Leavesden Country parkrun - event 30

Leavesden Country parkrun

On the 20th May 2023 I ran the Leavesden Country parkrun which was the 30th event held at the venue, my 131st parkrun and 60th different course I'd attended.

Of all of the different number challenges of this strange parkrun subculture I've found myself within, the Wilson index (WI) is probably the trickiest one to achieve. Simply put, the WI is the highest numbered event you've attended. If you've never ran an inaugural event then your Wilson Index would be zero. If you run an inaugural and come back the following week your WI would be 2 etc. Even though I've ran at 131 different events my Wi is still only 3, as I've not yet ran at a number 4 . Once I do, my WI will increase to 19 as I've ran at events 5 through to 19... Make sense? 

Anyway, so whenever a new event pops up it's always an opportunity for me to tick off one of my lower, unvisited parkrun event numbers - in this case event 30.

Leavesden Country Park is only hour from home, just around the M25 and not too far from the Movie Studios where they filmed the Harry Potter movies which is now home to a studio tour celebrating the movie franchise.

For the first time this year, it genuinely felt like spring was in the air with bright sunshie and warmth. The grass seemed greener and the trees leafier and full.

Starting from beside the main play park, where there is a cafe complex and toilets the course begins with a start/finish tail that circles a small field before exiting to one side and joining a tarmac path.

The tarmac path is the start of a three lap course that is made up of two halves. The first half of the lap is through woodland, which was lovely in the shade. The woodland area does undulate, albeit rather gently both up and down. After leaving the woodland area the course follows the second half of the lap which is taken all on grass and circumnavigates a football pitch. This area too gently undulates, so does offer a reasonable challenge. Particularly as the grass was fairly long and therefore tricky underfoot.

Doing any course three times oftens means that there's not much variety, but with the way that the course was laid out there's definitely no chance of getting bored as there was lots to keep you occupied. I did find it reasonably challenging, but then I always do find those courses that change terrain harder than others. It upsets your rhythm swapping between grass and tarmac so many times - but it was a lovely course to run around. I'd imagine in winter months it would be much more of a challenge as mud would be a big issue.

I finished in 49th place out of a field of 112 participants in a time of 27:59.

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