It’s great to be back at Stevenage, Hertfordshire for their 250th event with the last time I visited was over 6 years for their inaugural event on 28th May 2015

The reason for me repeating this parkrun event is a very simple one like five others I have toured in the past before I started writing parkrun blog reviews deserve a revisit to right this wrong!

Park History

Today’s parkrun is located at Fairlands Valley Park that is 120 acres in size and as they say has something for everyone to enjoy on their visit.

They parks name Fairlands comes they think from the “Fairlane which used to run almost due south linking Shephall with Pin Green.“

In modern times in the 1966 master plan for Stevenage, Fairlands Valley was proposed to become the new towns principal park and the rest is history!

Special Mentions

I’ve met some inspirational people on my parkrun adventures and today I had the pleasure of meeting Roger Biggs marathon runner extraordinaire, and he informed me that he has currently run 913 marathons!

Roger, I doff my cap in your honour sir, a simply an outstanding achievement.

Big well done to Mylo the dog reaching their 100 parkrun today. I hope they gave you cake and a lovely bowl of water to celebrate this great achievement afterwards.

Finally Tony Randfield broke his all-time parkrun PB with an outstanding time of 20:24

Well done sir!!!

Course

The course is 2 clockwise laps of Fairlands Valley Park that is steadily undulating in elevation which starts by the main lake.

The surface is made up of 90% tarmac paths with a short 150 meter woodland trail section, then finally finishing off on lap two with a short trip on the grass to the finish funnel!

Points to note:

• At the start of the parkrun the field splits into two, half runs by the lake and the other half run up a parallel grass bank before both groups joins back up. The core team have added a short dividing fence near the start for safety purposes that is an excellent idea!
• Just be careful there are two sets of bollards on the course that you need to keep an eye on when running around
• The 150-meter woodland trail section is a lovely addition but be wary of the exposed tree roots
• Near the end you have a short sharp grass slope to test you before you run into the finish 🙂

I was very happy with my time considering the undulating nature of the course as the previous few parkruns courses I have been too were very flat in nature!

Finally memo to myself concentrate at the start and make sure you have set your sports watch to record into outdoor running mode and not like me treadmill mode with it only said I had recorded 2.86 miles lol 🙂

Facilities

This parkrun has excellent facilities with multiple free car parks dotted around the park. I chose the one very near to the start postcode SG2 0BL

There are toilet facilities available from 8:30am at Costello Cafe that is situated next to the main lake and I retired back there afterwards for a well-earned coffee and it had to be a strawberry ice cream as well 🙂

Conclusion

I would like to thank this week’s run director Amy and her team of volunteers for an excellent job hosting your 250th parkrun milestone event, great work guys!!!

Sorry did not have any green running top to help you celebrate your 250th event, but I hope that I have got away with wearing this turquoise work one 🙂

So finally, if you like to test yourself on this gentle undulating course that has excellent facilities and a friendly community then Stevenage must be added to your tourist list to visit!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner