Upton Court parkrun - event 625

On the 25th April 2026 I ran the Upton Court parkrun which was the 625th event held at the venue, my 285th parkrun and 198th different course I'd attended.

What makes a good parkrun and why do we enjoy some events much more than others? I'm not sure anyone knows the answer to that, but I found it fascinating that both Mark and I really enjoyed this parkrun when all of the clues suggested perhaps we might not.

Upton Court parkrun takes place in Upton Court, a public recreational space in the town of Slough. The surroundings were nice with some rather fetching houses lining the roads leading up to the entrance of the car park. But the course primarily is a two lap affair which takes in majority of the perimeter of the space and is mostly ran on grass.

I think part of the lower expectations were due to the grassy nature of the course. But the weather played a crucial part. Not only have we had a long dry spell, but the temperature was warmer than recent days and the sun was out. The grass has evidently been well looked after as well and was short underfoot making for decent running conditions in the most part.

The course itself, as I said is two laps. Starting from the facilities at the north western side of the park where the carpark lies. The course starts by running slightly downhill down the main thoroughfare which runs through the park itself. In the distance you can see the M4 and the Saturday morning traffic and beyond rising up in the distance lies Windsor Castle. I hadn't quite appreciated just how close to the castle we were and had I been afforded the time to do so I believe I could have followed the path over the motorway and taken a direct route to the castle itself.

Instead we took a right and circled the perimeter of a small field on the South western side of the park. This field only features as part of an extended first lap and is completely missed out on the second. Once the field has been lapped, participants head across the main thoroughfare and take a winding footpath along the southern end of the park.

After a few hundred meters or so the route diverts back onto the playing fields and circumnavigates the full space, rushing slightly on the eastern side as it reaches the higher point to the north.

At the top, the route diverts again onto the perimeter pathway and leads you back around to the start/finish straight where the shorter second lap is the started.

I finished in 118th place out of a field of 229 participants in a time of 29:46. Upon meeting Mark at the finish we both replied how much we had enjoyed the course. I had ran my fastest time of the year, which was massively surprising as last week reran The Leas parkrun and just about made it into the early 30 minutes. The Leas is a much flatter, quieter course where I've had some of my best parkrun times ever, so not sure why Upton Court provided me with such good running conditions.

Grass, slightly undulating, changing underfoot conditions, laps of a playing field next to a motorway and housing estate doesn't scream to me good parkrun venue. But then what does? Was it because of the weather and would I have had the same impression had it been raining or muddy underfoot? Either way, it's why I go back next week to somewhere new, the elusive answer remains forever in reach.