Quakers Walk parkrun - event 75

On the 19th April 2025 I ran the Quakers Walk parkrun which was the 75th event held at the venue, my 233rd parkrun and 151st different course I'd attended.

I have got a rather long list of planned events in an excel spreadsheet that is loosely put together with some form of logic, but heavily caveated that things are likely to change. For example I can't really put plans in place now for August and September until the football fixtures are released at the end of June. But they are there anyway waiting for me to adjust when the time comes

Planning out this way does occasionally create some unexpected opportunities. I had worked out that Gillingham weren't playing on Saturday as it was Easter, so I planned to visit Quakers Walk parkrun with the idea of possibly making a family day of it with Steph and the kids. It would mean an early start, but we'd done it previously and had a good day out afterwards.

But I hadn't quite considered Gillingham playing the day before at Cheltenham and the potential possibility of two trips west in two consecutive days. It didn't seem sensible, sustainable or logical to drive to Cheltenham and back on the Friday, then to Devises on Wiltshire where Quakers Walk is located the following day.

Reaso had already made plans with Carly and his family to head to Cheltenham a couple of daya early as it was half-term and there were family events taking place at Cheltenham racecourse. So I began to peice together a plan of our own.

We'd head to Cheltenham early on Friday, meeting the Reasons for lunch before heading to the game together. After the match we'd head south to Trowbridge where we'd stay overnight in a Premier inn. I'd head to parkrun in the morning and afterwards we'd drive down to Longleat Safari park for a fun filled family day.

Everything ran like clockwork and in the morning I got myself up and ready for parkrun despite feeling delicate from a slight over exuberance at a local Wetherspoons the night before.

Trowbridge does actually have it's own parkrun, and from the accommodation I could quite easily have ran to the parkrun in town at Southbridge Country Park. But I'd set my sights on Quakers Walk, not only for the second letter Q, but for event number 74 which is one of the sub-100 event numbers I haven't ran at yet.

It took 25 minutes to arrive at the event carpark at Devizes Sports Park. It could quite possibly have been quicker, but I was stuck behind an M&S lorry around the single lane country roads. 

From the carpark I wasn't entirely sure how or where I needed to go in order to get to the event start line. But there were others arriving at the same time as I had and so it was a simple case of following the crowd. We left the carpark and followed the road right, over the bridge which crosses the canal. On the other side of the bridge is a tow path that follows the canal and so I enjoyed a really quite pleasant ten minute walk along to the next bridge and the eventual meeting place for the event.

Quakers Walk itself is a Bridleway and access route into and out of town, that has origins believed to be over 700 years old.

The course takes in part of the bridleway itself and part of a new build housing estate park that sits aside it.

If you think of the letter P, that is roughly the shape of the course which is spread across three and a bit laps. Starting on the Bridleway itself, half way down the bottom part of the stick of the P and heading upwards, the course takes a right, via a footpath into the new build estate. This is where the finish line is, and the start of the first lap.

Passing the finish in an anti-clockwise direction, the course takes in the perimeter of the new build park, rising ever so slightly upwards to the top of the park where it loops around and rejoins the Quakers Walk.

Here you then run the full length down to the bottom end of stick of the P, before turning around at the bottom.and repeating the route back to the finish line where the lap is completed.

Underfoot the bridleway itself is compacted gravel and slightly muddy in places. We had cold and rain on my visit, so there were some small surface puddles but my road shoes were fine and the right shoe to wear. In the park areas the course ran on smooth tarmac and was perfectly fine for road shoes.

Once the third lap had been completed and the finish line reached for the fourth time it was time to enter the finish funnel where I finished in 99th place out of a field of 187 participants in a time of 29:55.

Now I'm not sure whether it was the weather conditions, feeling slightly ropey after there night before, the walk to the start line or all three, but mentally I wasn't feeling the run at all. I really had to dig deep to keep going and had a mental battle with myself the whole way around the course.

It happens sometimes like that and I can't understand why. After all these events and all the runs in-between the parkrun events you'd think I'd be over this by now. But I did keep going and there was a sense of relief at the end that I hadn't given into my internal voice of doom.

Running huh? Travel half way across the country for a 5k run you'd think I'd show myself some more gratitude wouldn't you!