Discussion
RizzoTheRat said:
The only "challenge" parkrun encourages is your Personal Best, and they actively discourage people from visiting inaugural events. All these tourism/alphabet/prime/fibonacci/etc challenges are nothing to do with parkrun.
Except that they do tacitly encourage them https://www.parkrun.org.uk/millhouses/news/2022/05...
People can do what they like of course, but it just seems out of step with a sustainability ethos
smn159 said:
RizzoTheRat said:
The only "challenge" parkrun encourages is your Personal Best, and they actively discourage people from visiting inaugural events. All these tourism/alphabet/prime/fibonacci/etc challenges are nothing to do with parkrun.
Except that they do tacitly encourage them https://www.parkrun.org.uk/millhouses/news/2022/05...
People can do what they like of course, but it just seems out of step with a sustainability ethos
Master Bean said:
smn159 said:
RizzoTheRat said:
The only "challenge" parkrun encourages is your Personal Best, and they actively discourage people from visiting inaugural events. All these tourism/alphabet/prime/fibonacci/etc challenges are nothing to do with parkrun.
Except that they do tacitly encourage them https://www.parkrun.org.uk/millhouses/news/2022/05...
People can do what they like of course, but it just seems out of step with a sustainability ethos
Have a great day
RizzoTheRat said:
The only "challenge" parkrun encourages is your Personal Best, and they actively discourage people from visiting inaugural events. All these tourism/alphabet/prime/fibonacci/etc challenges are nothing to do with parkrun.
Agreed. There's no requirement or motivation to go out of your way to attend parkrun events further afield. smn159 said:
RizzoTheRat said:
The only "challenge" parkrun encourages is your Personal Best, and they actively discourage people from visiting inaugural events. All these tourism/alphabet/prime/fibonacci/etc challenges are nothing to do with parkrun.
Except that they do tacitly encourage them https://www.parkrun.org.uk/millhouses/news/2022/05...
People can do what they like of course, but it just seems out of step with a sustainability ethos
There's a Facebook "world tourists" group which has some lunatics that will fly to somewhere like Malaysia and not even stop the night just to get another county in. Whenever someone mentions sustainability or the environment the post quickly turns in to an argument and gets locked.
Snubs said:
Crasher242 said:
Did you manage to bag Fire Service College parkrun before it closed?
No, unfortunately not. It's a bit gutting as it would have got the 5k app achievement for running a ParkRun that's now closed, which is always going to be a tricky one. I see it's been replaced by the Woolford Wood run, which is just outside of Gloucestershire. To be sure, I've checked it via my company's digital mapping software and it's 176 metres outside the county boundary at the closest point. I think my next one will be the Berkeley Green run on the site of the now decommissioned Berkeley nuclear power station adjacent to the River Severn. I've been putting it off as according to the course page, the route of the run crosses the entrance to the car park so once you've finished, you have to wait for the run to end before you can drive home. Safe to say there's no alternative but to drive there, as you might imagine for a nuclear power station site. On the off chance someone has done that run, I'd be interested to know if you do have to wait or whether you can sneak out more promptly....
Did Fire Service College a few times and actually thought it was quite a nice one - always friendly and they even had a Tea Urn for a proper brew at the end.
Woolford Wood is not the same - small, muddy, and not a PB course by any stretch. And you also need to car-share as they are very limited on the parking front.
I did the Berkeley Green run this morning and here is the Magnox nuclear reactor in all its glory (drabness?):
It's a fascinating site to walk around, for me at least. On the one hand there's buildings and infrastructure not used for over 20 years with things like 'control centre' on the front door, through to a number of fairly new looking buildings that are now in use by local colleges for engineering courses.
My favourite bit was in the canteen where they've moved one of the old analogue-era control panels:
Did I press every button and flick every switch like a child? Yes. Yes I did
Evidently the colleges had something to do with the Bloodhound programme:
And finally the source of water for the power station, also known as the River Severn:
Crasher: If you're thinking of going down there I'd thoroughly recommend it. The canteen has loads of seating, decent toilets and tea / coffee / biscuits had been put on at the end. Evidently they've changed the course a bit so there're no issues with parking; you can arrive and leave and as you please as the course doesn't cross the car par entrance. The course itself is entirely on the roads around the site, so all hard standing and flat, making it a fast course year-round. They also strategically park cars playing music around course to perk things up a bit. It's a 30min drive for me and I'll be back for sure, particularly when the weather turns other courses into a quagmire.
It's a fascinating site to walk around, for me at least. On the one hand there's buildings and infrastructure not used for over 20 years with things like 'control centre' on the front door, through to a number of fairly new looking buildings that are now in use by local colleges for engineering courses.
