York parkrun - event 450

York parkrun

On the 4th March 2023 I ran the York parkrun which was the 450th event held at the venue, my 120th parkrun and 50th different course I'd attended.

Any UK based parkrunner with ambitions to tick off a parkrun beginning with each letter of the alphabet is likely to have a commute on their hands. Until very recently there was only one parkrun that began with Y. Pre-COVID, you had the option of Yeovil Montague or York, but the former fell by the wayside. In recent weeks Yarborough Leisure Centre has popped up doubling the opportunities available, but based In Lincolnshire it is still a sizeable effort to get there for many.

My parkrun itinerary has been planned around reaching York in time to celebrate my 50th different parkrun venue. This was why, over the festive period I elected to run at events I'd already visited before as otherwise it would have meant falling out of sync.

Looking at the football calendar, Gillingham were due to play Harrogate Town on March 4th. A ground I hadn't visited before - in fact yesterdays visit was the first by Gillingham in their history. So what better occasion than to combine an obsession with parkrun and football?

When I mentioned the idea to Stephanie, the response was lukewarm at best. "You want me to go away with you for the weekend so I can watch you do parkrun and then watch football?". So I suggested we invite our dear friends Carly and Reaso and make it a couple's weekend. That way us boys can go do what we need to do on the Saturday and the girls can enjoy the sights of York and/or Harrogate and spend a relaxing day of leisure, away from the hassle of the kids.

Plans were made, Airbnb's were booked and so Stephanie and I made our way up by train on Friday morning and spent the afternoon on a whistlestop bar tour around York. We did a little bit of sightseeing, walking up the Shambles, a medieval street in the centre of the city that was reputed to be the inspiration behind Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter novels.

Carly and Reaso arrived later as Carly couldn't get out of work until late. But with a two hour journey from London, York is easily accessible at any time of day.

After a Friday night tour of a shipping container complex with craft beer and artisan food we head into York for cocktails and shots - all great preparation for parkrun in the morning!

We woke up, rather worse for wear and the usual voice in my head questioning my sanity. "Why are you up at 7:30 on a Saturday morning to run 5k around a field with a bunch of strangers?" I questioned my wisdom even further once we had stepped outside of the AirBnB and caught wind of the temperature. It was going to be a chilly one!

Taking the first steps of a 27,000 daily step intake, Reaso and I head for York Racecourse on foot. I'd chosen the AirBnB specifically as it was in easy reach of both the town centre and the parkrun, which proved to be correct. 

Arriving with plenty of time to spare we got chatting to some of the local volunteers who explained the course to us. As we were on the edge of the racecourse we could see it outlined perfectly around us.

Essentially there is a maintenance path around the inside of the main racecourse circuit itself. This path, concrete and flat runs in almost a perfectly oval shape. It does come 90 degrees inwards at the north-western point of the oval before turning 90 degrees again which runs perfectly straight to the southern end of the axis.

The course is a lap and two thirds of the main path, and from anywhere on the circuit you can the whole route laid out in the distance. The start and finish are on either side of the course, and so after dropping our coats and drinks bottles at the finish we made our way across the grass to the opposite side of the course where the start was filling up with a stream of people.

York parkrun is a well attended, popular course. Not least because of the number of tourists in attendance, but there's also a strong local presence which meant that the start needed to accommodate around 600 people. Whilst the path is comfortably wide enough to accommodate a gathering of runners, it did get very overcrowded at the start and took us nearly a kilometre to find our natural place in the field. It did mean though that I managed to spend a vast majority of the run overtaking people as opposed to being the one being passed them self!

Being flat, the pace itself felt nice and fast, but as we'd lost so much time at the beginning we were definitely playing catch-up. Which I didn't mind as I wasn't there for a PB or to try and run blisteringly quick. It was about enjoying the experience of running around a racecourse for the very first time and enjoying the experience of running with six hundred other people.

As the racecourse is essentially a wide open space there were parts of the course that ran into the cold biting wind. It wasn't a strong breeze by any means but can imagine the going to be a little tougher on the days where the weather is a little more adverse.

After the mandatory lap and two-thirds I took the final turn and faced the final two hundred meters towards the finish line. Being flat and with various people jostling for their final positions it was a perfect sprint finish scenario which I relished and took with gusto!

I finished in 288th place in a time of 28:06 out of a field of 575 participants.

Our day was by no means over. Heading back to the AirBnB we collected more steps, as we did walking to breakfast with the girls and then after as we head to York Station again to commute onwards to Harrogate.

After the highlight of parkrun and the experience exceeding expectations it was typical of Gillingham to play the role of party pooper again playing their part in a dire nil-nil draw against Harrogate Town in one of the least enjoyable games of football I've seen for a while. The highlight of the game was the catering with the burger being one of the best I've had at a football ground and Reaso saying that the pie, mash and gravy was more than a reason to come all the way back again.

Who knows if we will end up back again, we will end up somewhere that's for sure - especially with these parkrun adventures anything is possible.

For the record, my 50 different parkrun venues:

  • Great Lines
  • Bexley
  • Hastings
  • Shorne Woods
  • Cyclopark
  • Maidstone
  • Dartford Heath
  • Ashford
  • Bear Creek Greenbelt
  • Malling
  • Uckfield
  • Dartford
  • Foots Cray Meadows
  • Sittingbourne
  • Orpington
  • Queen Elizabeth
  • Greenwich
  • Mote Park
  • Swanley
  • Lullingstone
  • Warszawa Praga
  • Hoblingwell
  • Thurrock
  • Jersey Farm
  • Monsal Trail
  • Squerryes Winery
  • East Grinstead
  • Pegwell Bay
  • Nonsuch
  • Folkestone
  • Kingdom
  • The Leas
  • Walmer and Deal Seafront
  • Bushy Park
  • Charlton
  • Bedgebury Pinetum
  • Canterbury
  • Royal Tunbridge Wells
  • Whitstable
  • Tonbridge
  • Margate
  • Victoria Dock
  • Billericay
  • Sutcliffe
  • Mile End
  • Bromley
  • Peckham Rye
  • Lordship Recreation Ground
  • Southwark
  • York

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