the one I 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. Make sense? I thought not! But I enjoyed typing it!

Nonsuch Park (Cheam) - Course B

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

On Saturday the 12th, Hannah and I took a little visit to Nonsuch Park (turns out there is such park) in Cheam. This one was a little more familiar to us as we’d both run 10k races there, albeit not on the bit of the park that the parkrun took place on.

This parkrun was probably the biggest I’d run in (no, I don’t mean we had to run 6km). I believe there were 466 entrants at this one and you could tell. I’d had a little look at some of their past results before we went and seen that they often had 20-30 runners clocking sub-20 so I knew there’d be some fast runners out for this one. For that reason I stood a bit back from the fast folk when we lined up at the start!

It was a nice flat Parkrun this time, largely on paths with a small stretch across the grass which was nice and dry. The guy starting the race announced it was ‘course B’ which presumably is their Winter course as he also stated there’d only be two more before they reverted to ‘course A’ (another one we’ll have to sample, cheeky!). He also proclaimed that this was the one to get a PB on so we were running the easier option. I have to admit, it felt pretty easy too. Although my final time was 20:24 (27 seconds slower than my time at Hove a week before) it was most certainly an easier Parkrun due to the lack of incline and therefore moves into my 1st place in terms of PB potential. I was in my off-road shoes anticipating the ground to be a bit muddier in the grassy portion. It didn’t really slow me down, but in hindsight there was no need to wear them, road would’ve been more suitable. I found that I was running at quite a fast pace for a lot of the route without feeling like I was exerting myself, so a sub-20 time would definitely be achievable on course B. 

The scenery was quite nice too. Nonsuch Park is a massive park that could probably accommodate a one lap parkrun, but due to their selection of route, this one was three laps. But, three laps round a nice pretty park quite free of other park users and dog walkers. 

The square nature of the laps meant that they didn’t need a huge number of staff around the course, but the large number of entrants meant that they had a lot of scanners and admin people at the finish. The only minor criticism of this one was that when Hannah finished, in quite a large group, she had to queue to cross the finish line which added a few seconds to the time (they didn’t appear to click the watch until she was literally over the line). For a race with so many people they really need a wider finish line which funnels down afterwards if they are concerned about managing the order of finishers. 

I can see myself wanting to do this one a couple more times. Once to sample their Summer route and again to have a stab at a sub-20 Winter route.