Ferry Meadows parkrun
Peterborough, England
Though I didn’t know it at the time, this was the story of a parkrun saved by quick thinking and good communication between volunteers on the day.
The event is in Nene Park, to the West of Peterborough. There’s ample parking, and if you scan your parkrun barcode in the machine, it’s £1 between 8am and 11am. I had huge difficulty scanning mine, whether from phone or watch, but I think if I’d put my phone on the guard provided on the machine and leaned it toward the scanner, it would have worked. As it was, a kindly fellow runner sorted me and the lady next to me out, after we’d both stood there looking foolish for a while. Make the bleep! It’s not bleeping! Finally, it bleeped.
This was a rainy weekend. I checked the satellite the night before and it looked like there’d be a gap in the rain over Peterborough at about 9 am, hence my heading here. That part largely worked out, with just a little drizzle. But there was plenty of rain in the days ahead and just before the run, so bits of the course looked like this:
We had the briefing undercover which was a bonus - there’s a largish covered area in front of the cafe that just about took us all. I wore my trail shoes for the run; not needed for the conditions particularly, except that I don’t mind them getting wet and muddy in the puddles. Better them than my new, still pristine trainers, though those were destined to get muddy later in the season.
I hadn’t checked the route, but you can see it on the course page. The start heads away from the cafe, looping round the small lake (Lynch lake) then a long out and back round the Eastern edge of Overton and Gunwade lakes, on which a large loop turns you round to carry on and finish by the cafe.
But the water had different ideas. You’ll remember all those lakes from the paragraph above, and the fact that it had been raining. We ended up turning round early, before the top loop. Not that I was aware. I was aware, though, that we ran past the cafe and I could see the finish on the other side of the path. At that point my watch reckoned we were about 4.7km in, but we were clearly about to do another loop of the lake - I was not going to be there in a couple of minutes as I’d hoped. I ended up with an extra 700m, or just short of; free extra free!
It turned out that a marshal had radioed in after we’d started, to say the top section was blocked by a farmer chivvying cattle away from a flooding field next to those lakes. Some quick-thinking led to that early turnaround for everyone and an extra loop of the first lake before finishing - I think we were at (or near) the usual finish, just coming across it the opposite way. Fantastic work from all the organisers to get it setup, and even the confusion - was it just me? Had I done extra accidentally? Is this course known for being a little long? - was entertaining and helped pass the time as I covered more ground.
I took my soggy feet for a walk around the park before battling the parking machine and losing. I saw at least one other give up and just pay the extra few pounds, but ultimately I won thanks to my new friend. This day’s event could so easily have been cancelled, with no one objecting once we’d found out - imagine if that first volunteer hadn’t been able to get in touch with anyone, and had had to just stop us short of a crowd of cattle. Cattle, meet people. People, meet cattle. Fancy helping move them? Instead, we all got happy wet feet and a few hundred extra metres thrown in. Plus we weren’t drenched, unlike most other parkrunners around the country. Winwinwin? Something like that.
Results from Ferry Meadows parkrun #475, 9/12/23; 297 finishers.
yes the team did a fantastic job of quick thinking. They are a great experienced team so had it all in control and they have yet another alternative route!