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Bug Hunter Waters parkrun - event 71

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On the 15th November 2025 I ran the Bug Hunter Waters parkrun which was the 71st event held at the venue, my 262nd parkrun and 179th different course I'd attended. Big Hunter Waters is a relatively new event, and it was due to that fact that found me travelling up the M11 nice and early on a Saturday morning. I was looking to run an event that filled a gap in my Wilson Index. For those not paying attention the Wilson Index is the maximum number of contiguous event numbers that I have attended. That number currently stands at 59, but I've gaps throughout the 60s and 70s which I am trying to fill with a longer term goal of getting a Wilson Index of 100. This does mean, with events being fairly few and far between at lower ends of the event number spectrum that to achieve this goal that I may need to travel a little bit further than perhaps is sensible. I am fully aware that travelling distances on a Saturday morning, just for the pleasure of running 5k for half an hour of my tim...
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Somerdale Pavilion parkrun - event 234

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On the 8th November 2025 I ran the Somerdale Pavilion parkrun which was the 234th event held at the venue, my 261st parkrun and 178th different course I'd attended. There are a handful of parkrun events that have gained iconic status. Events such as Whinlatter Forest, Woolacambe Dunes, Fountains Abbey and Great Yarmouth North Beach are often spoken about by parkrun tourists as 'must visits' and are notorious for either being a challenge or just breathtakingly beautiful. Somerdale Pavillion parkrun fits into the upper echelon of 'special' category and is famed specifically for it's quite bonkers course layout and 'curly wurly'. Which is the name given to the spiral part of course that winds around in a circle to the centre and comes back out again, all on a single path. Football once again came to my support and was used as a vehicle to make parkrun tourism more palatable. Driving three hours to Keynsham just for a 5k run is difficult to justify in anyon...
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Wormwood Scrub parkrun - event 671

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On the 1st November 2025 I ran the Wormwood Scrubs parkrun which was the 671st event held at the venue, my 260th parkrun and 177th different course I'd attended. A week after ticking off Greater London event number 62, it was back up to the Big Smoke again for number 63. Although this time around I was a little unsure on the best way to get there. In recent trips to London venues it's been easy to drive, but with Wormwood Scrubs being located fairly centrally my first thought was to head in by train. From Gravesend, or Ebbsfleet getting into London on Saturday morning can be a quick, if not expensive way of travel. Adding on the cost of car parking at Ebbsfleet and the connecting tube via the Central Line the cost of commuting to Wormwood Scrubs proved quite off-putting. However, the scrubs has a fairly reasonable sized carpark and despite a route that took me through central London driving once again proved to be the more viable option. For an added bonus I even managed two t...
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Osterley parkrun - event 544

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On the 25th October 2025 I ran the Osterley parkrun which was the 544th event held at the venue, my 259th parkrun and 176th different course I'd attended. Over the course of the year I've steadily been ticking off the Greater London venues, so that by the time Saturday morning had come around I had ticked off 60 of the 65 venues across the region. Having visited almost all of what Greater London has to offer I could say that I've seen it all. From venues with over 1,000 participants. Venues with multiple laps, multiple hills or in the case of Thames Path Woolwich a Walnut Whip/Curly Wirly feature slap bang in the middle of the course. Across a size of 607 square miles the 9,000,000 inhabitants of London are spoilt for choice on Saturday mornings, but those living in the west are fortunate in that they will.have slightly easier access to Osterley, which until Saturday was to me just a stop on the Piccadilly line. But it is of course much, much more than that. A national tru...
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Thonock Lane Farm parkrun - event 104

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On the 18th October 2025 I ran the Thonock Lane Farm parkrun which was the 104th event held at the venue, my 258th parkrun and 175th different course I'd attended. This season's league two lineup once again consists of a large northern based majority. Not quite as strong as recent seasons but as an away supporter it has meant many miles travelling to north to watch the Gills.  The fixture list is computed randomly, and in spitting out our away fixtures majority of the longer northern based trips are this side of Christmas. Which has meant achieving Hayden's goal of watching every League match this season has eaten out of his prospective Christmas budget! As per my previous posts, my go to parkrun venue of choice on our away day travels is the closest one geographically from the stadium that we intend to visit. On this occasion that would have been Cleethorpes but they were running an event number which I've already ran and so therefore doesn't meet my rather arbitr...
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Maldon Prom parkrun - event 555

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On the 11th October 2025 I ran the Maldon Prom parkrun which was the 555th event held at the venue, my 257th parkrun and 174th different course I'd attended. A couple of years ago the parkrun organisers asked the maker of the 5k app to remove some.of the number based challenges that had caused some events to get overwhelmed on occasions that they weren't prepared or expecting it. One of those challenges was the 'nelson' challenge and involved ticking off events 111, 222, 333 etc. My approach to touristing is to visit as many different events as possible and to try and ensure that I visit on a unique event number that I've not ran before. This approach does mean eventually I'll tick all numbers off irrespective of whether they are a prime, nelson or any other that people want to attach a label too  Having already visited 17 of the 24 events in Essex I was keen to tick off yet another one. I had seen plenty of videos filmed at Maldon Prom as a running based YouTu...
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Houghton Hall parkrun - event 330

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On the 4th October 2025 I ran the Houghton Hall parkrun which was the 330th event held at the venue, my 256th parkrun and 173rd different course I'd attended. The first named storm of the season, storm Amy brought with her weather disruption all across the UK with forecasted winds up to 100mph and caused a series of parkrun cancellations across Friday and into Saturday morning. Being well trained by now in the art of the last minute weather related detour, I needed to keep my wits about me and show some of the agility skills I barely get the opportunity to display out there on the course. Although it wasn't just the weather that was causing me logistic challenges. First it was the football calendar, then it was bacon rolls long before Amy came along. Gillingham were scheduled to play MK Dons at Stadium MK which meant that I'd have time to do parkrun in the morning and have time to get to the game by 3pm with one of our more local away games. But the powers that be at Sky t...
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