Harlow parkrun - event 475

On the 8th March 2025 I ran the Harlow parkrun which was the 475th event held at the venue, my 227th parkrun and 145th different course I'd attended.

This parkrun journey, as I've said before plenty of times, has taken me to places that I would never have been to if it wasn't for this strange hobby of mine. I've driven up the M11 plenty of times and every time I've ever done so I've driven past Harlow without so much as a second thought.

But like many of my other visits to parkrun venues, I've driven back home again with misconceptions addressed and a completely different view of the place than before I went there.

On my way to pick up Mark, I got a text message just as I was almost arriving at his house. 'I've just woke up, go without me'. 

I like to plan things in detail and wanted to arrive at 8:30 in order to give myself the best opportunity to park in the small carpark at the venue. 

Arriving at a crossroads shortly after I received Marks message I was unsure what to do. Go straight on and go without him or turn right and go to his house anyway.

With it being so early in the morning I could afford to idle at the junction whilst I called him via the hands-free. We still had plenty of time to get there, so I was more than happy to wait as he got ready in a hurry.

Mark was dressed and ready in ten minutes which put us a little further down the road than I would have wanted. It's what going out on the sauce before parkrun does to you. So much for a quick pint in the pub!

The ten minute delay was enough for us to miss out on the last space in the car park. There were a couple of gaps I could have parked in of I was to park inconsiderately, like over a dropped kerb. But decided against it as I didn't want to block an entrance for a pushchair. 

It turned out that not everyone shares my scruples as no sooner as Mark and I had found a parking space a kilometer up the road, by the time we'd walked back those open spaces had all been taken. And surprisingly not by BMW drivers.

Harlow parkrun is in a rather beautiful setting. The car park was situated at the bottom of a hill and it felt like a village setting rather than the middle of a town. There was a large pub next to the carpark called The Greyhound and Mark and I both said that they were missing a trick not being open early for breakfast on a Saturday morning. 

In order to get to the start and meeting point of the event we had to make our way up a winding uphill path. At the top, people were congregating on a fairly small area on one side of a bridge where the path took you deeper into the park on one side and another part of the park on the other. But from the vantage point of the start you couldn't really see much of either so it was left to our imaginations as to what to expect on the course.

At the first timers meeting we were advised that the course was a two big laps, one small lap course and that we needed to go over the metal bridge three times.

The bridge where we were about to start from didn't really match that description and so it was evident that we'd need to cross another bridge somewhere on the course. I thought the description sounded a little bit complicated but it won't be the first time someone has explained a course and the reality of it is much more straightforward once you've run it.

From the start, the course goes over the previously described bridge and bears to the right on a gentle uphill gradient to where there is a wide patch of grass and additional recreational areas on the left hand side. The course follows the main path here and exits the park via an underpass which comes out into a wooded area on the other side 

This woodland area is still well paved on tarmac paths which the course makes good use of. The path zigzags back on itself a couple of times and leads you out further into the woodland on which I assume are arterial paths which lead the people of Harlow from housing estates into the park and back home again.

Which is exactly what we were doing on the parkrun course, following the out-and-back stretch of the route before returning once more through the underpass back into the park.

Once we had arrived back into the park the course turns right and follows a lap around the recreational space we passed earlier.

As I made my way around here I was feeling the impact of a stone in my shoe and despite trying to shake my foot and dislodge it I had to stop and extract it myself. The way out of the recreational space and back onto the main route out of the park was via a metal bridge which sol ed the puzzle as presented during the first timers meeting.

I had ran over it once, turned left back onto the main path before stopping quickly on the side of the path and found the stone that had been bothering me.

Once I had completed the longer lap once more and had crosses the metal bridge a second time I turned left once more to the topmof the short hill. Instead of carrying on the main path to the underpass and out-and-back stretch there was an arrow pointed left which took us across a shortcut through the recreational space where it picked up the path we'd ran on via our first two longer laps.

Running the route had made it all make sense, so after the third crossing of the metal bridge, I took a right instead of left and ran downhill to the start/finish line where I crossed in 152nd place out of a field of 283 participants in a time of 31.02.

Mark was waiting at the finish line shaking his head. Apparently he hadn't quite worked out the course and had been disoriented by the direction arrows. He's completed his two big laps, but instead of turning left after the metal bridge to compete his short lap, he'd turned right and headed back to the finish. He was rewarded with a shiny new parkrun PB - one that will take some beating!

Despite a stone in my shoe, I was generally satisfied with my time on what isn't a flat course. It's by no means hilly in an area.that is rather hilly, but there are some gradual undulations that keep you on your toes. 

I'm still not running with confidence or comfort with this continued issue in my right leg which I'm still waiting to see a physio about. That's coming up in April, so hopefully it hasn't got worse before it gets better.

In the meantime, I'll keep exploring the UK, one parkrun at a time!