Lytham Hall parkrun - event 395

On the 20th December 2025 I ran the Lytham Hall parkrun which was the 295th event held at the venue, my 266th parkrun and 183rd different course I'd attended.

Attempting to watch all of Gillingham Football clubs league games across a football season is not without challenge. League two is a tough league with lots of northern based sides which equates to expense both in time and finances. This would be hard enough as it is for majority of people without factoring the extra parameter of parkrun.

Last season I visited Fleetwood Town for the very first time, combining it with a weekend break in Blackpool and visited both the ground and the local parkrun along Fleetwood Promenade. That was back in August and it was freezing cold and blowing a gale during the height of summer so goodness knows what December was going to be like!

With that in mind my original intention was to travel part distance on Friday and stop over somewhere in the north west, Wigan or Preston where travelling distances wouldn't be quite so far and the choice of parkrun venues was more plentiful. I was concerned that by staying in Blackpool on the Friday, I would only have Blackpool and Lytham Hall in close proximity and in the case of adverse weather both might be cancelled with not much else close by.

However, with Phoebe not having dancing on Saturday morning having broken up for Christmas, I tentatively invited her and Stephanie along to join us on a pre-Christmas break. Not necessarily to see the football, but to enjoy.the Friday night in festive surroundings, seeing the Blackpool lights and doing some last minute shopping whilst we watched the game.

Weather forecast was looking promising, so staying in Blackpool became a viable option and a trip to Lytham St Anne's in the morning was the safest bet.

It also meant that Hayden could stay with Stephanie and Phoebe on Saturday morning and give my ears a rest at parkrun!

Lytham St Anne's is the at the southern end of the Fylde Coastline, with Fleetwood at the top and Blackpool being the meat in the sandwich. It is also said to be the more upmarket end of the whole region which was demonstrated by some of the properties I passed in the car enroute.

Following instructions from.the event website I used the free carpark situated outside of the Lytham Hall estate. This involved a kilometer long walk to the start and meeting point, but the alternative is to use the carpark on site and wait for last participant to finish before the carpark is reopened again letting people back out. I was banking on getting back in time.for another Premier Inn breakfast and wasn't risking that for anything!

Lytham Hall itself is an impressive building, a Georgian property which has history preceding it's construction with the estate going back to the 1600's. Like similar events at Osterley and Wimpole Estate the house is the focal point and running around the grounds feels like very much a privilege.

Starting from outside the house the route runs out towards the main gate before circling around through the grounds to the rear of the property. This is considered the 'half-lap' with two more laps consisting of two full rotations of the house.

The grounds are much more compact to Osterley and Wimpole, meaning that the organisers of the event have had to be much more creative with the design of the course. Running around the first part of the main lap the course zig-zags it's way through the trees and woods with the route kissing itself in a couple of locations.

As it was December the course was inevitably damp, wet and squidgy. Although I would also suggest that we saw it in relatively decent condition and can imagine that it has seen much more mud than we was given to enjoy.

Being the last run before Christmas spirits were of course very high with lots and lots of participants dressed up in festive fancy dress and Santa hats. It's always great fun running parkrun over the Christmas period, always full.of colour and festive vibes!

I finished the course in 161st place out of a field 274 participants in a time of 30:48.

After a kilometer walk to the start and the same distance back I felt fully deserving of my buffet breakfast that morning! 

Sadly Stephanie was feeling rather under the weather with a rotten cough/cold which kept her up for a lot of the night. After breakfast we headed towards the tower where there was a Christmas fairground and a winters market full of amazing things to smell and eat - not that we.had any appetite left at that point!

Hayden and I took the tram from Blackpool north to Fleetwood which took around 35 minutes. The stop is virtually right outside Fleetwoods Highbury stadium and so rather a unique mode of transport for a football match.

The game can go in the bin as far as I am concerned, but following the Gills as I said at the beginning - was never going to be easy!