Parkrun tourism: Trelissick parkrun

My husband and I, along with Hetty our cockapoo, recently did some parkrun tourism at Trelissick parkrun. Trelissick parkrun is based at Trelissick – a historic house and garden owned by the National Trust on the estuary near Truro. It was our sixth Cornish parkrun location. We’ve previously run Eden Project (twice!), Lanhydrock, Land’s End, Heartlands and The Lost Gardens of Heligan.

Trelissick is a one lap course through woodland and alongside the Fal Estuary. It has a lot in common with The Lost Gardens of Heligan, which we ran only a week earlier, but the weather was much better!

Parking for Trelissick parkrun is the National Trust car park, which is free to National Trust members. Unfortunately for non-members like us, it costs £6. The machine only took coins, which was a problem as we only had our phones to make contactless payments. It said we could pay by card when the Visitor Centre opened, but of course that wasn’t open at 8:30am, as Trelissick doesn’t open to the public until 10am. Eventually we realised you could also pay by app (the JustPark app, I think).

The first timers’ and main briefing take place close to the car park. There are plenty of toilets there. The briefing is quite early, because once it’s over, everyone has to walk around 5oo metres to the start with the run director. We walked through the beautiful gardens, where we strictly had to keep to the path, as the National Trust is kind enough to let parkrun use the site every week. We even walked through an area where only assistance dogs are allowed, but dogs doing parkrun (on a short, hand-held lead, of course) are allowed to walk through to the start line.

The start line was on a sheltered and very uneven path. It was probably the most uneven path I’d ever encountered on a parkrun – unfinished gravel, with stones, rocks and tree roots jutting out. I’m pleased to say we were wearing trail shoes, as advised on the website, after we’d failed to wear them at Heligan. The weather had been quite damp all week, but the paths were surprisingly dry, probably because they are so sheltered by the trees.

Because the start was narrow, we were asked to line up in approximately the right place. Everyone seemed very reluctant to actually wait by the start sign! I started fairly near the front. My husband had Hetty, so he started further back than me.

The start was an immediate downhill, with a few undulations. This was all alongside the estuary, which was just visible through a line of trees. It was pretty much downhill for the first mile, when we crossed the stream by a little bridge. Then we ran alongside the estuary on the other side before entering a field. We’d been warned the field was where the uphill was and ‘even fast people walk up the hill’. I started walking almost immediately, tried to run again and ended up walking all the way to the top. Pretty much everyone was doing the same.

Then we ran across the top of the field – with beautiful views across the estuary, including a ship moored there which I hadn’t noticed previously. Then it was downhill to the bottom of the field, turn right and back the way we’d come from.

Trelissick is a keep left course, because you pass people going in the opposite direction at this point. Runners and walkers were still coming down the hill to the field, as I left the field, ready to run back up again. The return to the finish line was mainly uphill, but not so much that I needed to walk. The toughest bit was passing the start sign (which usefully said ‘120m to go’ on the back) on the final push uphill to the finish line.

I crossed the line in 25:32 – a few seconds faster than the previous week at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. At Heligan, I was first lady. At Trelissick, I was second in my age category! My husband and Hetty were about three minutes behind. She’d been pretty good, but running with a dog isn’t easy if you’re not used to it.

Trelissick parkrun is a beautiful course and we would definitely recommend it for some parkrun tourism if you’re in Cornwall. Just be prepared for hills.

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.