This week I went to Littleport parkrun. Located at the Littleport leisure centre & recreation ground in Cambridgeshire, just north of Ely. There is plenty of parking which is free to park in which is nice. Its an easy course to find, just following the main road Littleport off the A10. Turning left at Camel Road and follow the road a little and the car park is just on the left again little bit down the road.
The course was 3 laps, 2 long laps that goes around fields and paths with a 3rd shorter lap the make up the 5K. As I ran here in late summer, the ground conditions were good, though a bit uneven in places. I can imagine the course been a little harder in the wetter months. The start is a nice long straight on a tarmac path followed by a stint on a field before going though a little wooded area and along an uneven mud path which is a little bit narrow and needs focus when traversing to not twist your foot. I almost did at one point.
After that you go around the perimeter of the next field before reaching the tarmac path for the rest of the lap which is pretty straight with a few 90 degree corners. You repeat that lap again for lap 2. Lap 3 you turn from the starting path a little early and emerge into the narrow path about half way through and keep right. Once at the crossing at the end of the path you take a 180 corner and run the last tarmac stretch again and keep left to the finish. My watch registered the course as 3.07 miles which is a little short of a 5K. Though if you take the corners wide you could make up the difference.
The marshals at this event were great and all were very vocal which was nice. Their support was certainly a help for my time. I managed a PB when visiting by a nice amount finishing in 21:33 officially. Though my time was more around 21:50(ish) as I ran a little afterwards to make the distance a 5K on the watch. This is also the first time I have ever gotten first place for my age category which was nice.
I wore my lonely goat club shirt this week and it turned out that 2 of the marshals at the event were also goats. This meant I got some extra motivation when they saw me which was a lovely boost. I haven’t been cheered on directly since my pre-covid parkrun in Southampton, so it made for a ncie change. All the volunteers were super friendly and the my overall experience at this event was very positive.
Overall this is a great event to attend that I can happily recommend to anyone in the area.