The weather this morning may have been horrendous, but it was great to be out running a new location and meet top new people at Valentines, Ilford today!

It’s hard to explain to a non runner being soaked right through by torrential rain but 161 brave souls run this event today and most probably would tell you that felt better for coming!

Talking of top people it was my pleasure to meet fellow Cow-Cowl tourist today Kevin Brown and Andrew James, hope to bump into you guys again in the near future!

Course

The course starts near to the park cafe then you run along the main path to the far end of the boating lake. Next you run two anticlockwise laps of the park, then run up the main path to the finish that is located in the same place as the start!

For the record this is a 100% tarmac course, even though my watch showed some inclines this seemed a relatively flat fast course in the right conditions!

We were given a course report before we started that warned us about the slippery nature of the wooden bridge and lake section at the back of the course, due to mud and rain! There were also a few minor branches littered about I think from the previous nights storm that hit the capital!

Overall the course conditions did interfere with the enjoyment of the run in any way!

Personal Stats

Should I have been running with a chest infection in the pouring rain, probably not! I will take 35:20 any day of the week the way I have felt recently!

Important Info

I found public toilets facilities available on Cranbrook Road on the outside parameter of the park before the start of the run!

For parking there are two small pay and display car parks inside the park that reasonably priced at £1.30 for 2 hours, I decided to use the Cranbrook Road entrance one Sat nav IG1 4UA that is very close to the start of the run!

There looks like an excellent cafe to go in for your post run coffee in Valentines Park Café shame I could not stay try it out as I was just to wet!

In the summer there is boats for hire, Ilford cricket club next door to while the day away and if you are interested there is the beautiful Valentines Mansion and Gardens to look around!

Final Verdict

I would like to thank Vicki and her team of volunteers for making us all feel welcome and doing such a sterling job in such horrid conditions!

Finally a lovely location to run a parkrun and very understandable why it won a Green Flag award as a top park destination!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner

Run on 04/02/2017