Salcey Forest parkrun
Northants, England
After a few all-too short weeks in Asia, the more prosaic reality of winter in England was somewhat eased by this lovely one-lap route on Forestry England land in Northamptonshire. I’d love to pretend that I was so acclimatised to lows of 25° (and humid) that 4° was unbearable, but it wasn’t - I managed shorts, enjoyed gloves and found a hat a bit too warm. And, whisper it, but although I again slowed in the last mile, it was just unfitness rather than because the humidity was climbing on top of me as it had last week (in Malaysia).
I followed the postcode given on the course page and I’m glad I did - there are several access points for the forest, and just parking in any of them might lead to a bit of a yomp to the start. That said, the overflow parking is just a short walk from the event car park, even though if you’re late and redirected you have to head off the site, back onto the road and into a different car park. It’s really not far!
I’d also followed a link from the course page that was supposed to tell me about the early bird parking, but I couldn’t see it on the Forestry England site that it took me to. Still, that pricing (£4.25 via the ringgo app, possibly slightly cheaper from the car park machines) is available via app or machine, without needing a code or any other bit of info from anyone else, which is what I’d wanted to find out. That covers you till 11, and otherwise an hour’s parking is £3.80 - so that might be enough, but without faff time.
As you would expect if you’ve been to other Forestry England sites, toilets are available, just a short walk from the car park.
And so, to the event! Just the one lap, which is always a treat (albeit potentially needing more marshals). There is some advice to wear trail shoes, but I’d push back against that gently - gently, because I was only there the once. But this is the heart of winter, if not the main muddy bit, and this route has hard surfaces throughout. The most muddy bit was the car park, and if you slide down a bank to a payment machine, you might well think you’ll need trail shoes. But I thought all the mud this weekend was optional - there were a couple of corners I took nice and tight because I was happy going through the mud and puddles, and one section where stepping round would be slightly fiddly. But otherwise, I can’t see how it’ll get all that muddy, and certainly not to the point where you’ll need grip, which really ought to be the point of trail shoes. The hard surface persists throughout, so just take shoes you don’t mind changing colour a little and you’ll be fine - a bit of cushioning is going to be more important than grip.
None of that is a serious gripe, though, and I was absolutely fine in my trail shoes. It probably wasn’t deliberate, but the marshals had been set up with an eye to distract from the effort, with most of them accompanied by cute kids or cute animals. All were very welcoming as well as either guiding us or reassuring us that we were heading the right way.
It’s also not especially hilly, though there is a very gradual climb for a fair amount of the route that I didn’t feel - or wasn’t fit enough to feel - paid off in a long descent. But all in all, this is a lovely route in a great location. Enough to make me consider joining Forestry England so I can always call into these places without paying on the day!
Results from Salcey Forest parkrun #200, 8/2/25; 151 finishers