Parkrun tourism – Stratford Park and Cannon Hill

Parkrun tourism is when you run parkruns different from your usual (home) one. Some parkrunners like to do tourism nearly every week – and may follow particular challenges like running the alphabet or running every parkrun in London (there’s over 50 of them!).

I love parkrun tourism, but only usually do it when we need to be somewhere other than home at 9am on a Saturday morning. So we always do parkrun on holiday (and get excited about choosing which to do) and also do them when we are following my son round with his sport (it was Saturday morning rugby and football when he was younger, now athletics competitions).

Recently, we’ve done two new parkruns – Stratford Park in Stroud and Cannon Hill in Birmingham.

We did Stratford Park because my eldest was keen to visit Stroud market, which is only until 1pm on a Saturday. We have a tendency to hang around our home parkrun until nearly 10am, waiting for my whole family to finish (my dad is 78 and usually finishes in around 45 minutes). By the time we’ve gone home and got showered and changed and people have had a late breakfast, it is already 11am. Realistically, the best way to get to Stroud market was to do parkrun in Stroud.

Stratford Park is Stroud’s main park and it is a very nice park, with something for everyone – there’s a wooded area, a playground and a leisure centre (including indoor and outdoor swimming pools on site). Stratford Park was my first run after Forest of Dean half marathon, where I injured my right calf. Stratford Park is completely unsuitable for injured calves.

The course is three laps and very scenic, but it is nearly all on grass (the grass was extremely waterlogged and muddy when we did it) and rather hilly! There is an absolute killer of a hill, which feels like it lasts forever. In reality, the hilly part is probably no more than a third of a lap, but it is tough. Then there is a very pleasant downhill, where you have to watch your footing as it’s steep and the ground is quite uneven. Then you loop round and do it again. And again.

I finished as 5th female and 2nd in my age category in a time of 25:33. The slow time was due to a combination of the conditions and my injury.

Stratford Park has a small number of participants – there were 87 when we were there, which seems to be pretty standard. It’s also, unsurprisingly, a fairly slow course, with male first finishers usually over 2o minutes and female first finishers usually over 22 minutes. It was friendly and welcoming, but I wouldn’t go back when it’s been raining! It’s definitely a course to run after a period of dry weather.

Cannon Hill parkrun in Birmingham is Stratford Park’s opposite in many ways. It is nearly all flat (apart from a short killer hill to the finish line, which you only do once). It is a big parkrun – there were 591 runners when we did it, which is a fairly standard number of participants. It is also entirely on tarmac paths – so no battling with mud! It is a fast course, with male first finishers taking just over 16 minutes. The times for female first finishers are much more varied – everything from 17 to 22 minutes.

You can’t run with a dog at Cannon Hill, unlike most parkruns. We knew this in advance and the kids were with us to look after Hetty. Dogs can of course walk round the park in the usual way. The other important thing to note about Cannon Hill is that it has no toilets. I’d realised this in advance, as they weren’t mentioned on the website. There is a toilet block there and I saw many people hopefully try the doors, but it was clearly closed down some time ago.

Cannon Hill is a big park and the course is unusual one as it is made up of different sized laps. You start off with a small lap around the lake, then you take a wider lap around the lake, which then goes further out into an out and back. At this point, you have to keep right and aren’t supposed to overtake. It’s not really a narrow path, but it’s pretty narrow when there’s hundreds of people running up it at the same time. After the out and back, it goes back along the same side of the lake (ie you don’t complete the loop of the lake), before a final small hill to the finish line.

I finished as 11th female and 1st in my age category in a time of 23:08 – my fastest time this year.

If you’re looking for a fast and flat, all-weather parkrun, I would definitely recommend Cannon Hill.

I wonder where parkrun tourism will take us next? There’s still a lot in Gloucestershire we haven’t even done and I’m really hoping to get to Bushy Park, the birthplace of parkrun, this year.