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Panshanger parkrun - event 536

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On the 7th February 2026 I ran the Panshanger parkrun which was the 536th event held at the venue, my 275th parkrun and 189th different course I'd attended. Running during the winter months can be a precarious pastime. Ice, snow, rain and mud are all potential obstacles that can get in the way of a good morning out. Luckily for me I like and enjoy those conditions and find it all rather fun.  There is the cautionary parkrun tourist who plans their winter based itinerary around venues and course that are tarmac based and save the grass based courses for the summer. I take it on a week by week basis and a luck of the draw. If a course is a trail based event and had a possibility of mud, then so be it. If it's hilly and on tarmac, so be that one too. If an event is cancelled due to weather conditions then that is also fine, I'll just rearrange my calendar and visit the next one on the list. Which is why, when I arrived at Panshanger Country park on Saturday morning I arrived ...
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Foots Cray Meadows - event 311

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On the 31st January 2026 I ran the Foots Cray parkrun which was the 311th event held at the venue, my 274th parkrun and 2nd time I'd attended the venue. February is promising to be a busy month. Gillingham are almost Tuesday night, Saturday night back to back for the full month. The week they aren't, I'm taking Hayden to White Hart Lane as a treat. I've also got Uncle Paul's funeral in the West Midlands and so lots of miles on the road. When Foordy asked me what parkrun I was visiting and would I fancy something close by it didn't take me much convincing. Originally I had Dereham in the diary as it was running event 80, which I needed for my Wilson Index, but the thought of a two hour drive there and another two hours back felt unpalatable. So instead I had the enjoyment of looking up closer events that I'd already visited and one that enabled me to get Foordy home in time for a shift at Bluewater later in the day. I last ran Foots Cray Meadows on a warm Ma...
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Fountains Abbey parkrun - event 526

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On the 24th January 2026 I ran the Fountains Abbey parkrun which was the 526th event held at the venue, my 273rd parkrun and 188th different course I'd attended. There are parkruns and then there are parkruns. The events that are 'must visit' or 'iconic', at least in the eyes of the parkrun tourist community. It's an elite list of parkrun venues which stand out as scenic, brutal or both. Whinlatter Forest for its elevation and scenery, Great Yarmouth North Beach for running on sand and Woolacombe Dunes for its location and tough as nails course. Fountains Abbey is often spoken of and features weekly on Facebook groups as one of the most beautiful and scenic parkrun courses in the UK. Bring based near Ripon, North Yorkshire it's an event that's not exactly on the doorstep. Fortunately as a football fan and supporting Gillingham around the country there are opportunities for me to combine two things, parkrun with love of the beautiful game. Once the footb...
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Crane Park parkrun - event 644

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On the 17th January 2026 I ran the Crane Park parkrun which was the 644th event held at the venue, my 272nd parkrun and 187th different course I'd attended. I had it all planned out. Crane Park, followed by Ingrebourne hill. And I would have successfully visited all 65 parkruns in Greater London. But then up popped Greenwich Peninsula parkrun and made it 66 events. Which might just be another one to add to the list, but my self-imposed rule of not running the same event number more than twice means that I'm not going to run the new parkrun in Greenwich for at least a year. LonDone status is going to have to wait. There is also the risk here that the day before I eventually run Greenwich Peninsula parkrun another new venue appears and the whole wait starts over again. Oh well! Me and my silly rules. Anyhow, we can't control the future, so let's make the most of today. And today was the turn of Crane parkrun, where once again I was joined by Foordy who had his first tast...
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Castle Park parkrun - event 356

