The Norwich parkrun takes place in Eaton Park, which lies west of the City Centre. The http://www.friendsofeatonpark.co.uk/ website tells me that it covers over eighty acres and is the largest of the Norwich parks.
parkrunners meet at the bandstand within the park, past the fountain if you’re coming from the city end (and past the skate park if you’re coming from the other!). As far as parking goes, there are a few car park options, although I’m lucky enough to live near enough to run there.
We are fortunate in that we have a few courses to run, in order to accommodate recent weather and some improvements being made to the park’s tennis courts.
I’m going to describe the ‘usual’ and the current, which is scheduled to be used until March 2012.
Announcements are held within the bandstand area before the runners make their way to the start line, near the children’s playground.
From there, there’s a slight downhill through the trees with the football fields on the left. At the bottom the path turns left to follow the football fields along the narrow end of the park. Just before the skate park the course turns left again, up the (slight) hill and through the trees, on the way back to the bandstand. At this point you always get a great view of the hundreds of runners streaming around Eaton Park.
Run past the boating lake and take the second path on the right, with the lake on your right. It’s a sharp left at the end of that path which goes around the back of the park, through the trees and past the tennis courts. After that it’s straight past the bowling greens before another left past the bandstand.
Two more laps of that and at the end of the third lap, it’s a left to the home straight, the finish funnel and a last sprint for the last hundred metres!
The current course starts a little bit further back and consists of one lap straight past the boating lake to the bowling greens, and two which include a loop around the boating lake itself.
It really is a beautiful way to start a Saturday, and I feel lucky to have completed close to sixty parkruns there.
Excellent description of a fablious parkrun
ReplyDeleteVery sorry to be pedantic, but
ReplyDelete"Run past the boating lake and take the path on the right, with the lake on your left."
If you run past the boating lake and then turn right, the lake is on your right.
I know, I know, I should really get a life.
could be a different lake if you're being pedantic ;) (however you are right as I've run the course and there is only one!)
ReplyDeleteThanks MisterChops, it should be 'the lake on your right'! I think I got mixed up thinking about the current course while describing the usual one, silly me.
ReplyDeleteI'll update now.