March parkrun is situated in West End Park in March. The course has more than ample parking next to it which is free and is right next to the park. Like a super market sized car park, you won’t have trouble finding a space. It is easy to find with a satnav, though I missed a turn and had to turn around. Which is a trend for me, as without a co-polit to navigate it is easy to miss turnings that aren’t clear.
The course is a nice 4 lap course, which is on a mixture of grass, dirt paths and tarmac paths. Each lap is just over 1K with a small set of stairs are the end of each lap which does kill the time a bit. Other than that the course is very flat with a few small inclines that are easy to get over. My watch registered the course as 3.09 miles though I did have to keep to the right to overtake people as I ran which does shorten the course a little.
This was a unique one for me as I made some friends. As always at parkrun there is a first timers briefing which tourists are also advised to listen to. I always recommend listening in as a faster runner as you’ll have less people ahead of you to guide you around the course. When asked it seemed I was the only new person/toursit. Though after being mildly shamed by being the only one to rise my hand, which was terrifying for someone like me who has social anxiety. I was joined by a first timer who was a Chinese student spending a year studying in the UK, along with a regular runner who was accompanying her.
The briefing was nothing new to me but we had some banter while having the briefing and I decided to join them on the run for a bit instead of gunning it like I normally do. Anyway we had some nice chats and finished a lap and a bit before the new parkrunner needed a break. I was her first time doing a 5K and she was in JEANS of all things, so can be forgiven xD. Because of this I decided to run the remaining laps and catch up with them after I had finished for their last lap of so. I managed to make up some good time, managing a lap in around 5:30 which was pretty fast! Ending up with a time of 25:19, which was pretty impressive given the slow first lap.
After I finished I sorted by barcode scanning and went to go find my friends again. I found them and the completed a 5th lap with them (their 4th), peeling off at the finish to no go through it again. At the end of the day it was just nice to chat to people, its something I don’t get to do that much and it really brightened up my day.
Overall the run was great and the course was pretty soild. I do plan on coming back to this one another day to beat my time and also to volunteer, as apparently they struggled to get enough for the week I turned up to run.