A Visit to the Home of parkrun

March 14, 2015 by winsometahn 4 Comments

I’m visiting my sister and her family for a long weekend. They live in Chessington, southwest London which, it transpires, is nice and close to Bushy parkrun. As many of you will know, Bushy Park was the spot chosen by Paul Sinton-Hewitt, to run a Saturday morning 5 km time trial with a small group of friends, just over 10 years ago.

Today more than 1040 runners bunched up near the Diana fountain for event number 563. The start was unsurprisingly a little slow to get going for those of us towards the back but once we were underway it was busy but never too congested. The course is a single lap around half of the park, starting on grass before moving onto unsealed paths. It is flat and very pretty, especially on a sunny, early Spring morning.



The Hordes Descending for the Start

Organising the finish line and funnel for such a large parkrun requires some careful organisation and I do not envy the time keepers and finish token volunteers one little bit. They were fab!



1,2,3…1024,1025,1026…



Bushy Park is the second largest of the 8 Royal Parks in London and is just across the road from Hampton Court Palace, the Tudor Palace largely built by Henry VIII. 





I have lived in the UK for over 7 years but I’m still easily awed by the age, the grandeur and the historical importance of so many places here. I like to imagine what it must have been like to live here, back in the day…though I think I would have preferred the Georgian period to the Tudor – less murderous and less plaguey!



Rowing on the Thames



Anyway, I finished the morning with a run back to Chessington with the help of Google maps and my phone to make it 7 miles. The rest of the day is to be spent with colouring pens and glitter and a six year old artist!