Milton Keynes parkrun - event 610

On the 22nd April 2023 I ran the Milton Keynes parkrun which was the 610th event held at the venue, my 127th parkrun and 56th different course I'd attended.

As a parkrun tourist I've had to start asking myself how far is too far for touring? Okay, so Whinlatter Forest was pretty much as far as I could have gone for a parkrun in this country but was part of a weekend trip. As was the Monsal Trail and the two I've done overseas. But on a standard Saturday how far is too far to travel, run for 30 minutes and travel back again?

That was the question I pondered to myself when I discovered that Milton Keynes was hosting its 610th parkrun event, a number I needed to collect towards completing the Fibonacci challenge.

These challenges are arbitrary really, a load of nonsense in the scheme of things and aren't rewarded anywhere other than a tick on a mobile app that has accumulated a few fans within the wider parkrun community. I use these numbers, along with Primes and Nelson's to help me navigate which parkrun event I should tour to next otherwise its just Geography. 

From home to Milton Keynes on a Saturday morning at 7am is a 90 minute car journey. There's also the eco considerations to think about - it's not really a particularly 'green' choice either, but I balance that on the fact that I don't travel anywhere else during the week as I work from home and am running for my own health reasons and personal wellbeing. 

I thought 90 minutes was probably fair and probably not something I'd do too often, and I wouldn't look to travel too much further without making something else of the day. Plus from what I'd seen online the Milton Keynes course was one to look out for and visit irrespective of its event number.

A point-to-point course starting and finishing in the vicinity of Willen Lake which is on the southern edge of Milton Keynes and just off of the M1 motorway making it particularly accessible if you wanted to pop by on a longer trip north. Starting and finishing either side of the Ferris wheel that sits on the parkland next to the lake the route takes a meandering route up and down the nearby parkland, recreational areas, public foot paths and lakeside paths.

It's a difficult course to describe accurately, but due to the number of people taking part the start was incredibly congested and so it took a while to spread out and seed myself into the right place in the pack. Starting next to the Camelot theme park runners head up hill before turning right onto a public footpath that has a canal on the left handside, a fairly modern looking housing estate on the right. The footpath is lined both sides with tall, thin trees which if I was more educated I'd be able to tell you what they were.

Whilst on this path, which meanders around in a long wide arc and follows the canal taking you under a dual carriageway for the first time before turning right onto another path lined with trees adorned with cherry blossom (I'm not entirely clueless) leading up and over a bridge across another dual carriageway and down the other side leading to a unique feature of the course - the zig-zags. 

In fact, it's not just a unique feature of the Milton Keynes course its unique (to my knowledge) of any parkrun. Essential participants reach a hill that has two methods of ascending it. One, the direct routes up a series of steps, or two via a zigzagging path that flows up from left to right, right to left, left to right etc all the way to the top.

The feature itself looked and sounded quite taxing, but I felt that I coped with it quite well as I knew that the rest of the course was either downhill or flat. But it was certainly good fun running up the zigzag pathway and overtaking those who weren't able to make it without stopping or those who had to slow down. As it was still not quite halfway around the course there were still a lot of people misplaced and the field was sorting itself out.

After the zig-zags came my favourite part of the course. At the top the path opened up into a lush wide field with the path dipping down in an S shape downwards towards the lake at the bottom which we were heading towards. The path was cut out of the ground so that the field was level with our heads and to the right was a Buddhist Stupa, or Pagoda which could have come from anywhere in the far East and looked slightly out of place in Milton Keynes, a place renown for its roundabouts.

Once at the bottom, the path dipped again under another dual carriageway. it might even be the same road the we cross over and under multiple times, but as the course progresses you come back into view of the large Ferris wheel and are tricked into thinking that the end is not far from sight. The problem is at the t-junction participants approach upon reaching the lake they are directed to turn left.

Turning right would give you short and quick access to the finish and the Ferris wheel. But as we were turning left we had to go loop the long way around the lake and enjoy a scenic, winding route around that took us back under the dual carriageway one final time.

After the complete loop of the lake where we ran by a high wire course and an inflatable water assault course as well as a pub and playground we reached the finish. I came home in 255th place out of a field of 671 participants in a time of 28:09.

On the face of it, the time was one of the slowest this year to date (aside from the ones I've walked with the kids). It was always going to be a challenge with the vast number of participants and not getting away in particularly good time. But I knew and was ready for that before I went. It was all about the venue and a beautiful course. It was that enjoyable that I decided to walk around it again and take photos of the zig zags and the pegoda. If I'm going to travel 90 minutes somewhere to run, I may as well enjoy it whilst I am there and I really did enjoy this one. Shame it's not closer as I'd really love to go back again.