Castle Park parkrun - event 356

On the 10th January 2025 I ran the Castle Park parkrun which was the 356th event held at the venue, my 271st parkrun and 186th different course I'd attended.

It was a case of third time lucky on Saturday morning as I made it to Bishops Stortford for Castle Park parkrun. I had attempted to run the event on two previous occasions but hadn't made it. The first, last summer due to a night in A&E as Steph had a Gall Bladder episode and more recently on New Year's Eve when my friends convinced me to run somewhere more local.

I was joined again by Foordy who continued his parkrun renaissance on another cold and chilly morning. We followed the instructions given to us by the event website and found ourselves at a Waitrose carpark which had strict parking signs up that prohibited stays longer than two hours and stated a minimum spend must be made in the adjoining store.

Debating whether to move and find elsewhere to park we worked out that we would be able to be well within time limit should we be under 40 minutes. As my cough and chest infection was back again for it's third wave less than 40 minutes was absolutely no guarantee.

The venue, Castle Park is based in the centre of the town of Bishops Stortford, and is a green belt of land comprised of various parts. Near to the start is a mound of earth, which without checking my facts or history I assumed was the location of a once castle in which the park gets it's name. There is nothing their now, else other than some views of the park and wide town. With time being against us we never made it up, which is a shame as I'd have liked to have at least been nosy.

Next to the mound, lies a river which weaves it's way through the park, aside of which is a bandstand and park area with okay equipment for younger children.

The start of the parkrun event and meeting point is at the bandstand and from the start there's not too much to see in terms of where the course is situated or what might lie ahead.

Heading across the grass the route heads north towards the skate park beyond which is a clump of trees which helps obscure the onwards views.

Once reaching the skate park the course comes off of the grass and onto a tarmac path which causes the pack to bunch quite abruptly and led to a slightly slower pace for a while until everyone eventually spreads back out again.

The path runs parallel to the railway line that runs the full eastern flank of the park. After reaching a bridge that crosses the railway participants follow the path around it and head back onto the grass where wide playing fields are waiting. The playing fields belong to the nearby leisure centre and are a separate entity to Castle Park, but are linked up via various pathways.

Back on grass, which was firm and hard due to the cold weather. I'd imagine in warmer temperatures it would be muddy here and quite slippery, but the conditions were good and allowed us to circumnavigate the full playing fields with squelching and falling over.

Once the fields had been fully completed we came back onto the footpath next to the railway bridge where there is a short contraflow section. For about 40m, you have participants running towards you on their second laps whilst briefly those who are still on their first make their way.

After 40m, the course turns right, off of tarmac paths and onto a gravel path as the course makes it's way through the scrubland and clump of trees. It eventually comes out here onto a tarmac path next to the river where the path travels south and eventually joins back up behind the skate path for a) the start of the second lap or b) straight on towards the finish.

Having been ill with a chest infection, cough or whatever it was for the past two weeks I again elected to take things easy. I started towards the back and gently got myself into it. As I made my way around the bend behind the skate park I saw Foordy in the distance started to slow down and walk.

Foordy has been suffering with a knee injury and hadn't been running for a while. His recent parkrun adventures have been taken leisurely and he's easing his way back, keen not to aggravate anything. 

Once is seen that he was slowing down I gave myself a target, which was to catch him up if could. So much for taking it easy and being cautious with my chest.

I could see him in the distance for the full part of the second lap and I was progressively getting closer as the lap wore on. Once we got to the skatepark he was 20m or so infront of me with just a few hundred metres to the finish.

I put the accelerator down and gave it a big sprint to the finish, overtaking him with metres to spare. It was a magnificent feeling of victory having beaten Foordy, albeit not in a straight fight until right at the last moment, on the finish line itself a blur of grey hoodie and dark hair nipped their way in front of me and pipped me at the post.

Bastard.

I finished in 268th place out of a field of 346 participants in a time of 32:45. Exactly 1 full second behind Foordy in front!

It might not be a race and normally the only person I'm looking to beat is myself, so it was quite nice to have a little bit of a competitive spirit for a change - even if I did lose!