Bury St Edmunds parkrun
Suffolk, England
I headed to Suffolk for a lovely, if cold, run in Nowton Park. It’s to the South of the town, which meant I didn’t have to navigate town at all. The car park seemed plenty large enough, though I was there pretty early and so had my pick of spots (£2 for two hours, £2.20 via Ringgo).
This is a long-standing event, and it showed in that the organisation ran (to the observer, at least!) like clockwork, and they’d even found time to run a charity shoe collection, which helped me de-clutter.
The route undulates throughout, including a short cruel uphill to the finish, albeit one you get to practise because of the two laps. But there’s nothing too serious to climb up, and plenty of turns to keep the route interesting.
Its mostly on wide paths, or paths through fields allowing plenty of room, but there is a section through the woods that’s much narrower - see below. You can probably find space to overtake if you’re really flying, but better to do it before or wait till after.
As you can see from the next picture, the route broadens even while you’re still in the woods.
And then you’re out into a wide field again, room to look around and check out the scenery, or look ahead for motivation.
There was some mist in the air, which was atmospheric and distant rather than seriously compromising the view of what was coming up.
I thoroughly enjoyed my run here, which speaks to my fitness increasing as much as the organisation - there have been runs I’ve not enjoyed, but only because bits of me hurt. And yet I enjoyed Church Mead and it’s challenging hill the week before this, so I can only blame myself, not any courses.
This parkrun is a doozy, and a good bet for your off-tarmac fun.
Results from Bury St Edmunds parkrun #456, 2/12/23; 253 finishers
I love the word doozy!