Bramley parkrun
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Bramley park is to the West of Leeds, with free parking in the roads around. Of the roads listed for parking on the course page, Broad Lane jumped out at me so I stopped there. It’s very convenient, near to Bramley Baths and with a pedestrian entrance up the road from where I parked. It was also unpopular enough at 8:30 that I wondered if I was in the right place; I was, but most people used the main entrance, near the War Memorial at the NE of the park (it’s a little closer, but you’ll not be far away no matter how you come into the park). The parkrun used to start there, but is now just a little further on into the park.
You can’t miss the start, as this isn’t a huge park, resulting in a nearly-3-lap course. It is hilly, of course, with this being Yorkshire, and it’s a little walk uphill to the start from the meeting point, which is also the finish. It looks daunting, but it is a net-downhill course, and the hill (up the East side of the course) felt reasonably attackable.
The start is downhill, from the grass to the left of the path as you look downhill. Some people are fine to start on the path as well, and there’s space enough that gradually everyone sorted themselves out as we moved along, whether on grass or path, to find space to move on.
After the initial gallop downhill, a right turn takes you past the war memorial before another right turn takes you straight back up the hill you just came down. I didn’t even have time to even think about how quick a turnaround this was, just settled in to working up the hill. The surface is all path at this point, which helps a lot, and it’s a gradual incline that isn’t too bad. A bit tougher, with tired legs, is the section past the path on the hill, as you still ascend a little bit when running onto a grassy section before turning right past a marshal to follow that field along at the SE and SW corners of the route. Friendly marshalling really helped at this point, particularly on the 2nd and 3rd times round.
After the field, running past a fenced off area, a left turn takes you onto the path in the picture you can see above. Those fences, containing the TV mast, also border the field to make the route clear. This is just before the downhill section, though that’s on grass so not quite as quick as it might be. There’s a curving right turn to take you onto the grassy section, and the picture above also shows the runners up ahead on their descent.
A left turn after the downward slope takes you onto a path, before a right turn heads onto another downhill grassy section. The end of that section is marked by an arrow and cones for the final right turn, as shown below. I say final, and that’s accurate, but it’s a turn you take three times before you can head into the finish funnel, so it’s best not to enjoy the feeling too much the first time. You’re back onto that uphill section before you know it.
I’d spotted a split in the funnel, and wondered if there was a fancy double finish funnel, but the split comes after you’ve received your finish token, and is there to allow people to be zipped into two queues for barcode scanning.
I didn’t head to the cafe, but it’s only a few 100m from the finish, along the high street. Parking on Broad Lane made this seem a completely residential area, but the other side has a shopping centre, church and community centre and a much less sleepy feel first thing in the morning - take your pick!
Despite the drizzly rain (better than other places had it) this was a lovely run, with always changing views and differing terrain (path or grass, with an optional stony path on that top field, next to the fence) to give you plenty to think about when not enjoying views over the local area.
Results from Bramley parkrun #326, 5/8/23; 100 finishers