Andy and I were off to Norfolk for the weekend in the Easter holidays, and last time I was there I went to Blickling parkrun, so I had a look to see what would be nearby. The roads around where we were staying are these little twisty single track roads, so 10 miles might be a 30 minute drive, and as we had plans for the rest of the day I didn’t want to go too far. North Walsham was about a 15-20 minute drive away, so it was decided.
The parking for the parkrun was in the town centre, close to the start, and although I parked up at 8:30, I was in the car park for a while as I couldn’t get the machine to work (it kept declining the contactless on the phone)- I had packed an emergency credit card so had to get that from the car and second time around that worked. I then jogged the short distance around to the park- I had seen the parkwalker pink flag on my drive in-and felt the happy feelings that parkrun tourists get when they see all the “caution runner” signs. There was no-one about (and this was maybe 8:45?) and across the field I saw what I thought was the finish funnel. When I got to it, it was parkrun tape, but just taping off a section of the course. I then saw one marshal in high viz (hooray)- but when I asked her where the start was, she very helpfully proceeded to give me a very in depth description of the (complicated) course. I asked her “do I go through that gap in the fence?” and she said “no, er, well, you need to go back to the road, oh, just follow those two runners”- pointing to two people running past on the road outside the park. I thanked her and ran after them, but when I got to the road they had disappeared from my view- I saw a little alleyway down the side of a building and took a chance (as they couldn’t have gone that far) and thankfully came out onto the field in view of the purple pop up.
My photo with Stanley and the parkwalker flag that took me to the public park and not the start/finish area
As I snapped a photo I heard the call for the first timers welcome- that was lucky timing!
So, the course. It sounds complicated, as you start in the middle of one of the laps (see above!)- but basically one lap of the school field, one lap of the public park, a second lap of the school field, a second lap of the public park, a final lap of the school field and then a loop around to get into the finish funnel (also in the school field)- you passed the finish funnel on your third lap of the school field at around 2.5 miles and I bet some people have run in there rather than complete their final lap!
Anyway, we were told that if there were pairs of cones, run between them, and if there were lines of cones, run next to them, and that seemed to pretty much work.
After the first timers welcome, one of the volunteers asked the tourists to stay for a photo, so I got a picture holding their Stanley (the little dog mascot), and then the main briefing began. There were a few milestones and celebrations, and they called out where some of the tourists were from, and then we were off.
A few photos from the route plus my token
The course was fairly flat. I’d worn trail shoes after seeing that advice in the parkrun tourists facebook group, although as it had been so dry leading up to it, road shoes would have been fine. I could imagine that it would be very muddy in the winter though as you are all on the grass pretty much the entire time. There were a few signs on the course with arrows for laps 1, 2 and 3, and loads of cones. There were also so many marshals out- in some places there were 3 together. There were a few points where you passed the same marshal but in a different direction and on a different section of the course, so at those points some marshals would be facing you, and others facing other runners on a different part of the route. It was all so friendly and of course on a sunny day it looked wonderful. As you left the public park you ran through a little copse and it just looked so pretty with the sun shining through the trees.
I did get slightly disoriented as I left the public park for the final time- thinking I was going to turn left after the woods but in fact had to go forwards further before turning, but this was fine as there was a fence where I thought I needed to turn, and cones out everywhere. It was just that sort of feeling where you anticipate turning and then realise you can’t.
I really enjoy these courses where you can see lots of the route too- it makes it feel more of a communal event with runners ahead and behind. They had a pb bell and as I was running around the school field for the final time I kept hearing it go, and then everyone clapping after, so that just added to the community feelings. It didn’t feel like a long time before I was heading into the finish funnel (and I did double check my watch before I turned in there!).
The little copse and then the pop up sign
After scanning and putting my token into their chocolate box collection container, I asked some other tourists for a pop up photo and then headed out of the park and over to Dark Room Chocolates. I cannot remember how I found out about this place, but at some point in lockdown I ordered some buns from them, as they used to make amazing vegan cinnamon buns, cardamom buns, almond buns etc. (all plant based). I think they maybe had a cafe in Norwich or somewhere that you could collect them from, but at some point their business pivoted from baking to making chocolate, and now they make chocolate (two ingredient chocolate too-just cacao and sugar) and have a little cafe that is only open on Saturday mornings, in North Walsham. The cafe is plant based, and they do hot chocolate, iced chocolate and coffee, and then a range of based goods, as well as all of their chocolate bars- you can even get a flight of their chocolate to taste all the different types.
Just some of the many cakes on display and my iced hot chocolate
I’m glad I had looked online as it is by a car park and looks from the outside like an industrial building, but inside there were tables with lots of people eating and tasting the chocolate. I ordered an iced hot chocolate to go, and got a couple of cakes for us to share later on, but there was a huge selection. The iced hot chocolate was so good. I didn’t get any of the chocolate bars as it was a warm day and I thought they would end up melting in the car (and if not then, on the journey home on Sunday), but the iced hot chocolate was perfect in the heat.
I had a banana in the car to eat too before I drove back to our AirBnB, and then it was time to have a quick shower and then head out for the day to some National Trust places (including Sheringham which does have a parkrun but would have been a bit too far to go in the morning and get back) and Blickling (previously visited) as we knew it was a nice one.
So, the all important voronoi map has been updated- the best thing about the runs close to the coast is that you get a rather huge purple segment going into the sea!
I also saw on the 5K app that I completed the Vegan Runner challenge (run a parkrun beginning with each of those letters- I needed one more N), and I have now done the compass challenge twice, as this was my second North, but I had already been to 5 South ones, 3 East ones and 2 West ones.
And the stats- that was my 399th parkrun (yes, the big arbitrary 400th next weekend) and my 129th location. All being well my 400th will be a new location too, fingers crossed.
So, another lovely weekend with some parkrun tourism in there, as well as lots of exploring and fresh air.
