Holyrood parkrun - event 122

On the 22nd February 2025 I ran the Holyrood parkrun which was the 122nd event held at the venue, my 225th parkrun and 143rd different course I'd attended.

With Gillingham playing Carlisle I had an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, visit Brunton Park - home of Carlisle United for the first time and second, to visit a Scottish parkrun.

The closest Scottish parkrun to Carlisle is Crichton, a short 45 minute drive away. But I had alternative plans that were potentially a little more extravagant. I wanted to do an iconic Scottish venue and the closest one that met that criteria happened to be in Edinburgh.

Would it be possible to stay overnight Friday in Edinburgh, run parkrun and make it back down to Carlisle in time for a 3pm kick-off?

That was the task I set myself and it was actually quite straightforward. Trains to Carlisle from Edinburgh are fairly regular and frequent so there was no worry on that part. So plans were made and bookings confirmed.

We travelled up on the Friday afternoon from Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. A four and a half hour train journey that wizzed by in no time at all. We were joined by Reaso and George which made our train tickets all that cheaper as we were able to get a family saver ticket. It would have been the exact same price for me and Hayden to go as it was the four of us. It's definitely worthwhile booking in advance and doing some shopping around.

I'd still been feeling under the weather, finding it virtually impossible to shake off this cough/cold like illness id been suffering all week and so wasn't in the most enthusiastic of moods. We did manage to walk some of the Royal Mile up to Edinburgh Castle which was incredibly windy but the views were spectacular. We didn't make it inside the castle as we'd arrived too late on in the day to make buying a ticket worthwhile but after a walk around we found ourselves in a BrewDog bar having a few pints and a bite to eat.

The highlight of the evening was Hayden winning a pudding for the table by beating our server at a game of rock, paper, scissors - annihilating her 2-0 in a best of 3 sequence. His choice of pudding? A deep fried Oreo dish with ice-cream! It did taste a lot nicer than it sounds, but that wasn't the only deep fried dish we encountered. Oh the menu of a local fish and chips shops the boys marvelled at the deep fried mars bars and deep fried pizza choices. One for next time perhaps!

We stayed at a travel lodge and enjoyed comfortable lodgings a short walk from Holyrood park. We also enjoyed another half hour in bed as parkruns don't start until 9:30 in Scotland, so that was another novelty that didn't come deep fried.

Holyrood parkrun is a single lap course and takes in the main road around Holyrood park which is based around the remnants of a former volcano + now obviously very much dormant. At the very top of Holyrood park lies Arthur's Seat offering quite spectacular views over Edinburgh and beyond.

The course therefore is of the hilly variety, with the first mile an aching 85m climb which Hayden made a fair fist of before eventually throwing in the towel. The various aches, injuries and pains then gradually made their usual appearance from his complaining cake hole. But for once I wasn't too bothered. I myself was still feeling the effects of a dodgy leg and being under the weather with a dodgy chest. 

So I settled into the next mile which is a nice flat and meandering route around the park and taking in the sights and views around us. I wasn't expecting to see a lake 85m up, but we did, along with far reaching views which gave me flashbacks to my one and only prior visit to a Scotland where we as a family spent two weeks exploring the Highlands further north in what is an incredibly scenic country.

What goes up of course has to come down and the last mile is a winding downward whirlwind, which had I not been hamstring by my woes, or Hayden might actually have enjoyed myself much more than I was able to. I can imagine what it must be like to run down the full length of the downward section, windmilling your arms as you went. Great fun, all for another day.

The event was an incredibly well supported event with 573 participants. I finished in 562nd place in a time of 45:40. Reaso and George came home in a much more respectable 30 minutes, but despite the first mile climb the course has all the potential to be quite quick. It was certainly a sight to see nearly 600 people running up the hill at the start and was quite congested for a bit. 

The scenery and atmosphere combined made it all worthwhile making the effort to get there. It ended up being the start of quite a memorable day as when we got to Carlisle I had arranged for Hayden to be a surprise mascot. It was his birthday on the Monday and when I saw a social media post from the club looking for mascot volunteers I put Hayden's name forward.

He took and scored a penalty Infront of the Carlisle home fans, walked out with Elliot Nevitt and came home with Elliots shirt which still remains unwashed all these days later.

We have made some great memories on our parkrun/football weekends. This weekend was probably the best of the lot and will make all future weekends tough to live up to!