Parkrun tourism: Forest of Dean parkrun
My husband, eldest, sister, brother-in-law and nephew recently did some parkrun tourism at Forest of Dean parkrun. Forest of Dean parkrun is the oldest parkrun in Gloucestershire and was the 36th parkrun in the UK, launched in 2010.
Parkrun tourism is where you run at a different parkrun to your usual (home) parkrun. Some people do parkrun tourism nearly every week and some people never do it. We like to do parkrun tourism from time to time – usually when we need to be somewhere away from home at 9am on a Saturday, but sometimes just for a change of scene.
I’ve wanted to do Forest of Dean parkrun for a long time. We eventually went along on New Year’s Day because there were very few parkruns locally on that day. New Year’s Day was a Monday this year. Individual parkruns can choose to hold extra events on Christmas Day and/ or New Year’s day. Our home parkrun always holds an event on Christmas Day, which I’ve run every year since 2015 and is an essential part of Christmas for me. It doesn’t usually hold a New Year’s Day event, which gives me an excuse for some tourism. I’ve done New Year’s Day parkrun every year since 2019.
Forest of Dean parkrun is near Coleford. It is completely within the forest itself, but very close to the road. Parking is available at both Berry Hill RFC and Five Acres School. We parked at the school, then we basically just needed to cross the road to get to the start, which is very well signposted.
An important thing to note is that there are no toilets at the parkrun or nearby. I hoped to see a public toilet on the drive over, but there was nothing. I ended up having to do a ‘wild wee’ before the start. I saw lots of other people trekking into the undergrowth, no doubt for the same reason.
The average number of runners at Forest of Dean parkrun is 96. I expected a huge turnout for New Year’s Day as there were so few other events on, but there were just 139 finishers, which felt very manageable.
Apparently, the first timers’ briefing was the biggest one they’d ever done. It was very comprehensive. It emphasised the point that this is most definitely a forest. There is lots of mud, lots of leaves on the ground and lots of stones and tree roots and stumps – some of them hidden by leaves and mud. The volunteer told us to look at our feet and said that would be the best terrain we would see on the whole course.
Trail shoes are recommended. My husband and I wore ours, which were still wet from an off road run the previous day. The rest of the family don’t have trail shoes and just ran in their normal trainers.
The course is two laps, which goes all over the place in a sort of zig zag pattern. The first lap is 2km and the second lap is 3km and there is a little bit of repetition. It feels like the middle of nowhere, but apparently we were never more than 500m from the start line.
The course is marked out on numbered permanent posts around the forest, erected with the support of the Forestry Commission. The first lap is marked in yellow arrows and the second is marked in red arrows.
The run started and my son ran off ahead, with me behind and my husband behind me. It was very, very wet and our feet were instantly soaked. The first lady wasn’t too far in front.
I wasn’t sure how to pace it, as running in thick mud is much harder than running on the tarmac paths I’m used to. It slows you down and you have to try to stay on your feet. A couple of times I felt myself about to go and grabbed on a tree branch.
My husband overtook me, then my son fell over in the mud. He was down and up very quickly and luckily was unhurt. That’s one advantage of falling in mud!
I overtook my son. Another lady overtook me, which was a shame as I thought I could be second lady. Then I overtook the lady and my husband. The first lady wasn’t too far in front.
For the last 2km I was gradually gaining on her. I was pushing myself as hard as I possibly could. I would have loved to start the year with first lady, but it wasn’t to be. She beat me by just five seconds. Annoyingly, she was in my age group, so I wasn’t even first in my age category! Us 50-something ladies can be pretty quick.
My husband was 30 seconds behind me and my son was a minute behind him. I always beat my husband on New Year’s Day. No prizes for guessing why! Remarkably, my 8 year old nephew, accompanied by both parents, was just five minutes behind my son. My nephew absolutely loved it. We all did.
As there are no coffee shops nearby, Forest of Dean parkrun supplies coffee and tea at the finish line for a donation of 50p to £1 in cash to support Forest of Dean athletics club. If you don’t have cash, they say you can take a drink anyway and just pay double next time you go, because they are convinced there definitely will be a next time.
My family will certainly visit Forest of Dean parkrun again.
There are a number of parkruns in the Forest of Dean. The others are Mallards Pike, Lydney and Newent. For some reason, if you say you are doing Forest of Dean parkrun, a lot of people assume you mean Mallards Pike! But only this one near Coleford is actually called Forest of Dean.
