parkrun tourism

After embracing the fantastic event that is Heaton Park parkrun fifteen times, it finally dawned on me that there were other events as well.

 

I live within easy reach of of Heaton Park, but I work in Wigan, and when one of the lads I work with said that he was going to join the parkrun ranks at Pennington Flash, I agreed to join him on his first run, well when I say join, I mean follow.

 

So Sally and I schlepped up there and I was a little nervous as I was in an unfamilar place, we didn't know the local customs, where the start line was or what the course was like. Needless to say, we were made welcome.

 

I'm sure that I'll return to Pennington parkrun at some point, so I'll do a post then, but for the time being all you need to know if that visiting another parkrun whetted my appetite to see what else was out there.

 

In the next three months, I managed to make it to South Manchester, Wythenshaw, Worsley Woods and Bolton taking my tally to Six different events.

 

Don't worry, Heaton Park will always be my home, but every single park has it's charms and unique features. Cruella the Hill at Bolton, the Views at Pennington, the Lake at South Manchester and the Platforms at Worsley Woods. no matter what though, every event is welcoming.

 

When I sat down to set some running goals for 2013, I wasn't sure what to do, but the first one that came to me was to aim to take on 12 courses which I hadn't done before, 12 new parks, 12 sets of new faces to meet and 12 different experiences. This year, Oldham, Bramhall and Princes have all been tackled. Burnley will be my 10th different event which is halfway to getting on the leaderboard (at least until the criteria is changed again) and I had to postpone Woodbank due to injury.

 

parkrun can be whatever you want to be. I have the utmost respect for anyone who takes part in parkrun and if you want to do every run at one event, more power to you. maybe you can't get to other events, or you're not as lucky as me to live in an area where several runs are in easy travelling distance.

 

I firmly believe though that travelling to another parkrun both makes you appreciate your home run more, but also opens you to another beautiful space you may not have otherwise visited.

 

So why not take the chance to be a tourist. Maybe your home run is off due to another event, maybe you're on holiday and there's a local parkrun, or maybe you can get to another place easily.

 

If you can, I'd be amazed if you regretted it.

Posted with Blogsy