Saturday 12th July
Just a quick blog about the non-north East parkruns that I get up to when I travelling further afield. I was visiting some family in Hammersmith for a triple celebration (cousin’s 19th birthday, uncles 61st birthday – which amazingly is the same number upside down! Perfect cake opportunity – and my other cousin’s undergrad graduation). So the morning of the celebrations, I went off with my cousin and her boyfriend to do the most local parkrun to them… Wormwood Scrubs. Yet again, my sadness came through and I was most excited about declaring how far I’d travelled to do the parkrun at the announcements. Turns out, Newcastle isn’t quite as far as China!
It’s definitely an interesting parkrun in terms of location. You can see the walls of the prison along part of the route, but obviously can’t see much else there. Not to worry, the prisoners can’t see you running…if they can, there is something seriously wrong and you should be worried! Hey, maybe it would make you run faster and you’d get that PB you were after!!
But primarily it’s a cross-country run around the fields of Wormwood scrubs park. It made it particularly hard to run fast, as the grass gives no bounce whatsoever and every step feels like it requires so much more energy. The ground is very uneven at times, and I did feel my ankles turning over a couple of times. Thankfully you’re right next to Hammersmith hospital, so if you get any serious injuries from running here, you don’t have to hobble far to get seen to!
It’s not the flattest of routes, but it’s certainly not the hilliest. There are some long slow inclines which do take it out of your legs. The route is 2 and a half laps, with the half lap being the major long slow incline, which therefore means you have to run it three times. They feel like long laps, and I found myself thinking I was on to the second lap twice before I actually was. Some of the paths feel very similar, and with the rugby fields always on your left, you do feel a little disorientated. Thankfully, the final 0.1 miles is downhill so you can sprint down into the finishing funnel.
With it being July, and a different climate in London, it was a particularly hot run with very few clouds in the sky or shade on the route. So it’s quite unrelenting in that respect. And I imagine the run can be equally as difficult in the winter as it’ll be prone to mud, making it a proper cross-country course.
Overall, it’s a challenging course, in an interesting location. It is right next to a riding school where there are horses and donkeys (I’m not sure the donkeys are ridden though!), so you can pet the animals before or after the run. It’s also right next to the Linford Christie outdoor sports centre too so if you do fancy incorporating some track work before/after the run, you may have that option too.
Location:4/5 Difficulty: 4/5 Enjoyability: 3/5 Overall rating: 3/5
Rosie's north east parkrun challenge 