Billdalsparken parkrun
(South of) Gothenburg, Sweden
Billdal is to the South of Gothenburg, its park just to the North of it (so I never actually walked round Billdal but there are a few words about it on wikipedia). The park is just over the road from the bus stop from Gothenburg - you can see the start from the stop on the other side. Expecting the most obviously timed buses before 9 to be full and with my start point a few stops South, I had caught the 7:20 but still wasn’t there ahead of the event team despite the event not starting till 9:30. They had already put up a ‘to the start’ sign, visible from the road, and were off to chalk the ground with encouragement and put up signs as I gave them a wave.
I walked through the park a short way, past the summer house Billdals Herrgård and found a large playground. Two hammocks were tempting in the early sun, but a little wet. Even leaving those and some picnic tables out, I was still spoilt for choice when choosing from the seats on the other side that had dried in the sun and sat, reading, while others arrived on the next couple of buses. Buses are every half an hour, and even the 8:47 (from Göteborg Järntorget) will get you there in time if you’re happy to travel without a margin for error. I saw a variety of approaches to payment. Many of us had downloaded the Västtrafik app and paid (35 SEK) before getting on, showing the QR code to the reader, others tapped their card inside the bus and on getting off. A couple who shared my bus tried to pay at the front, may not have tapped inside and tried to get off 15 minutes into the journey before we’d passed the ring road. For the record, I don’t recommend their more stressful approach, though they made it safely.
Even from my short stroll it was clear that this park has a few ups and downs. The course takes in a couple of fairly sharp downs, which were the hardest sections for those of us carrying extra weight or nursing bad knees. I can only recommend slowing down, which worked for me and the friend I ran round with.
This was Sweden’s extra parkrun day, which attracts tourists. With a couple of hundred people finishing this was a course record by some way, but the event team would have been happy with another 100. It was just the right side of manic, perhaps because I’ve been at four fairly busy events in a row and am finally used to it, following on from the 8 previous parkruns which had an average of 48 finishers. Along with people we’d met on the bus from Gothenburg the previous day there were some I knew from home and others I’d met in Sweden the year before, plus the couple of friends I stayed with. The safest approach on the day was to say hi, then remind whoever was in front of you of your name and where you met, to save the seconds of confusion as they rolled through “family/famous/yesterday/home?”
It only gives a tiny flavour to say there were three English people there who I met at different parkruns, but I have never seen in England.
We were taken to the start line, ever so well-behaved despite the number of people arranging themselves on a path - it is wide, but only several people wide, not for a mass start. With the road behind us we were close to occasional traffic noise, but ahead it’s all trees, grass (and a path). The surface is good throughout, but the ups and downs are a bit of a test.
There are a couple of slightly less lovely views, if you’re in a mood to be picky - a short concrete tunnel and a wide open tarmacced area, but otherwise you’re winding through tree-lined paths, and looking out over the wider area from the higher parts of the route.
My experience was atypical as far as numbers (definitely) and weather (probably) go. Normally there are a handful of volunteers with 8 to 25 finishers. In the winter the run director is regularly out shovelling snow in the week to get the course ready. On this June day, and I apologise if you’re reading this somewhere cold, the weather was extraordinarily good, and a level of warmth that almost everyone would enjoy; warm in the sun, a cool breeze, peaking warm, cooling down in the evening but not so far that you’d regret shorts, and lots of late light. All that said, the weather may change but whenever you might go, the hills, nature and welcome will be there.
Results from Billdalsparken parkrun #85, 6/6/23; 221 finishers.
