Bedworth parkrun

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Date of Visit

18/06/2022

Number of runners

105

Event Number

146

Visit Number

18

This is our home parkrun!

Results

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/bedworth/results/146/

parkrun Link

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

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/Bedworthparkrun/

Strava Segment

https://www.strava.com/segments/30408873

Weather

We saw some very warm weather this week with it hitting 30 degrees in some parts of the country. On Friday afternoon I did wonder if it was going to be too hot for parkrun but Saturday morning saw a marked change from the day before. case. Temperature ended up being quite pleasant but it kept trying to rain. It meant for good running conditions but not so great sitting outside for a post run cuppa conditions!

Getting There

The park is called “Miners Welfare Park”.

If coming via car Bedworth is really well connected being close to junction 3 of the M6 with the A5, A444, M42 and M1 not too far away either.

Bedworth train station is a five minute walk away and there is a bus stop outside the Bedworth leisure centre which is essentially one of the entrances to the park. The town centre is also close where lots of bus routes come into.

For parking there are a fair few options.

There is a small amount of parking in the park itself. It’s free on Saturday. Generally need to arrive early for this one.

Largest car park nearby is called Spitalfields. This one isn’t free though it’s not expensive. It’s been a while since I used it but pretty sure I’ve never spent more than £1. Last time I used it I needed cash though it may now have a card option as it has been a while.

Leisure centre has parking too though it’s not huge and probably best to leave that for people using the leisure centre unless absolutely needed.

Start line is in-between the leisure centre and the cricket club.

Facilities

Toilet block pretty much right on the start line. Being so close to home I’ve never actually used them though!

There is a lot going on in this park. As well as it generally being nice to walk around there are a couple of children play areas, a skate park, the cricket club, tennis courts, mountain bike track and disc golf course alongside the leisure centre. If you’re coming with someone who isn’t running they won’t be short of things to do.

Post run the official meet up point is the Mayor’s Cafe. Seating inside and out. It’s vegetarian, which I didn’t know until I tried to order a sausage sandwich 🤦‍♂️. We had a very nice up of tea and slice of lemon drizzle while catching up with some friends we bumped into.

The cricket club in the park also does food and drink too. I’ve not been in as of yet but the blackboard outside does offer sausage and bacon sandwiches.

Briefings and Volunteers

Volunteers at Bedworth are always great. I do love that certain spots on the course end up getting named after some of them.

The person at the bottom of the hill was also having a mini disco for everyone with music blaring out!

I can’t really report on the first time briefing this week as I most definitely wasn’t a first timer. I did grab a snap of it happening though.

Main briefing was conducted with a loud hailer for maximum coverage 😊 We did get away a touch earlier than 9am which caught a couple of people out who were standing in front of the start line and not quite paying attention!

Start line and finish funnel

Start line makes use of a little path just off the main path so people can line up without entirely blocking it up for other people. This was (in my opinion) a smart change that was made as the previous location did mean that section of the path was essentially unusable for others from about 8.50 onwards.

Finish funnel does similar. It uses a bit of path that goes out of the park and then everyone can gather on the grass afterwards. Both have plenty scope to grow as needed if it’s a busy one which can happen if Coventry is ever cancelled as that’s one of the largest parkruns in the Midlands and isn’t too far away.

Course

3 laps.

First lap follows the main path around the park with laps two and three adding a small loop in what’s locally known as the “off-road section”. It’s not what you’d actually call an off-road section as it’s still on pavement but it goes down through some overhanging trees where it eventually leads you to “Miners Mount”. This is a short but fairly sharp climb back up onto the main path and is basically my nemesis. If you only had to do this once it probably wouldn’t be too bad but when you’re on the final lap and are pushing particularly hard it’s the last thing you need!

Paths on the top section are good and reasonably wide enough so as not to cause problems with other park users or for fast runners overtaking. The exception to this is down by the leisure centre where it gets a bit twisty.

The path here is much narrower and you can sometimes come across other people so be careful here, especially if they are walking towards you as you can’t always see them as they come around the corner. One particularly damp Saturday I stepped off the path to avoid someone, put my foot in a patch of mud and ended up on my face!

Off-road section starts with a bit of park trail type path downhill with the bottom part being solid if a little narrow before widening out for the climb up. Leaves from the trees in wet weather are the only things to look out for.

All of this is to say that while there are some fast parts to the course, particularly on the first lap the additional sections in laps two and three mean that if you’re PB chasing you’ll need to work really hard to get it here. That’s obviously not the only reason we do parkrun though and as a event itself it has a lot going for it 😊

Shoes

Road shoes. The off-road section isn’t really off-road from a footing point of view.

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

About right. As with Babbs Mill last week when the event restarted they tweaked the start and finish locations which also meant a remeasure. The start and finish locations make much more practical sense now but I do miss the old finish location as it made for really good sprint finish pictures!

Andy Stats

parkrun number:

56

Tourist event number:

Home event so no changes to tourist numbers

Official time:

19:38

Position:

4 ( 70.03% age grade)

Bryony Stats

parkrun number:

45

Tourist event number:

Home event so no changes to tourist numbers

Official time:

35:45

Position

83 (42.80% age grade) 19th Female

How did it go?

Andy – It was good to be back at our home event. It’s my first visit this year as we’ve been on a bit of a tourist streak and even though I grumble about the hill it’s a really lovely place for a run. From a performance point of view it went really well. I ran a new fastest time at Bedworth, taking a big chuck off my last time. The fact that my new Bedworth PB is 44 seconds slower than my overall PB tells you everything you need to know about the impact the hill has here!

Bryony – There’s a familiarity about Bedworth, which I always like, comfy old slippers – even with Miners Mount! Despite it ironically being where my parkrun PB is (from 2019!) – with so many flatter courses on our tourism trips – I have to remind myself that its not a PB course. It was good to be back, I felt stronger than I have done in a while.

Return Visit Likely?

Yes, being our home event and all!

Pictures and that.