Parkrun tourism: Ross-on-Wye parkrun

I recently did some parkrun tourism at Ross-on-Wye parkrun with my extended family (eight of us!). It was only my second time doing tourism this year – after Gloucester City on New Year’s Day – as I’ve been so focused on my marathon. The plan is to do a lot more parkrun tourism over the summer.

We chose Ross-on-Wye as it was my NENDY (nearest event not done yet, according to the parkrun app). We had considered a couple of others, but they weren’t dog friendly and we needed to take Hetty with us.

Ross-on-Wye parkrun has two courses – the main A course and a reserve B course, at a completely different venue, when the A course is unavailable. We ran the A course, which is based at Ross-on-Wye sports centre in the Herefordshire town.

There is a huge car park very close to the start line, which costs a small amount of money to park – I think it was £1.45 for us, which is slightly more than it said on the parkrun website. Parking is payable by cash or the JustPark app. There are plenty of clean toilets in the clubhouse at the start line. The clubhouse is also open for drinks and bacon sandwiches etc after parkrun.

The first timers’ briefing was the funniest one we’ve ever attended. It started pretty late and we were informed they don’t worry about time in Ross. We had a detailed description of the course and were informed that there are very few regulars at Ross (this may or may not be true, but there was definitely a lot of tourists – there were 66 first timers out of a total of 159 runners).

Ross-on-Wye parkrun is a two-lap course, all on grass. We went along during a dry spell, so road trainers were perfect. I can imagine it would get very muddy in winter and after prolonged periods of rain. It starts by going around the sports pitches, then quickly onto a large farmer’s field, which runs alongside the River Wye. You basically do a big lap of the farmer’s field, then it’s back out onto the sports pitches ready to start the second lap. It is almost entirely flat, apart from one short, steep climb, which you do twice.

We’re used to a very busy parkrun, so my family tend to set off too fast when we go somewhere quieter. Ross-on-Wye was a challenge for me. My recovery from my marathon has been harder and slower than I expected. Every run I’ve done since has hurt, but I’m making gradual progress.

My brother-in-law was in second overall for a while and my sister was in first lady position. I gradually closed the gap on my sister, spoke to her briefly, then overtook her. As soon as I’d overtaken her, a much younger woman overtook both of us. Then a lady who looked about my age overtook me and the younger lady. My sister gradually dropped further back, but I managed to maintain a reasonable pace.

We’d been warned about some new irrigation pipes on the course. It is actually one pipe, which goes across the whole width of the field, so we crossed it twice on each lap. It was easy enough to step or jump across it, but it could have been a trip hazard if we weren’t concentrating. There were marshals too to make sure we were safe. The River Wye was basically invisible behind trees the whole way, even though we knew we were running alongside it.

I went up and down the incline on the far side of the field and another lady who looked about my age briefly overtook me. I decided I wasn’t letting that happen, so I overtook her and didn’t see her again. Before I knew it, I was off the big field, back onto the sports pitches and starting my second lap.

The two ladies and my brother-in-law were just in front of me. I periodically closed the gap on them, then they pulled away again. I didn’t manage to catch them. If I was at full fitness, I would have managed it. Then at the start of the second lap, another younger lady overtook me. I watched her pick off the two ladies in front of me and she went on to become first lady.

I lapped my mum and niece, who had offered to run with Hetty, followed by my dad and my nephew.

I finished in 23:24 – by far my best time since my marathon and my third best time this year. I was a minute behind the first lady and 24 seconds behind second lady. The lady in third, who I’d thought was about my age, turned out to be in the 65-69 category, with an age grading of 91.52%!

We all really enjoyed Ross-on-Wye parkrun and would definitely run it again, as long as the weather and the ground are dry.

Parkrun tourism is when you run at a parkrun other than your regular (‘home’) parkrun. Some people do it every week. Some people never do it. We mainly do it when we are on holiday or need to be somewhere other than our local park at 9am on a Saturday. But we also like to go somewhere different just for fun every now and then. Some people do challenges with their parkrun tourism, which are on the parkrun app. I’ve never bothered with these, but my friend Joy aka Pink Oddy is a fan.