Eastville parkrun

It has been a busy week at school.  Or rather, it has been a busy week not being in school.  We've had activities week which for my year group (9) was a series of day trip.  This coupled with a two nights out up in London meant that consideration of this morning's parkrun venue was very low down the list of things to do.  I knew it would be 'somewhere near Bristol' and I was hoping that there might be a new parkrun since I was last there.  

Husbando met me from the train (he was there for a book fair) and we decided, over supper, that it would be a good idea to find one that was close enough for us to run there and back.  This would mean that we didn't need to incur an additional charge at the hotel carpark and that we could skip our long run on Sunday.  Eastville parkrun seemed to fit the bill - 2.75miles from the hotel and one that I hadn't run before.  

After grabbing a quick breakfast in the hotel we set off.  It was overcast and cool - quite a change from the rest of the week.  It was a nice easy route to follow and as we arrived at Eastville Park, with plenty of time to spare, we could see the tell tale high viz jackets and a parkrun flag.  While we waited for the run brief we bumped into the RD of Maidenhead parkrun - last seen (I think) at the inaugural there!  

It is an interesting course.  The first lap is clockwise around the middle, squarish, section followed by a second lap that goes all around the lake and up to the top of the park with the last lap around the central square.  It is all on tarmac and is not exactly flat!  200ft of elevation with a long uphill drag from the lake up to the other end of the park and an uphill approach to the finish.  I took it easy today, my legs were tired after the marathon last week and it was starting to get rather warm!  Husbando sped off into the distance....   We ran right up to the edge of the M32 - is this the closest a parkrun gets to a motorway?  The marshals were helpful and friendly making sure that we didn't go the wrong way

We didn't hang around afterwards as Husbando had to get back to work.  We grabbed a bottle of pop from the Subway at the corner of the park and ran back to the hotel in the now baking heat.  

Thank you to all the volunteers who make the parkrun magic happen.  Hopefully we'll be back again soon!