Leamington parkrun with the parkrun Ambassadors

As part of the parkrun Ambassadors’ Conference, we were taken by coach to Leamington parkrun.

Some people chose to run there… and an unlucky coachload worried that they would have to run there as their coach broke down. Fortunately, there was room for them to squeeze onto the other coaches.

We arrived in plenty of time. I’d chosen to wear my new 250 t-shirt, whereas the majority of other ambassadors were wearing their apricot t-shirts, representing their home parkruns.

As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny morning… although perhaps a little too warm for running.

Another way of identifying parkrun Ambassadors was to look for the pink parkrun sunglasses!

Most of the recent runs at Leamington have had 500 or so participants, so we definitely added to that number. There were 764 runners.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the opportunity to chat with other runners about their home events. There was also a lot of discussion about the facilities available to Leamington parkrun. The barn that you can see in the picture below houses toilets. It is also possible for the parkrun kit (flags, finish funnel etc) to be stored there. They also have basic facilities for refreshments.

Before the start, some ambassadors posed holding up letters that spelled out the hashtag ‘#loveparkrun’. It was a fun touch and something that could easily be emulated at other events.

I felt a little sorry for the Run Director. During his briefing, he commented that it felt a little bit like a teacher having to address a roomful of OFSTED inspectors.

I didn’t take any photos during my run. It’s a lovely 1 lap course with views across the countryside. It’s also tough.

Undulating suggests some beautiful gentle slopes. Leamington is definitely hilly. There were some steep climbs where a lot of people were walking. It’s also entirely off-road. As the weather has been so hot, a lot of the grass/ground has turned to dust and it affected my breathing.

I really enjoyed having a chatty parkrun, socialising with Lucy and some of the other ambassadors from Brighton.

The finish was very busy. Luckily, the amabassadors all know the drill, so everyone stayed in line and waited patiently to receive their finish token, before heading over to the barcode scanners.

I had hoped that I would finish in under 30 minutes, but it wasn’t to be.

Maybe I’ll be able to come back and achieve a PB at some time.

Have you done any parkrun tourism recently?