Always great to visit new events that are only a few weeks old and seeing a new parkrun community flourish in front of your eyes! I can definitely say parkrun UK that it was all my pleasure to run event 5 at Haverhill parkrun today located at Puddlebrook Playing Fields!

First for me as a tourist it is always a delight to run in a new county for first time with the market town of Haverhill being in Suffolk with a population of 27,000 that is very close to the border of adjacent counties of Cambridgeshire and Essex respectfully!

Tourist Milestone

I was lucky to bump into Stuart Barton who was celebrating his 50th different parkrun event at Haverhill, well done sir great achievement! You will have to tell me one day the story why you like to wear your cow cowl buff as a mask for photo’s though mate 🙂

Also on my travels it is a real treat to meet up with fellow tourist friends again from Huntington, Phil Pearson, Peter & Pat Jackson who I first met before at Gunpowder parkrun, great to see you again guys!!!

Also good to meet new people in Jennifer Devaney, Will Burl (in orange) and I think the gentleman on the right is Carl Oldford, plus it is always a pleasure to tour with my top buddy Martin Ball!

Course

This course is run around Puddlebrook Playing Fields, first up is 2 small clockwise laps around the top playing field then you cross a small wooden bridge to run additional 3 clockwise laps of the larger playing field.

Once you finished the third lap you run back across the bridge and run 3/4 of a clockwise lap on the small field to the finish funnel.

This is a almost flat grass playing field course that was suprisingly only boggy in a few small areas considering the amout of rain we have had, but definitely still a trail running shoes kind of course at the present moment!

The size of the field of runners totalled 57 but this is to be expected with this type of course and the horrendous weather we are having at present, I am positive this parkrun will become more popular the when people know about its presence!

Not happy with my 5k times at present will have to knuckle down and do some serious training, time 40:08

Facilites

There is free road parking on Homefield Road Sat Nav CB9 8QP, I parked in a small car park that is sharp left if you enter from the A1017 roundabout side of this long road! As stated on Haverhill parkrun website there are no toilet facilities on site and I have heard that they are getting a licence for a mobile cafe as I speak!

For the obligatory post run coffee we retired to the Haver Arms for a wonderful full English breakfast that was very welcome addition to refuel me for the long trip home 🙂

Final verdict

I would like to thank RD Shirley Fowler and her team of volunteers that made us feel extremely welcome, for the record showed that your enthusiasm is infectious and long on may it continue, top work guys!!!!

So if you are ever in this part of Suffolk give Haverhill parkrun a visit and in the right conditions this can be a fast flat course!

Best

Mark

Event 82 Cambridge 14-04-2018