Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun - event 359

On the 26th November 2022 I ran the Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun which was the 359th event held at the venue, my 104th parkrun and 38th different course I'd attended.

As Tonbridge parkrun was called off again for the second week in a row due to localised flooding I was able to regig my planner once more, opting instead to run at Tonbridge's near neighbour - Royal Tunbridge Wells.

I had originally planned to run here a few weeks back but issues with my foot and a gout diagnosis put pay to that, but I'd been looking forward to this one, not just for ticking off another Kent parkrun venue but to finally tick off 'R' from the parkrun Alphabet.

The event is one of those that are fairly well covered on social media with YouTube videos of the course so I had a pretty good sense of what to expect. I'd also been to Dunorlan Park as a child and could remember it for its beauty. It's located on a valley with a lake at the bottom, there are formal garden areas, a play area and as it's towards the edge of town surrounded by fields.

I arrived early and managed to get a space in the limited main car park. The park isn't officially open until 9am, but the gates were open and there were a few spaces taken from early dog walkers and other park visitors. There is another car park across the other side of the park which I'd left myself some room for in case of contingency.

Once I'd arrived I took a walk around the course as I tend to try and do, taking the odd photograph and seeing what the terrain is like. The park was indeed as pretty as I remembered, albeit certainly more hilly! The sun was sat low behind the trees on one side of the park causing some lovely autumnal light and shadows across the lake. One thing I also noticed was how much standing water was on the grass - this was going to be a muddy event!

My assumption was confirmed during the pre-race briefing where we were advised to be careful of some muddy areas. This was a two lap event, half on grass and the other on firm paths. The grass areas were fairly saturated and muddy/slippery in areas.

As I'd been having a bit of an issue with my knee during the week I lined myself up at the start fairly loosely towards the back with a plan to start gently and to see how things went as I progressed but as we made our way around the beginning of the first lap I found myself caught up in congestion as the path was quite narrow and running on the grass was precarious at back.

From the start at the north side of the park, not far from the main carpark participants run down hill in an arc so by the time they reach they bottom of the hill they are running in the opposite direction from which they started. At the bottom of the hill the path follows the lake for a while before crossing over it via a wooden bridge. This too was one of the early pinch points, so had I been looking to run a competitive time my starting position would have been key.

Once across the bridge, the path turns right and heads deeper into the park. The path, although firm was full of puddles and there was a fair bit of hop, skip, jumping from participants or for those more accustomed to the environment simply running straight through them.

After a while a marshall point is met and they divert participants from the path onto the grass which is where the first mud patch is navigated. The grass part is actually rather good fun, it follows the perimeter of a field or two and undulates up and downwards. There is one element where you run down the side of one field, turn 180 degrees through a cut in the tres and run back up the neighbouring field in the same direction you've just come. As you run around the fields and cross from one to another there are multiple mud patches to run through and so it becomes a judgement match on how fast you feel safe running whilst trying to keep grip and balance.

Eventually the lap makes its way back around to the lake and the course transitions again between field and firm path. This transition is arguably the worst of the mud patches and possibly the most lethal as it's at the bottom of a hill and so participants are generally running with a bit more pace with gravity behind them.

It might feel like a relief to be off the grass and on firmer footing, but the joy is short lived as the path swings around to the left and winds its way back up hill again towards the start. As the top of the hill the path takes a sharp left back down where the second lap begins, or at the end of the second turns right, continuing upwards to where the finish line awaits.

I did find the second lap particularly tough. There were places where I felt my legs just couldn't keep going and felt particularly heavy. The mud also played a part on a couple of occasions when I thought I'd end up on my arse, but the trail shoes did their job. I also peaked too soon at the end and couldn't quite make it all the way up without stopping. I thought Bedgebury had an evil finish, but this one was certainly up there!

I finished in 118th place out of a field of 218 participants in a time of 31:05. My finish token was actually number 117, but this wasn't reflected in the official results.

Next stop Whitstable and the countdown to the last thre parkruns in Kent continues.