Brighton & Hove

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

This was the parkrun where it all began for me and I used to get the train down there in the morning on a fairly regular basis when I had not much else to do. In fact, I usually over-slept and either had to sprint to my local station, or from Hove station to the park. Funnily enough, I always got PBs when this happened, the mad dash for the start line must've given me a good warm up!

The course is two and a third laps of Hove Park, all on paths. There is an incline with a small plateau in the middle which just adds an extra element to the course, but ultimately it's a fairly fast loop and at the time of writing, probably (see Tilgate) the easiest Parkrun course I have run. This is, therefore where I set my PB of 19:59 (only just scraping the sub 20!) - EDIT: new PB of 19:57 set April 2014. The 'hills' aren't huge and are in the best place for it (mid-lap), allowing you to open up a bit of pace on the down-hill and flat lead up to the finish line. 

Everyone runs these differently, but my recommendation for running this course is to run the first 'third-sized' lap pretty quickly as it doesn't take in the entire hill, take the second lap to ease off a little and top your reserves back up a bit, then pick up the pace for the last lap. The downhill element comes in about 1/2 a km from the finish and allows you to build up some real momentum for the final stretch. Depending on your ability, you can begin building to your sprint finish when you come to the model railway, but bear in mind there's still a good 300-400m to go at this point so don't burn yourself out! There's a slight 'hump' in the path about 150-200m from the end and most people can sustain a sprint pace from this hump to the finish line if you don't want to start it as early as the railway.

It's a pretty well attended parkrun, as you'd expect, as it's in a highly populated area and is one of the older Parkruns in the local area. I haven't been for a while (I'll be going back shortly) and I'm told it's increasing in popularity.

Due to the large turnouts there is a diverse mix of people and ability and highly recommendable for the beginner runner as well as the ultra fast lads and lasses. 

There are also good toilet facilities in the park, a few local roads you can park on (check tariffs first) and the event is well run and rarely seems short of volunteers. I believe they also open up a cafe in the park which people visit after the race. I haven't paid much attention to this, but that's pretty cool. It's also not far from Hove station so public transport to this one is simple enough.