I’ve been touring a fair bit recently, and this weekend was no different. Branka was achieving her Cowell (100 different parkrun events) and wanted to go to Egham as it was near to her uni. Dad was keen to come too as he is closing in on his Cowell too (this was his 93rd event), and after enjoying the trip last week, Mum came along too.
Holly and Branka were going to meet us there, but of course the weather forecast was not playing ball, with flash flooding and lightning predicted. I had originally planned to pick up my parents as they are on the way to the M25, but I asked Dad to drive so that I could check my phone in the car, as if Egham cancelled we would divert elsewhere. Dad was a bit apprehensive about us travelling that far when I got there, as he was (understandably) worried about flash flooding, but as the rain had not been too heavy by that time, and the lightning wasn’t then due until the afternoon, after a message from Holly about how the roads were OK, he was happy to go for it. The journey was OK, with some spray from vehicles and a few slower sections but nothing like we had expected.
The parking is next to the leisure centre, with friendly marshals pointing you to the overflow car park. The course page mentions that you have to cross a level crossing, which may be closed for up to ten minutes, so definitely factor that into your journey time. As we exited the motorway we could see the section of red road on google maps, but by the time we got there is was back to being blue, so it must have been closed during that time.
There are toilets in the leisure centre, but only 2 cubicles, so there was a bit of a queue which meant we missed some of the first timers welcome. Never mind, the RD (who was brilliant, very engaging) had us all chant “three, three, nearly two” to help us remember the laps. I was pretty convinced that I would get lost or go wrong, but it was fairly simple. At one point I ran past the start/finish area, and carried on straight (as there was a cone there) before realising I had to go right and go around the perimeter of the field, but with the volunteers there I don’t think they would have let me go off the route.
The first 3 laps were anti-clockwise laps of the field by the leisure centre, you then went under the motorway (through the “party tunnel”) and then did 3 clockwise laps of a little wooded area, before going back through the tunnel and doing basically 2 laps of the leisure centre field again. The “nearly” aspect is because you come out of the tunnel part of the way around the field. Dad quite liked that we did both clockwise and anti-clockwise laps, just like the M25 that we passed under. It was strange to hear the constant hum of the traffic- it really was quite noisy even with the thick row of trees between the park and the motorway.
I ran with Holly, with Dad going off ahead (not on purpose but he is a bit quicker and so naturally ended up further ahead), and Branka was parkwalking with one of her friends, Adam. I thought we would see them more during the course, but we passed them during our third lap of the first field, and that was all. Apparently Branka saw us at one point but we were too busy chatting (sounds about right). I only saw Dad when he had finished and we were doing our final lap of the leisure centre.
The first three laps had quite wide paths, so being overtaken was OK, but the wooded section was very narrow. I thought that we would have been finished being overtaken by that point, but in the woods we still had people coming up behind us, and we still overtook a few people too.
For a lapped course (and basically nearly 8 laps) it did not feel repetitive, and I agreed with Holly who said she enjoyed it a lot more than she had expected to. It was flat apart from a little downhill slope on the leisure centre laps, the wooded section had some tree roots to look out for, and there would be some shade on a hot day. The event team really shone though, they were all so friendly and this really added to the occasion.
After the horrendous forecast, the weather actually wasn’t too bad. There was some rain, but it wasn’t heavy for the most part. After I had scanned, I ended up chatting to Shelley, who I know on Insta (another With Me Now pod connection- and I saw later on that her friend Kel was also there), and then we saw Branka and Adam coming around so decided to join them on their final lap. I made sure I moved way over a long time before the finish funnel, but the timer volunteer still called over to me to check I had meant to avoid the funnel. (Side note- as mentioned above, the timer had a mini umbrella to cover the phone which was total genius!)
We chatted for a bit longer with some of the volunteers, and then headed into Egham for brunch. The leisure centre cafe looked nice (nicer than the one at Jubilee) but it was mainly coffee and cake, and we wanted breakfast food, so the Liberto Lounge had been chosen. It’s around half a mile away, so you could leave your car and walk in, but it was raining heavily by this point and so we drove and parked in the Tesco (this was what one of the volunteers recommended when we asked).
Leisure centre lap, the woods section, breakfast and everyone heading off at the start.
If you’ve not been, the Lounge chains are really good for mixed parties, as you scan a QR code at the table and order and pay, (or you can order at the bar)- this means no worries about splitting the bill or anything like that. They also have an entire vegan menu, and are good at catering for different dietary requirements. I opted for the avocado on toast, tea with oat milk, and I loved that the jug came with a little oat milk sticker on it as this is one of the things I am most paranoid about.
Holly and I gave Branka a Cowell notch (a gold one, as apparently that is rules!) to mark the occasion. It’s been fun to join in with so many of their touring adventures. We spent ages chatting (mainly about parkrun touring but also other topics), and later on were joined by Branka’s friend Ruth, who had been token sorting. It was a lovely laid back morning, and it had even stopped raining by the time we walked back to the car!
So that was my 412th parkrun, and 137th location. It doesn’t count towards the Lon-DONE challenge, but it does count towards the Lon-DONE+ (which is all the parkruns with a section of the voronoi map inside the M25…. yes those challenges are quite specific!). It does give me another nice purple chunk- you can see I am less likely to visit the parkruns close to Heathrow!
Up next- a holiday, so a few Saturdays will be parkrun-less for me, but I am hoping to repeat one while I am away (no new events).
