Shrewsbury parkrun - event 496

On the 29th November 2025 I ran the Shrewsbury parkrun which was the 496th event held at the venue, my 263rd parkrun and 180th different course I'd attended.

As Stephanie was recovering from a long awaited Gall bladder removal, I was forced to miss a week's worth of parkrun as I carried out family tasks as she recovered from her operation. I am only able to do what I do on a Saturday morning because of her selflessness and so missing a week was no hardship.

She is well and better now, after what is quite a routine surgery. Hopefully now she can get on with a better quality of life pain free and without worrying about potential attacks after eating the wrong kinds of foods.

The next stop on the Gillingham FC schedule was an away fixture to Shrewsbury Town. We have all previously visited Shrewsbury, back in 2021. A weekend dominated by my mistake on booking.com. 

Arriving at the hotel on Friday night there was no record of my booking. Eventually after some investigation they worked out what the problem was. I had arrived a year too early. Somehow, and even this day I don't know how. But I had managed to book the hotel on the right date, except it was booked for 2022 and not 2021!

As there was a folk festival on in town we couldn't find a room for the night in all of Shrewsbury. The closest we managed to get was in nearby Telford. So rather than driving back to Shrewsbury in the morning for parkrun as planned I thought I'd visit Telford parkrun instead.

Except when I arrived on Saturday morning I was all by myself. Everyone else had gotten the cancellation memo, except for me...

Fast forward to the present day. A bit older, a bit wiser and having quadruple checked my booking and I still didn't get to run Shrewsbury parkrun!

On Friday afternoon I saw a notification on Facebook that the Shrewsbury event director was looking for volunteers. Knowing Hayden doesn't like to run I put our names down as tail-walkers. This gave me an excuse not to moan at Hayden and gave us the opportunity to not only get a run credit at the event, but a volunteer credit too.

I like volunteering from time to time, and think more people should. The more you take part as a runner, the more you should volunteer. It's only fair after all.

Shrewsbury parkrun takes place at The Quarry park on the edge of the town centre on the banks of the River Severn. We visited on our previous visit which was in August, so the weather was very different. Gone was the packed park, warm and people dressed in shorts and t-shirts. Replaced by the odd dog walker and a group of people setting up for a Santa Dash later in the morning.

There were actually four of us participating at tail walkers on Saturday morning. The call for volunteers was evidently strong that week. It meant we could walk around chatting and getting to know more about the local area and the course. We also managed to get talking about football and the chap we were talking to was also going to the game later in the afternoon.

It also meant that by the time Hayden and I had arrived there was only two tail-walker high-vis jackets left. There were only two of us, so what was the problem? Well, these two high-viz jackets had been modified to include actual 'tails'. On one of the jackets was a long lions tail and on the other was a smaller zebras tail.

Hayden and I put the jackets on, he chose the one with the longer tail, and the larger jacket whilst I had the smaller tail and smaller jacket. After a while Hayden was fed up of the tail dragging along the floor and splashing him, so we swapped. I had to wring the end of the tail out as it was saturated with rain. Walking around with a tail was not that fun after all and I've reconsidered my reincarnation animal as a result - one that doesn't have a tail!

The course itself is a three lap affair, but none of the laps are identical. Starting off on the western side of the park next to the river participants head west and take.the first right path uphill to the top of the park and war memorial. The path loops around the top of the park and back downhill to the start where the first mini-lap is completed. The second lap starts and passes the route uphill which was taken for the first lap and heads deeper west into the park. Participants then head right once the coffeeshop and play park are reached and head up hill again on a slightly longer and slightly steeper ascent.

Once the war memorial is reached again for the second time participants retrace the steps from the first lap, running back downhill, but instead of turning right, the route turns left for the start of a long out and back section which is ran all the way east to the far end of the park where it exits into the town centre. 

This long out and back is wide and flat and beyond participants back to the start line once the out and back has been completed. The route then follows the same path as the second lap, back to the far end of the park, back uphill and past the war memorial. But instead of completing the full out and back the finish is half way out on the left hand side.

My description may well have made it sound slightly more complicated than it actually is. But like all events it makes sense when you run it.

Being a tail walker the time was off absolutely no concern, but for the record I finish in 522 place out of a field of 524 participant in a time of 65:18. 

With not many parkruns nearby(until recently), and a fairly sizeable town, Shrewsbury parkrun is a well attended event. 524 people is a sizeable number which was even so slightly down on their average. But always great to see and join in on such a well supported parkrun.