This event no longer takes place.

Before reviewing today’s parkrun I must give my personal deepest sympathies to the families of the unbelievably dreadful tragedy that happen in London this past week! I have now run with 47 London parkrun communities, the warmth and friendship they have bestowed on me has been very heartwarming to my soul, I have been enriched by meeting you all!

So Ellenbrook Fields today was my 49th and final homeward bound parkrun as a tourist on this a brilliant capital adventure and they did not let me down!

It’s a real privilege to run on land with such a rich history in aviation that up to 1994 was Hatfield Airfield that opened as a RAF base in the 1930’s and supported the war effort with aircraft production, most notable of planes the Mosquito fighter-bomber. Today they use the old taxiing strip for the start of the parkrun!

It is always good to make new friends and say hello to old ones, today it was my pleasure amongst the locals of Ellenbrook parkrun were John & Lynne Norman the lovely parents of the parkrun tourist legend in Danny Norman who has run over 500 parkruns and completed 201 different events, outstanding body of work sir!

Also it is great to bump into an old friend in Wai Meng Au-Yeong who I last met a Beckton parkrun on my adventure, you are a top lady and good luck with run directing on your first junior parkrun!

Course

The course starts on the old airfield taxi way then you proceed to do two anticlockwise loops, the first is one small loop just after the start then followed by one large loop of Ellenbrook Fields with the finish funnel just beyond the starting point!

The running surface is predominantly made up of a grass trail that is relatively flat in nature, there are a couple of tarmac and concrete paths though!

Important points to note

• In the winter it would be interesting how difficult like many grass courses Ellenbrook would be like to run
• There are a few tractor tracks on the far end of the course you have to be wary of when running

Always a pleasure to run on grass courses and this is a good one to test yourself on, you have been told!

Personal Stats

The time in that heat was irrelevant just took it easy with a jog/walk combination, time 37:10

Important Info

There is free weekend parking at the University of Hertfordshire Sat Nav AL10 9EU and please unlike me follow their parkrun website directions to the start of the event, I didn’t and started walking in the wrong direction 😦

They state you can use the toilet is the University swim centre but don’t walk in there with muddy trainers! For the post run coffee they used a mobile catering van that parked up near the finishing line!

Final Verdict

So all I can say is run Ellenbrook and meet the lovely community they have there and run on land with a rich aviation history behind it!

So next week I’am back for the first time in over a year at my beloved home parkrun of Luton, Wardown. I have missed you all so much on this capital challenge and I cannot wait to run at home with my friends again!

See you next week Luton!!!!!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner

Run on 17/06/2017