Oaklands College parkrun
St Albans, England
I had been told Oaklands College is very muddy, and took that seriously, breaking out some cross country shoes* for proper grip. And although it starts on a field like many others, and onto a concrete section on which, as predicted by the first timer’s briefing, I thought “oh, this is all just fine”, you will then get into some soggy fields, and finally into a bog.
* I call them that to distinguish them from generic ‘trail shoes’ although these can certainly be called that. I don’t think I’m alone in having (other) trail shoes that aren’t all that grippy - designed for dry or slightly wet trails, perhaps, rather than for serious grip. Whereas the Inov8 baregrips I was wearing have large, well-spaced lugs - they might slip in serious mud, but I know they’ll grip, and trust them. If you have properly grippy shoes, this is a course for those!
The course is two laps, though they’re not identical. It’s pretty straightforward to follow, though - certainly easier to do that than for me to try to explain it. I’m not even sure I can, as the start section is a one-off, but you’re soon onto the bit you do twice. And all the most muddy sections are covered twice.
We were told to stay to the left of the flags wherever they marked the course - you can see some above. That’s to preserve the rugby pitches and some space for spectators, and it wouldn’t take too many people encroaching a bit, then others a bit more the week after, to spoil it, so it’s worth taking some care.
But that does put you in the mud. See below:
As you can see in the picture above, there’s an obviously less-muddy section on the left. Great, everyone takes that, right! Possibly, but to get to it you have to go through the very muddy section. And more importantly, that obvious dry route comes up against an unavoidable very muddy one, so you may not save that much. It has to be quicker, but not by much.
There’s an out-and-back section, which you can see below. The marshal at the end of this lane welcomed us to the mud, but for this course, this isn’t a muddy section - it is a hard surface underneath, so it gives good footing throughout. Obviously it looks muddy, it just isn’t really. Honest.
Running in shoes with good grip made for an experience akin to wearing super shoes while my competition ran in ordinary ones. Near the end of the lap there’s a little ramp, with mud at the bottom. Ahead of me, two runners fell over, comically (and uninjured) toppling to either side of the ramp. By the time I’d got to them, they were on their feet and demonstrating that a muddy ramp is difficult from a standing start, while I got to move straight up the hill like I was some kind of runner.
There were plenty of fellow tourists there, celebrating round numbers (100s of parkruns, albeit not official milestones), and several people from my local running club, making it a feast of familiar faces. The local garden centre is the established meeting place, and many went there, but the tourists headed into St Albans so as not to overwhelm the place. We relocated some of the mud in doing so, but I don’t think you’ll notice.
I highly recommend this course, but it will demonstrate to you once and for all how good the grip on your trail shoes (or wellies) are. It’s one to keep an eye on for the summer - at the moment I can’t see how it ever dries out, but nature is a powerful thing and I look forward to a very different run at some time in the future.
Results from Oaklands College parkrun #6, 22/2/25; 179 finishers