On a warm sunny May morning at Black Park, Wexham, Buckinghamshire was a most stunning of woodland locations to hold a parkrun event, at times I think we take for granted how beautiful UK parks are we visit, simply breathtaking!!!

With area of 250 hectares of woodland & heathland including over 10 miles of tracks this must be seen as a great location to explore and relax!!!

Film Location

This park being so close to the world-renowned Pinewood Studios has been the backdrop of some of my favourite films from James Bond’s Goldfinger to my beloved Hammer Horror with pictures below from “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave

Dracula Has Risen From the Grave script reading

The thought of running where Christopher Lee acted on his iconic Dracula roles makes me think how cool this Cowell Club adventure is I am having and not to run in this park at night 🙂

Black Park Storwarts

I would like to congratulate both Nigel Wright & Ian Smales with Nigel currently in training to become a new run director and Ian Smales running his 150th parkrun all at Black Park, but has also volunteered over 100 times as well. Outstanding effort for your parkrun community guys!!!

Course

This is a single lap woodland course that surface is a mixture of earth and compacted gravel well maintained paths that is almost entirely protected & covered by a tree-lined canopy!

Points to Note

• If you are looking to run a time position yourself at the start when you think you are going to finish the event as Black Park average 650+ runners each week!
• There are no marshals on the course but directional arrow markers show the route
• This is a very fast course for PB seekers

My time was 38:07 that was fine as I was enjoying the surroundings and taking pictures!!!

Facilities

Paid parking is available on this site with it being £2.70 for 2 hours if you arrive before 9am that available all year round Sat nav SL3 6DS, also toilets by the cafe are available before the start of this event! For the post coffee we retired to Cafe San Remo that was lovely to sit outdoors and is close to the finish line!

A special thank you to starting left of picture Frances Alcock, Rod Paton, Dave Williams, Bob Stanbrook for allowing me to join you for a very enjoyable post run coffee/chat about everything parkrun, greatly appreciated the company guys!

Also well done now as I writing this to Rod who competed at the ITU world championship qualifier at Dorney Lakes for Great Britain after this parkrun, you are a true inspiration to us all sir!!!

Things to Do

There are so many things to do in this park that you could literally spend the whole day here from

• Children’s woodland adventure play area
• Go ape – with zip wires and ropes in the treetops
• Miles of paths for walkers, dog walkers and runners
• Fishing
• Picnic areas
• Horse riding

Final Verdict

I would like to thank Nigel Wright and his team of volunteers for an excellent job, I have know doubt Nigel you will make a top run director at Black Park, sir!!!!

So for a great location that is simply a joy to run in all seasons, I give you Black Park that you must add to your parkrun tourist bucket list, outstanding!!!!!

Best

Mark Layzell aka Silent Runner

Event 88 Wycombe Rye 26-05-2018

Extra News

I would like to congratulate my good friend Chloe Baxter on reaching her 50th parkrun at Luton, Wardown! You have come along way in running terms and a real stand out credit in getting people to run in the community, brilliant effort Chloe!!!

For me I have finally got my hands on the cavorted purple parkrun t-shirt for volunteering on over 25 occasions and I will let you into a secret I love volunteering 🙂