My favourite bit was in the canteen where they've moved one of the old analogue-era control panels:
Did I press every button and flick every switch like a child? Yes. Yes I did
Evidently the colleges had something to do with the Bloodhound programme:
And finally the source of water for the power station, also known as the River Severn:
Crasher: If you're thinking of going down there I'd thoroughly recommend it. The canteen has loads of seating, decent toilets and tea / coffee / biscuits had been put on at the end. Evidently they've changed the course a bit so there're no issues with parking; you can arrive and leave and as you please as the course doesn't cross the car par entrance. The course itself is entirely on the roads around the site, so all hard standing and flat, making it a fast course year-round. They also strategically park cars playing music around course to perk things up a bit. It's a 30min drive for me and I'll be back for sure, particularly when the weather turns other courses into a quagmire.
I think that the number of people travelling long distances to parkruns is probably quiet low - we notice when we cancel numbers at local events don't go up, so most people won't travel further than their local event, never mind going a long way!
Anyway, Saturday, my 75th different event (mostly done locally or because I was away for another reason, hols, car events, visiting rellys) first in age category (and last!!) and 399th run, next Saturday 400th so can start the long slow countdown towards 500!
Anyway, Saturday, my 75th different event (mostly done locally or because I was away for another reason, hols, car events, visiting rellys) first in age category (and last!!) and 399th run, next Saturday 400th so can start the long slow countdown towards 500!
We've got a big local 10k and half marathon on Sunday so will get even more tourists than usual this weekend. Already had one group post on facebook they're coming with 60 people (and apparently no non running partners who can volunteer! Hopefully we'll have enough tokens but the backup plan is take a pen to write people's finish position on the back of thier hands 
Snubs said:
I did the Berkeley Green run this morning ...
Crasher: If you're thinking of going down there I'd thoroughly recommend it. The canteen has loads of seating, decent toilets and tea / coffee / biscuits had been put on at the end. Evidently they've changed the course a bit so there're no issues with parking; you can arrive and leave and as you please as the course doesn't cross the car par entrance. The course itself is entirely on the roads around the site, so all hard standing and flat, making it a fast course year-round. They also strategically park cars playing music around course to perk things up a bit. It's a 30min drive for me and I'll be back for sure, particularly when the weather turns other courses into a quagmire.
Crasher: If you're thinking of going down there I'd thoroughly recommend it. The canteen has loads of seating, decent toilets and tea / coffee / biscuits had been put on at the end. Evidently they've changed the course a bit so there're no issues with parking; you can arrive and leave and as you please as the course doesn't cross the car par entrance. The course itself is entirely on the roads around the site, so all hard standing and flat, making it a fast course year-round. They also strategically park cars playing music around course to perk things up a bit. It's a 30min drive for me and I'll be back for sure, particularly when the weather turns other courses into a quagmire.
Excellent - thanks for the info (and the photos - the control panel in the canteen is worth the petrol price to get there )
RizzoTheRat said:
...Hopefully we'll have enough tokens...
We've printed extras for single use https://wiki.parkrun.com/images/8/83/PositionToken... other events have used raffle tickets, when we had 860 one Christmas we ran out but only had a dribble of finishers so there was time for someone with a clipboard standing at the end of the funnel to write down position and Athlete ID. Enjoy it 
Snubs said:
The got me the Tourist achievement on the 5k app for attending 20 different runs. Still haven't achieve my aim of going to every run I Gloucestershire. There are 18 in the county and i think I've got 4 of 5 left including the Severn Bridge ParkRun, which looks great!
I'm doing the same in Norfolk - a few of us normally do parkruns in and around Norwich but over the summer we go to some a bit further afield to take a trip together, catch-up, have breakfast somewhere new, etc. It's a bit of a pain as Norfolk takes a while to get around (edge to edge parkruns are probably Hunstanton and Great Yarmouth which would take 90 minutes to get between the two) but we get to see new places, I couldn't imagine travelling any further just for a parkrun though and would only incorporate one further afield if I was there anyway on holiday, etc.Up to 12 of the 22 Norfolk ones, now the weather is getting nicer I'll get some more done.
If people want to run next to nuclear power stations, Sizewell is a nice small one to do!
It might not sound a lot to those of you from bigger parkruns, but we had a new attendance record of 217 today, which is a lot when you usually get about 60 to 80, only have 225 finish tokens, and are on your alternative course because there's a massive protest in the other half of the park and it's swarming police and angry farmers.
And bizarrely our token sorters found a duplicate, as far as I can tell someone took a token home in October and returned it today
And bizarrely our token sorters found a duplicate, as far as I can tell someone took a token home in October and returned it today
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