Rendlesham Forest parkrun - event 89

On the 28th October 2023 I ran the Rendlesham Forest parkrun which was the 89th event held at the venue, my 152nd parkrun and 80th different course I'd attended.

The first rule as a parkrun tourist is to have a plan B. If you have a plan C it will likely come in handy, particularly during this time of year when the rainy season adds jeopardy to the best laid parkrun plans.

I had pencilled in Rendlesham Forest for this weekend, but last week's cancellations meant that Thornham Woods wasn't able to run, and that their event 20 wasn't going to run for another week. Perfect for me, I was still looking to attend an event 20 for my Wilson index and rejigged me diary accordingly.

As the kids were on half term and their weekend clubs cancelled it offered us as a family an opportunity. I suggested to Stephanie that we head out for the day on Friday, stay over night somewhere in the evening and attend Thornham Woods on the Saturday morning.

After much faff and discussion that's what we almost did. Instead of going out as a family, we spent the Friday doing various things separately. Steph and I head to Medway looking for gifts for Phoebe's birthday, whilst Phoebe and Hayden spent the day with Layla and my sister at Bluewater. Oliver is too old and too cool to do anything with us now so Oliver did what Oliver does. But after all that was done and we reconvened in the early evening we hit the road and drove to our overnight stop, a Premier Inn just outside of Ipswich.

Whilst we were waiting for our evening meal I checked out the Thornham Woods Facebook page to see what the latest news was with regards to the course conditions and as suspected the event had been cancelled again for a second week. Rather than panic and have a wasted weekend plan B was put into action.

From where we were staying Ipswich parkrun was just 5km away, which would have been great to collect another 'i' towards a second parkrun alphabet, as would nearby Kesgrave. But as we were looking to participate as a family the original plan of Rendlesham Forest was the best bet as it was probably the most scenic of all the other nearby options (that I am aware of).

So up we woke on the Saturday morning, nice and early and hit the road to Rendlesham Forest which was the scene of one of the most famous UFO encounter which took place in December 1980. If the scenery and parkrun wasn't appealing to the children beforehand, tales of aliens and flying saucers certainly made things more interesting.

There is something special about parkrun events held in the forest and this was no exception. Immediately upon arrival you are surrounded by tall pine trees and greenery within every direction. As we were running in autumn the colours of the season were in full bloom and the smells of damp vegetation filled the air.

The course on first view looks fairly convoluted and even after it was explained to us during the first timers meeting it didn't really make a huge amount of sense. But as a veteran of 80 different events I've come to realise that however complex a course might look it all makes sense in the end.

Essentially the route consists of three loops which are linked by a central spine. It feels like a single lap course, which is what it's classified as, but there are parts of the course that are run more than once.

I had spoken to the kids beforehand and suggested that we walked for two minutes and run for two minutes and repeat those intervals. But they weren't especially keen, and so to keep the peace I decided to walk around with Steph and the kids and let them enjoy to course at their own pace and enjoy a relaxing walk through what was a beautiful forest.

From the start the course heads east for a couple of hundred meters before turning left where the first small loop begins. The path is initially wide and is sandy in places with vast areas of trees to the left and a smaller area to the right where the first loop routes around. 

As we were almost back around the end of the first loop and had come back out of the trees onto the main pathway Hayden decided he'd done with walking and wanted to run. So off we went leaving Stephanie and Phoebe to enjoy the rest of the event at a more leisurely pace.

Despite me trying to encourage Hayden to slow down, run slower but for longer he kept running at full speed. Which meant that he had to stop and walk for longer to catch his breath again, but he kept going 

The second loop takes place on the opposite side of the start/finish path and felt like the deepest section of the forest. The path wiggled and weaved it's way through the trees by a section of cones and was well marked out. There was also a short out and back section which enabled us to high five Steph and Phoebe on our way back as we increased the distance between us.

The third loop is the biggest, taken again off the sandy path, but this time on the left hand side. This loop was the most scenic, with a single width pathway carved out with short fern like bushes either side of the path.

Despite how much rain we've had this month the ground was still firm and only squishy in a few places. There was also very little in the way of standing water and where the was it was easily avoided.

After we'd made our way around the largest loop we rejoined the back leg of the first small loop which brought us back out onto the sandy path and around the corner where the finish funnel was situated after a quick sprint finish.

Hayden and I finished 81st and 82nd out of a field of 90 participants in a time of 44.26. Which for Hayden gave him a new 5k PB. All the more impressive when you consider that for the first kilometer we'd walked the whole way around. I'd like to have seen his time had we takenit seriously from the get go. More importantly though was that he did it, along with Steph and Phoebe it wasn't about 'doing parkrun'. It was about being outdoors, in the forest and enjoying being somewhere and enjoying nature for what it is - beautiful.