Haga parkrun, Stockholm
Haga park is to the North of the centre, an easy walk from where I was staying, near Stockholm Central, a bike ride for some, a jog for others. There's a car park right by the start, too, for anyone who had driven.
This was to be a cloudy and cool day with drizzle, but you wouldn't have known it from the period up till just after 9, which was very warm and sunny. It was only as we came out of the trees after the second loop of the park that the sun had properly disappeared, making only intermittent appearances afterwards. The run director tried gamely to convince us that this was typical Stockholm weather, but no one was fooled, especially not an English runner who had made the trip from Helsinki. We all enjoyed it throughly, mind.
I arrived early, standing around in the sun, just a little too warm to be wearing a long-sleeved top. Everything was already setup before 9, despite the start at 9.30, so it was very easy to find, but it isn't tricky - the bottom end of the park, just North of the parking, on the road-side of the first grassy area.
There are no facilities at the park, or all that nearby - toilets at Odenplan, the course page says, which is a little walk away.
Chasing along the paths
We were warned that the left-side of the loop is mostly uphill, and there are two hills/lumps on the other side, too. You're heading uphill from the start, too, to get through the Haga gates, but none of the hills go on for too long. I had two quick miles, bookending a significantly slower one, and ran exactly the same time as at Vallaskogen, in Linköping, so must have made the most of the downhills. I was pushed all the way by a Ukrainian who was walking up the hills, which was humbling, and he tucked in behind me down the last hill before racing off to the finish, then joining me and a festival-attending Brit for a drink afterwards. It was only the Brit's second parkrun, and already he has run events in two countries.
There are just a couple of marshals to check on you as you go round, but plenty of signs at the top right of the course, and no chance to go wrong. Each kilometre is marked, too.
The paths are all wide, if a little gravelly to slow you just a little. There's a gravelly area just as you come downhill at the top of the loop, which acts as a brake but is soon over. Essentially, with all this space and tree cover, there's little to stop you getting on with the event - people are easily avoided, the sights are clear and even on a sunny day you are in the shade often.
This event couldn't go ahead on the National Day, because the park was being used for other celebrations, though it still had an attendance spike on the Saturday before, with 133 finishers. We had 87 this Saturday, which is a nice crowd - a fair few people, but soon spreading out. I thoroughly enjoyed my morning, both here and chatting afterwards in the cafe - possibly the wrong cafe, with hindsight, given that only the Ukrainian joined us, but perhaps we were just there and finished before everyone else. It didn't matter. We managed to confuse the lady in the cafe by putting in two orders - she seemed to think the second order overruled some of the first, so we got exactly half what we'd ordered. Given I'd offered to pay, that was a big saving - orange juice and small pastry, £6.32. I popped into a supermarket on the way back. Perhaps because UK prices have risen/are rising so much, supermarkets seem more reasonable than I remember (two pastries, £1.60). But everything else (hotels, as I found on my first night, when the key had been swiped from my AirBnB, cafes, restaurants etc) is reassuringly expensive.
That evening, as I wandered the decks of a Polferry from Nynäshamn to Gdańsk, I could immediately see the difference, and my wait for a beer was rewarded - even the ferry price was only just over £3. Just remember to always choose to pay in the local currency. On small amounts, the markup when they offer to let you pay in your own seems less of a ripoff than I remember, and it was still a bargain, but I was happy with £3.01 rather than, I think, £3.35. The 50cl topped off my time in Sweden, and memories of running in Swedish warmth, nicely.
Results from Haga parkrun, event 209, 11/6/22, 87 finishers.