I was down in Brighton for the half marathon weekend, and our hotel was less than a mile along the seafront to Hove Prom parkrun. However, when I put it in my planner on the 5k app, it said it was cancelled that day. (This turned out to be because the half marathon had a new start and finish area on Hove Lawns- Andy noticed this by chance as otherwise we could have easily turned up at the wrong place on Sunday!)
So, where to go? Preston Park was also within reach, but would have meant a longer walk there and back, and I was meant to be resting my legs ahead of the half marathon. I looked on the 5k app and noticed my Brighton NENDY was Peacehaven parkrun, 11km from Brighton city centre, and an easy looking bus ride away, so it was decided. Happily, an OH lady (Jan) had moved down to Brighton and said she would be there on Saturday morning too!
The buses were every 20 mins or so on Saturday morning, so of course I didn’t get the latest bus, or the one before that, in case there were any issues or I missed one, so I ended up getting the bus at 7:45 which got me into Peacehaven at around 8:10. The weather was beautiful- frosty and bright, so I had a little detour down to the seafront before heading up to the park. I had left my sunglasses in the hotel as our room overlooked an atrium, and the weather app told me it was misty. It was definitely sunny so that helped with my decision to wear my sunglasses on the Sunday for the half.
It was very easy to to find from the main road, and as soon as you arrived in the park you could see the high viz, the finish funnel and lots of signs. Perfect. I got a selfie with the pop up, and then a local couple began chatting to me about parkrun tourism in general (seeing me take the photo made them assume I was a tourist). Soon after, Jan arrived, and then I also chatted to Nadiah who I follow on insta (Hoopy Vegan Runner).
The event had such a friendly vibe. I feel like I say this a lot, but honestly every person who spoke to me was so friendly (including the tail walker who was dressed head to toe in gold sparkly clothes as it was her 50th milestone the previous week, and she had ordered the outfit, only for it to arrive on Saturday afternoon, so she decided to wear it this week instead- fab), and it just had such community vibes. The new runners welcome was done jointly between an adult and child (the same child set the runners off and was also barcode scanning at the end), and the main briefing was filled with lots of personal touches, eg celebrating locals birthdays etc.
The route- start with the out and back, then do the loop, and repeat 3 times.
The route was lovely too. It was three laps, and each lap had an out and back section and then a loop, so you could often see lots of other participants at different places (which I love), it was pretty flat and all on paths apart from the finish funnel which was on grass (no mud though which was a welcome change from the past few weeks).
I ran with Jan and we had a lovely catch up, and before I knew it the three laps were over! I loved the way they collected their finish tokens- in repurposed charity collection tub.
I wanted to head back quickly and Jan kindly gave me a lift part of the way (she did offer for the whole way but I did not want her getting stuck in Brighton Saturday traffic)- this was perfect timing as when she dropped me off the bus was one minute away! I was back in Brighton by 10 and met up with Andy who had popped out to get us some breakfast.
All in all, a lovely parkrun morning. That was my 393rd parkrun, and 127th location, so of course here is the new map screenshot:
