I was very excited at the announcement of a new parkrun opening up close to home in Canons Park. A few weeks in, and seeing on Facebook that lots of other ‘UK parkrun tourists’ would be there, I decided to pay it a visit.
My first discovery of the day was that Canons Park is not quite as close to home as I thought it was. And my miscalculation meant I had to do a rare warm-up jog from the car to get to the start on time.
The run was quickly underway, with 3 laps down through the park, past a playground and some tennis courts, then up(hill) through trees. Most was on tarmac paths, with a very short section on grass at the finish.
I was pretty pleased to finish in a time of 25.55. The faster-than-usual time thanks, no doubt, to the warm-up jog and a relatively speedy course. (See results)
It was good to meet some fellow parkrun tourists, brand new run director Andrew and some parkrun newbies drawn in by the team’s local advertising efforts.
Biggest plus points: super friendly, lots of walkers and run-walkers, easy-ish course, ‘close to home’.

UK parkrun tourists
I’m doing a different parkrun each week of the year to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Please head over to my JustGiving page if you’re able to help out.