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On the 10th January 2026 I ran the Castle Park parkrun which was the 356th event held at the venue, my 271st parkrun and 186th different course I'd attended. It was a case of third time lucky on Saturday morning as I made it to Bishops Stortford for Castle Park parkrun. I had attempted to run the event on two previous occasions but hadn't made it. The first, last summer due to a night in A&E as Steph had a Gall Bladder episode and more recently on New Year's Eve when my friends convinced me to run somewhere more local. I was joined again by Foordy who continued his parkrun renaissance on another cold and chilly morning. We followed the instructions given to us by the event website and found ourselves at a Waitrose carpark which had strict parking signs up that prohibited stays longer than two hours and stated a minimum spend must be made in the adjoining store. Debating whether to move and find elsewhere to park we worked out that we would be able to be well within tim...
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Sizewell parkrun - event 318

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On the 3rd January 2026 I ran the Sizewell parkrun which was the 318th event held at the venue, my 270th parkrun and 185th different course I'd attended. After revisiting Dartford Heath on New Year's Day I was keen to get back on the tourist trail and continue with my Saturday morning adventures. Foordy had joined me for two of the last three parkrun days and being back from injury I think he's secretly got the bug back again. So when he called me and said he wanted to buy a pair of shoes and needed to pick them up in Bury St Edmunds I knew there was an opportunity to be had. I might just add a caveat here, and state that this is typical random Foordy behaviour and my eyebrows would have been raised had I had this conversation with someone else. Bury St Edmunds does of course have its own parkrun event, and the sensible thing would have been to visit the parkrun in town and pop to whichever shop we needed to afterwards to pick up the aforementioned shoes. But that was too ...
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Dartford Heath parkrun - event 324

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On the 1st January 2026 I ran the Dartford Heath parkrun which was the 324th event held at the venue, my 269th parkrun and the second time I'd visited the event. As per Christmas Day, it's become a recent tradition to start the new year with a parkrun. I had planned a fairly low-key New Year's Eve and wanted to start 2026 by getting up early and driving over to Bishop's Stortford to tick off Castle Park parkrun. But like the previous time I'd planned to visit the event, my best laid plans were scrapped into the bin on the night before. Talking with Foordy, Aimee and Reaso on New Year's Eve whilst enjoying a few light beverages they managed to strike a deal. They'd join me at parkrun in the morning providing they didn't need to get up quite so late. Fair deal all things considered, so a quick review of the 5k app allowed a new plan to be put into place. I last ran Dartford Heath in 2022 right at the beginning of my parkrun tourism journey. It was when I ...
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Great Dunmow parkrun - event 303

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On the 27th December 2025 I ran the Great Dunmow parkrun which was the 303rd event held at the venue, my 268th parkrun and 184th different course I'd attended. 2025 has been another year of remarkable parkrun activities. I missed three weekends, one where I was injured and twice through supporting Stephanie through her Gall Stone problems. Its not lost on me that although I supported her for two weekends out of 52, without her support in letting me do my thing I literally wouldn't be able to do what I do. Her selflessness in taking the children to their clubs on a Saturday morning means she too has an early start to her weekend and in my mine, not nearly as an enjoyable one. But she does meet her sister for breakfast at a local cafe for a weekly catch-up so it's not all parental duty. Of all those weeks attendance in 2025, I never repeated a week at the same venue, but I did manage to revisit three events, including another visit to my 'home' parkrun at Cyclopark, ...
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Maidstone River Park parkrun - event 593

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On the 25th December 2025 I ran the Maidstone River Park parkrun which was the 593rd event held at the venue, my 267th parkrun and the second time I'd visited the event. In recent years it has been a new tradition to attend parkrun on Christmas Day to get the festivities under way. This is normally attended at Great Lines, but as I'd racked up a list of 99 different parkrun events without repeat I had to find somewhere else to keep the run going and hit the centenary figure. We may have an abundance of parkrun venues close by to Gravesend, but not everyone runs a Christmas Day event and so the pickings were a few far and between. I had to also consider that it wasn't Great Lines that would upset my tourist streak, Dartford, Bexley and Leybourne Lakes would also see my streak reset. Fortunately Maidstone River Park were running, and as I hadn't visited the event since 2022 my tourist streak was well protected. It was also a venue that I hadn't blogged about before, ...
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