Malling Rec parkrun - event 22

On the 30th November 2024 I ran the Malling Rec parkrun which was the 22nd event held at the venue, my 213th parkrun and 133rd different course I'd attended.

This time of year is the time to choose a parkrun course carefully. Selecting a venue that is ran on tarmac paths rather than grass saves the heartache of having to clean trainers and risk life and limb slipping over on mud infested trails and grassland.

Unfortunately when you are a bit OCD as I am and are selecting venues based on their event numbers rather than practicality, you run the risk of heading towards a sticky and muddy ending.

Malling Rec popped up earlier in the year as a new parkrun venue and despite the name is nowhere nearly Malling as we know it. The town near Maidstone doesn't have a parkrun, albeit it did have an event nearby called Malling which as a result of all this confusion renamed itself as Leybourne Lakes which now far more geographically accurate.

The new Malling Rec event is based in Lewes in West Sussex and joins a rather populated area of parkrun events and adds another option to the list of parkrun options that the local populace can choose between.

As with all new events I check what gaps I have in my Wilson Index and plan accordingly. Unfortunately for me the size 22 gap I needed fell on the last week of a November and fell when the course was likely to be at its muddiest.

From the beginning when the event was announced the first reviews talked about how the event was slightly muddy and this was in July! So I knew what I was letting myself in for and prepared Foordy my travelling companion accordingly.

Parking at the Tesco in the cente of town the recreation ground was a short walk along the River Ouse. From the moment we arrived we could tell straight away that we were going to be in for a tough time.

Not only was the ground soft and slippery underfoot there was clear damage to the course from the fireworks events that were held earlier in the month meaning all grass had been stripped back to reveal areas of mud.

The night before the event I had a conversation with the members of the admin team of the parkrun tourist group on Facebook and one of the admins messaged stating that there would be visiting Malling Rec in the morning. Some of the admin team have already met face to face, but I hadn't met anyone yet and was looking forward to finally putting a face to a name.

The first people we met upon arrival of the event was the other admin and so we had a nice chat and shared a few parkrun related stories before the two event briefings. The first timers meeting was almost the same size as the pre-tave briefing such were the numbers of first-timers. I don't think I've ever seent that before, but imagine an inaugural feeling fairly similar. As to why there were so many, I don't know. But I did joke to Foordy that it must be so bad that nobody else has come back again!

The course is two out and back legs that take participants around the perimeter of the recreation ground before rising up a short slope onto a discarded railway line. If the recreation ground was muddy and slippy, the railway line was just muddy. Proper squelchy, ankle deep mud that made running a real challenge.

Participants attempted to make things slightly easier for themselves by running on the very edge of the track where the verges are, but I found this just as challenging as it was difficult to run on a camber and it didn't feel great for my ankles. Plus this only worked on the outbound legs as the return legs where participants are encouraged to keep left was where the even deeper mud lie.

As I knew my time wasn't going to be great, and to give myself some mental respite from plotting and planning my route through the mud I stopped on the way out of my second lap. The course takes you beneath a couple of bridges and underneath the first one was a puddle with a large runner duck sat in it. Not sure why, or who started the trend but there's a few parkruns that indicate the wettness or muddyness of a course by how deep a duck sits in the courses perma-puddle.

Eventually, after making my way around the course both physically and mentally tired I made it to the end, 64th out of 98 participants in a time of 32:32. 

At the finish line it was another opportunity to catch up with the other parkrun tourism admin and apologetically decline his breakfast invite as I needed to get back for Hayden who had a football related day with his football team. But we did say we'd meet again perhaps in a few weeks time - another course, another parkrun!