University of Northampton parkrun - event 42

On the 15th June 2024 I ran the University of Northampton parkrun which was the 42nd event held at the venue, my 188th parkrun and 110th different course I'd attended.

This weekend was a rare one. A weekend without football tournaments, Gillingham games or anything else planned. It was also a weekend without Foordy choosing which parkrun we did next so the world was my oyster. With a new car added to the family after too long I decided to answer that age old question, 'how far is too far to travel just for a 5k run?'

In reviewing my options for this weekend there were three events all hosting their 42nd event. 42 is one of those early parkrun numbers that I've not ran at yet, and if you've been paying attention you'll know that'll be missing from my Wilson Index. 

The three events in question were Wisbech, Wolford Wood and the University of Northampton, all with fairly comparable travel times (just under two hours) Which feels like a long way to travel just for a 5k run, and it probably is. Which is why I opted for the University of Northampton as I could extend my stay with a breakfast stop and meet my uncle Gary who lives in Daventry and not too far away at all.

Or at least that was the plan, until my cousin Madison was ill and I woke up bright and early Saturday morning with a message from Gary to say that she was poorly. I did contemplate yet another change of plan, but there have been far too many of those this year already so I thought I'd do something out of the ordinary and follow the script.

An hour and 50 minutes later I was in the car park next to Becketts park, printing out the free pay and display ticket grumbling about the M25 and M1 motorways and their frustrating mile after mile 50mph zones. If there's one thing that will ever dissuade me from touristing it will be the road network!

Anyhow, I made my way to the start via the scenic route. From the carpark you can get to the start quite easily by following the road into the campus, which is the way I came back to the car after the event. But I elected to go via Becketts park where I could walk the course back along to the start and the meeting point outside the senate building.

Becketts park and the university grounds are separated by a canal, which is linked together by a rather unique wooden bridge that snakes it's way from the campus and leads down a slope into the park. The course is essentially an out and back, starting from the senate building, through the campus grounds and down into the park via the wooden bridge. Once into the park the course takes in three laps of the park before heading back up and over the bridge. Instead of simple joing up with the start, the course teases you slightly by adding on a few hundred more metres with a lap around the senate building, obviously as a way to make up the full mandatory distance.

Majority of the event is fairly flat, except the three laps of the park which contain a hill that has to be taken each time around. It's not a particularly long or steep hill, but you certainly know about it third time around as each time comes around in fairly quick succession. 

I finished the event in 64th place out of a field of 132 participants in a time of 27.15. Despite the hills it was a fairly fast course with some enjoyable downhill stretches. The bridge is also a unique feature of the course and it was commented upon afterwards on Facebook that it can sometimes feel like it's wobbling when people are running across it which I can imagine being true with bigger numbers of participants.

After the run I was due to meet uncle Gary at a local truck shop for breakfast. Instead I head back to the M1 and stopped off for a McDonald's at one of the service stations enroute and I did all my good work from earlier in the morning.

Was it too far to travel just for a 5k run? Absolutely! Would I do it again? Undoubtedly!