Where is everyone?

Some fine parkrun tourism.

06/09/25 : Cassiobury 

This was my first proper parkrun tourism - heading away from St Albans to see what their event offers. My eldest was, of course, responsible - we were off to see Tia, one of her friends from uni and we'd carefully arranged to meet her at the café beforehand, so time was allowed for chatting. The event is 19km away in Watford and I know the traffic can be terrible on a Saturday morning, so I allowed some time for that. It's also in a very big park and I had no idea how close the parking was to the start, so I allowed some more time for that...

...and so, to no-one's surprise in the family, we were there very early. We were also very much on our own - not only were there was no sign of a friend, there was no sign of any runners at all. Hmmm. Ah, hold on, there are TWO cafés - time for a speedy warm-up walk! By the time we got to the start line, there was no time to experience the other café (there was always afterwards) but there were two minutes to see Tia before she headed off to the front because she's super speedy and wasn't going to hang around for the likes of us.

But we didn't have to go too far back, because this event has a MASSIVELY wide start-line - so much so that it was quite tricky to hear the main race briefing from the other end (there was no first timers briefing at all - controversial!) but we didn't really have to hear anything to work out that you just run round the path (which runs past some very impressive mature trees) a few (2.75) times

And so that's what we did - and this was a unique (so far) event because Emily and I ran it together. She fancied a PB and I fancied myself as being just the person to give her the guidance she required (and I was basing that on absolutely nothing more than being confident I could run the time she was looking for). The course is nearly all on a solid (tarmac?) path with a gentle gradient across the full length of the course, with the top being approximately five metres higher than the bottom. It is shared with the general public but it's pretty wide and it seems like most people know that maybe 9am on a Saturday isn't the best time to go for an amble, so it was very easy to navigate.

All of which (along with my excellent coaching) made it straightforward for Emily to gain her PB with us getting around in 37:27, finishing in 560th and 561st place - it's a popular course! Completely coincidentally, we were heading back into Watford a week later to go to the dentist so it was agreed I would be seen last (lucky dentist!) so I could do the course again. I thought it was PB territory and I managed it, getting round in 27:59, which was easily my fastest 5k at the time (although I still finished 300th!).

All of which brings us to arguably the high point of the morning - the café afterwards! It's a very short walk from the finish line and, whilst very busy, is incredibly organised with a queue out the door which moves quickly because they take your order and name and then you head outside to wait for your drinks to be delivered to you. And Emily managed to catch up with her friend - she was there with her dad who was amusingly annoyed that he hadn't cracked 21 minutes and was blaming the "hills". We took the completely mature approach to this - we just laughed at him and invited him to Jersey Farm.

So it's a well attended and well organised event on a beautiful, flat, wide course with a good surface underfoot with a good social element - all the elements of a successful event imho. I think it's top of my list of events I'd travel to in order to revisit, not least because I think it's probably the fastest course I've run - it's either this or Moussette, and this is a LOT easier to get to. So there's a good chance I'll be back there next year when I'm desperate to break 25 minutes - and I'm very much looking forward to it.