Today it was great to visit the maritime & market town of Maldon, Essex that is situated next to Blackwater estuary and has a great history including famous Battle of Maldon between the Vikings and Anglo Saxons in 991 AD

Maldon Attractions

There are two main attractions associated with Maldon and they are Promenade park where this parkrun is situated that includes a petting zoo, splash park to name but a few of their attractions.

The other one is the famous renowned Maldon Mud Race where competitors try to cross the Blackwater Estuary and what messy fun that sounds 🙂

Milestone mention

Big well done to Alison Flight who run her 100th parkrun on Saturday and has volunteered at parkrun over 50 separate days as well, top work 🙂

Course

The course is two-and a-bit anticlockwise laps of Maldon Promenade Park that running surface is made up of about 90% tarmac footpaths and the rest is a mixture of a small woodland trail path and a grass field that you only run once at the start of this event.

There is little elevation on the course apart from a small rise to start the second lap or turn right back to the finish funnel.

Points to Note

• The World War Two Avenue of Remembrance trail path was quite slippery with all the wet weather we had, but to be fair this was flagged up in the announcements before the start.
• Also be aware of exposed tree roots around the same trail path as well.
• Easy to overtake on this course with no real pinch points.
• Very well signposted and marshalled by very friendly volunteers.

Overall, in the right conditions this is quite a good well-maintained course to get a fast time on. My time was 35:29

Facilities

Parking

We decided to take the advice from Maldon Prom own parkrun website as we wanted to explore afterwards went for the cheaper Butt Lane car park that is under 1 mile from the start, postcode CM9 5HD and the RinGo app station no is 21806 if you want to pay in advance.

Toilets

There are plenty of toilets, dotted around inside Promenade Park that are open before the start of the parkrun which is always welcome.

Post Run Coffee

This parkrun you are spoilt for choice with plenty of places for refreshments either inside the Promenade park or on Maldon high street, but we had a tip off from two local park runners we were chatting too and they recommending a lovely cafe called Bloomsburys Art Cafe & Bookshop

Love the concept of mixing having your coffee with shelves of new & used books and local artwork with the potential to purchase them when you leave.

Also, you can always bring the book back or bring one of your own for someone else to read, then they if they wish can take them home for a small donation.

In my case I had to get the Frankie Boyle book and a DVD that when I have finished with them and not being local, I will donate them to my local hospice charity shop 🙂

Conclusion

I would like to give a big thank you to this week run director Dave and his team of Hi-Viz heroes for making us all feel extremely welcome on the day, great work guys!

I don’t know what it is about Essex, but I have a bit of a soft spot for this county as every time I visit to one of their parkruns I get the warmest of welcomes from the local parkrun community with Maldon Prom 100% keeping up this tradition 🙂

So, if want a parkrun that has great facilities and lots of things for the family to do afterwards, then I can highly recommend Maldon Prom for you to visit!

Finally for me a very special mention to my good friend Martin Ball who it is always a great pleasure of mine to tour with and long may it continue mate 🙂

For me I will not be parkrun touring again until the 13th of May, but in the meantime happy parkrunning everyone 🙂

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner