Oxford parkrun - 1st October

Saturday the 1st of October saw me visit Oxford parkrun for the first time.  I was on a stag do in Oxford for the weekend and although I was closer to Harcourt Hill I took the opportunity to visit Oxford and notch up my 49th different venue.  

A heavy nights drinking and late to bed meant my condition on Saturday morning can best be described as "jaded".  I was sharing a room with my good friend Mike and I had convinced him to join me.  Mike was running his second parkrun, having previously run with me at Bath Skyline back in July.  The other 8 members of the group decided that bed was a far better option!!

We headed up to Cutteslowe and Sunnymead park, arriving at around 8:40. It was fairly easy to find and the car parking was free.  The weather forecast was for rain, however on arriving the sun was out and it was warm with very little breeze.  We were fortunate that the rain held off until the majority of runners had finished.

We headed down to the start/finish area and got chatting to local runner Kavita Pal, herself relatively new to parkrun.  She was keen to hear about our running and about our parkrun history, as well as wanting hints and tips for running quickly (not sure I'm the right person to ask about that at the moment!!).  We joined the first timers briefing led by the run director on the day (whose name I failed to get) and got taken through the course description. I ran into fellow tourist Ulen Neale, who I had previously met at Abingdon.  Ulen was scanning whilst his family ran and it was nice to catch up.  

After a short warm up we lined up at the start and had the pre-run brief.  As it was the first parkrun day of October it was International parkrun day, the 12th anniversary of the first ever Bushy Park time trial, as parkrun was originally known.  I'm not sure those 13 original parkrun pioneers (as they are known) could've ever imagined how parkrun has expanded of the following 12 years.  parkrun is now in 14 countries, with the number of events fast approaching 1000.  It is truly staggering.

Picture Credit: Ulen Neale

After a simple 3, 2, 1 we were off.  With my delicate disposition I was taking it easy and was aiming to get round in however long it took.  I watched Mike hare off into the distance and I settled into a gentle plod.  I soon caught up with the aforementioned Kavita and we have a conversational 5km.  We talked about all things running and parkrun and it was very pleasurable! 

The course itself started on a small field at the top of the park.  We had two laps of a roughly football pitch sized field before heading off down a path into the heart of the park.  Before long we turned down a small bank and onto a small expanse of grass.  We crossed this and joined a path alongside the A40 (which we were thankfully shielded from by a high hedge).  The course then turned into the larger park field.  We ran round the outside of this field and up a short incline to the top of the park, and back onto the main path.  This led us round past the aviaries and back down the hill past the start/finish.  A second lap of the course made up the 5km.  

There was a little confusion in the finishing funnel as it seemed like some tokens had been dropped and the queue was backing up past the finish line.  This was soon rectified and I collected my finishers token and got scanned.  I got given token 136, however ended up in position 122 due to the token mix-up.  I ran a steady and pleasing 25:57.  Mike ran a PB in 22:35!  Feeling refreshed and no longer hung over we headed off for a Full English ahead of another busy day of stag do related activities!!

I would like to thank the good people of Oxford parkrun for a warm welcome and a very enjoyable morning.  Thank you to the volunteers who made the day possible and to Kavita for being a fun running partner.  I hope to return again one day.