Växjösjön parkrun
Växjö, Southern Sweden
Växjösjön is a lake almost in the town centre of Växjö, a town in the lake district of Southern Sweden. The usual attendance is around 20 people and a few volunteers, except a few weeks ago for Sweden’s National Day, they had 727. Yes, 727, and they are of course still talking about it.
It wasn’t a total surprise on the day. Växjösjön declared their intention to run the extra event early, and the town is on a direct train route from Malmö which is where those who booked before knowing which events would run were going to start. As a result, hundreds expected, but the team had changed their prediction from 2-300, to over 500. They’re rightly very proud of managing over 700 - a short version is that this could have been a problem, but it wasn’t. Planning went as far as to mow the grass area by the start/finish, so as to give people room to mill about.
It’s an easy place to visit if Stansted’s convenient - Ryanair will take you there and back, all year round. I was happy to be there on a warm day with relatively few people, a couple of other English visitors, an event director from Denmark and visitors from Malmö.
I stayed in an AirBnB North of the city and walked to the start. It was under 3km and very easy, other than being dive-bombed by a gull. As I moved into the road I realised that, yes, I *was* a bit close to the small fluffy chick the gull was protecting. We came to an agreement - the chick could have the pavement, I pushed off and the gull landed.
I, and other visitors, were talked through the route. It’s very straightforward - a short section on the cycle path, turn right towards the lake, then right at the lake to complete a lap anti-clockwise. They put a marshal at the first right turn, and there’s a sign for a left turn without which you might reach the next lake, but essentially you keep the lake on your left. Just before the final right turn to complete the not-by-the-lake section, there are two paths. I took the one closest to the lake, which possibly wasn’t the right one, but it makes no difference to the distance. It just meant I popped out of that section right by the turn, to the mutual surprise of me and the marshal who was pointing us away from the lake.
It’s all as flat as you might imagine a lake-side run would be, with wide paths pretty much throughout. There’s a narrow bridge on the lake before the boardwalk, but otherwise masses of space. The route is exposed in places, shaded in others, with a great mix of views - look out over the lake, head into and enjoy the tree-lined sections, glance up at the sky when you pop out of them.
The locals commented that normally this ‘midsummer’ holiday is a wet one. This year it was a gorgeous temperature - warm for a run, perfect for hanging around afterwards - though the lack of rain has left the grass worryingly brown given it’s only June.
There’s a large tree next to the finish, so shade is easy to come by, or you can roll around on the grass (the 51 weeks of the year there aren’t several hundred others milling around). I chose the shade, after checking I wasn’t disturbing any offspring.
There’s no cafe chosen for a post event gathering, though the centre is nearby if you want to head off for more. The midsummer holiday meant some things were closed, though mostly on the day before, and I went to a supermarket for breakfast (possibly second breakfast). Post run we were happy eating biscuits baked by a volunteer and chatting - about exercise somewhat, but more about gaming, since a couple of people there work for European Speedrunner Assembly. Their events are online if you can’t make it to Malmö for the next.
Post run I went for a swim. Or a paddle, anyway. The buoys out in the lake are about 100m away and I wasn’t up for that, though some people in wetsuits were doing a full loop. Whatever your swimming ability, the water’s very accessible (and for an English person there’s the added bonus that you don’t have to check the sewage forecast). I dried off in the sun, reading and watching ducks diving for food and dragonflies buzzing around the flowers. Bliss.
Results from parkrun #124, 24/6/23; 24 finishers
And a quick word about pronunciation. Even after several weeks in Sweden, I did not have this sorted, other than that the ö is er/a. The town of Växjö is “ve-qua”, so I think that makes the lake “ve-qua-shern” or something similar, though I’d expect to miss nuance and be corrected.