So having completed Cambridgeshire again last week, today it was time to return to Essex, and to South Woodham Ferrers parkrun on the River Crouch. I parked the car as instructed in the car park of Marsh Farm Animal Adventure Park, but there were surprisingly few other people about, and as I jogged down the path to the river, when I got to the south end, I turned back and looked along the path: no-one was behind me. However, I continued on, and found that almost everyone had parked in the car park for Marsh Farm Country Park, which is rather more convenient.
After the briefings, we moved across the car park to the start, and were soon underway. The course runs around the car park onto the sea wall, which it follows for a little while before descending onto the marshes and going inland for a little while, eventually reaching another river wall at Clementsgreen Creek which we followed for a while before reversing our route on a track below the river wall, then taking a different route back to the River Crouch, eventually rejoining the outward route which we followed back to the finish funnel. I didn’t manage to find anyone to latch onto for an extended period today, four people fulfilling the role, each for a little while: the first three I eventually overtook; the fourth sprinted away from me every time I caught her up, and in the end finished eight seconds in front of me.
A really lovely course. Final time 25:39, finishing 26th of 103.
Incidentally, I came across the “5000m dash-board” website [later note: no longer available] today, which shows the numbers of people who have run all the parkruns in a particular area, and how others (including me) are progressing. It reports that there are only two people who’ve run all the East of England parkruns, and there are only another two people who’ve done more than 60 of the 70 runs in the region – clearly completion, or being very close to completion, is not a widespread thing. The site says I’m 18th equal on the list, and with 22 more to go I will take a while to rise up the rankings.
