Swanley parkrun - event 34

On the 25th June 2022 I ran the Swanley parkun which was the 34th event held at the venue, my 84th parkrun and 19th different course I'd attended.

I've been to Swanley many times, mostly to the White Oak Leisure centre to enjoy the flumes and diving boards before the council built a new modern facility that features neither of those things. But until yesterday I'd never been to the park - evidently I'd been missing out.

Swanley park contains an abundance of family friendly activities from a boating lake, extensive play apparatus, paddling pool and mini-railway. Stephanie had been before with the children when Oliver was younger but I was there for none of those things.

Like last week at Mote Park my scheduled visit was planned to coincide with the event number matching one of the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence - this time around being the number 34. I've now completed the first 8 of the 14 numbers listed in the challenge with other events planned for later in the year.

In all honesty, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this event. I wasn't expecting too much of it as I knew that majority of it was going to be on grass and trail I wasn't expecting much either in the way of time. However I'm glad to say that both of those worries never materialised!

The Swanley course, looking at the top down view on the course description page of the website is a difficult one to describe. Having now run it, it makes more sense but it does look like the instruction manual for tying a ribbon around a birthday present or doing up your shoelaces.

The event starts at the top of tree lined path in the middle of the park with the lake to your right. It's a downhill start which was good fun, but concerning as it meant that the finish would consist of an uphill sprint.

At the bottom of the hill participants take a left turn and run the out-and-back section of the course. This path is mostly trail, and quite thin so to overtake you need to pass on the grass and I would imagine in winter/autumn months it would be tough going.

As it's not a particularly long out section, you are soon running two abreast as the quicker runners head back towards you. There are places where it does open up so you don't necessarily need a lot of patience if you find yourself out of place, there are plenty of opportunities to pass.

At the end of the out and back you reach the middle of the 'knot' or 'hub' section where the course intersects at various places, including the start/finish straight, out and back section and both east and west loops (or bows if you are still thinking of the shoelace analogy). Participants then turn left again for the western loop which takes you around the perimeter of the western field of the park. Half of this is taken on grass and the other a hard cinder path which is a nice respite from the grass which was long and flapping annoyingly against the ankles.

After this loop is completed you rejoin and pass through the central knot, past the start/finish straight to your right and run into the eastern field along past the lake on your left hand side. Both loops are marked out with bright pink little flags, so there's no chance of taking a wrong turn. You could be forgiven for thinking that the course looks and sounds confusing, but it isn't in reality. As you reach the far side of the field you take a right and it's an upward climb to.the back of the course via a trail path.

Like the Dartford parkrun, which is relatively close by the hill is short and sharp and not particularly daunting. Again, like Dartford I'd imagine it being a tough slog in the winter months, but once you reach the top, over the crest it's back downhill again and a return back to the hub of the course.

As runners continuously intersect with the hub and the two lap nature of the course you are constantly interacting with other participants. By no means is it congested or does the course cross-over each other. The paths are designed to be wide enough for this to never be an issue. Once back in the central hub participants head left again past the start/finish straight into the out-and-back where the second lap is undertaken.

Once the second lap is completed and participants return to the central hub it's a final left hand turn to run up the path to the finish. It's a decent length to run uphill and naturally I wanted to finish with a flourish so I gave it as full beans as I could. I may or may not have used a four letter word as I crossed the finish line!

After I'd rested for a bit and found my water bottle, I stopped to enjoy watching some of the later battles between other finishers, particularly three ladies who were going great guns and racing fiercely against each other. Whilst parkrun isn't designed to be competitive there are plenty of times when an healthy competitive edge comes to the fore. Each one of those ladies was pushing the other one on and as a result I'm sure they would have been much quicker than had they been running individually instead of part of a pack.

As I said previously, I wasn't expecting much. But I thoroughly enjoyed this one in the end. Maybe I'm finally getting used to running on grass with some of my recent experiences. There was also a really, lovely friendly atmosphere which I really appreciated. The course was interesting and I felt it was a challenge without being challenging. Have said this about most events recently, but it would.be great to go back!

I finished in 37th place with a time of 28:32 which was the 6th fastest time I'd recorded at parkrun.