First for me, nothing worse for a parkrun tourist than a cancelled event while you are in the process of traveling to venue, it was meant to be event 81 Brentwood on my Cowell Club adventure to reach 100 different parkrun events.
The reason for this cancellation was in this case a very unusual one, the Weald Country park main gates were not opened in time by the park wardens to give the local parkrun community enough time to set up the course!
It would have been a beautiful single clockwise lap of this country park to run, but would have been testing due to its undulating nature and the underfoot wet conditions, still I love a challenge though 🙂
Lesson Learned
Must admit even I have learnt a valuable lesson about cancelations today, so I would to like to share a few tips with you so that you all can potential reduce the risk of parkrun tourism heartache!
Apologies in advance if you already know them!
Tips
- Check the future roster page on the local parkrun website that post events 5 weeks in advance, reason some cancellations could be down to other types of events in the park on a specific week that take president over parkrun event e.g cultural festival!
- Check social media especially the local parkrun events Facebook page
- Also take a look at the official parkrun UK website events cancellation page
- If the cancellation is on the Saturday morning itself while you are traveling, plan alternative local events that you can get to if possible in time before they start!
Final Verdict
I would like to thank the run director John Holland at Brentwood for keeping everyone informed onsite and on social media that the event was cancelled!
Well done John in handling this awkward situation in a very calm professionally and friendly manner!
I will be back one day to run your beautiful hilly parkrun, but until then the show must go on with the hope of better luck next week at Haverhill, Suffolk.
Best
Mark
Event 81 Haverhill 07-04-2018
Silent Runner 