Walsall Arboretum parkrun

Introduction / List of reviews

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Date of Visit

30 April 2022

Number of runners

266

Event Number

459

Visit Number

1

I’m originally from Walsall yet have never made this parkrun up until now! Have always thought I’d tie a visit in to visiting family but timing has never worked out.

Results

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/walsall/results/459/

parkrun Link

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/walsall/

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/walsallarboretumparkrun

Strava Segment

https://www.strava.com/segments/13391066

Weather

Lovely eventually! When I woke up my phone told me it was 2 degrees out! By the time we left the car said it was 8 and reached 9 by the time we parked. When we got back to the car it said it was 14 degrees.
I took a warm top but ditched it when I got out the car but Bryony had probably gone for too many layers!

Getting There

Walsall arboretum is generally well sign posted so it’s not difficult to find. Locals can easily walk to it. Train station is about a mile away and there are bus routes that will get in the near vicinity. We drove and parked at the free arboretum car park on Broadway North. The parkrun page says parking is at The Grange but the arboretum car park is literally next to it. I’m not sure if that’s old information that’s not been updated. Post code on the parkrun site isn’t all that accurate if you don’t know the area. Lincoln Road is over the road from the car park so I’d aim for that (or search for “broadway car park”)

There are also loads of side roads nearby so depending on where you’re coming from it shouldn’t be hard to find somewhere nearer to the other end of the park if needed.

Facilities

The car park is about half a mile away from the start line and then the visitor centre with toilets is further than that. Not a big deal as you can use it for a warm up but if you’re pushed for time it’s worth knowing as from the start to the toilet and back to the start was almost a mile. We missed the start of the first timer briefing because we hadn’t really accounted for that.

Visitors centre has toilets and does food and drink afterwards but we didn’t take advantage this time on account of the fact I had some boring DIY to do today (being a grown up is rubbish sometimes 😆)

Briefings and Volunteers

Volunteers were fantastic. All very encouraging and plenty of them. I had a lovely little chat with the RD just after I finished and the time keepers and photographer were on good form.

We just missed the start of the first timer briefing but the volunteer happily fielded my questions about the route.

Main briefing was hit by some technical problems as the loud speaker was on the blink but she did an excellent job of shouting without the mic! Bryony was particularly grateful that during the briefing they specifically mentioned about which side of the path to run on. This something we’ve noticed RD’s don’t seem to mention as often these days but it’s really important for her as she can’t hear faster runners coming through.

Start line and finish funnel

Start line was on a nice straight part of the course but was ultimately limited by the width of the path. Given this is one of the better attended events it meant it was a full ten seconds before Bryony actually made it to the start point. Might not seem a lot but if you’re trying to track weekly progress that does throw a spanner into the works. Unless you’re going to start at the very front though it’s one of those things you have to factor in.

Course

Fast! Three laps of the lake and finish by the bandstand. Other than a very short and tiny incline at the back of the course it’s really flat. That’s also the only really tight turn too but there is scope to not let it slow you down drastically so it’s easy to see why this is one of the fastest courses in the region. It’s also gorgeous! Walsall arboretum is a nice place to visit anyway so if you catch it in the spring or summer it’s going to be full of colour.

Shoes

Road. Whole things is on paths. No need for anything else!

Short or Long? (based on our watches and checking out other Strava profiles)

Spot on I think. I got 3.12 and Bryony 3.06 miles. My usual glance at other strava results had most people around that too.

Andy Stats

parkrun number:

50!!!

Milestone T-shirt will be winging it’s way to me shortly.

Tourist event number:

22

Official time:

18:57 (PB!)

Position: 

12 (72.56% age grade)

Bryony Stats

parkrun number:

41

Tourist event number:

18

Official time:

34:17

Position

201 (44.63% age grade)  46th Female

How did it go?

Amazing! As this is my 50th parkrun and I’m in good shape at the moment I wanted to see if I could run a PB today and I knocked a whole 28 seconds off. I’m also over the moon to have gone under 19 minutes. I never thought I’d see one of my parkruns times start with 18. I managed to sit in with a couple of people who were all around my pace which always helps when you’re pushing hard. To do this at Walsall is really pleasing too. It’s where I grew up and I know the arboretum pretty well!

Bryony had good run and seems to have put the troubles from Hastings behind her. This was her fastest parkrun of the year and other than the congestion on the start line everything else went fine. She had a big smile when I waved at her at the end of her second lap.

Return Visit Likely?

Yes! Not entirely sure why it’s taken 50 parkruns to actually visit this one seeing as I know the area so well.

Pictures and that.