Rutland Water parkrun

Every year we go away with my wife’s friends from university and their families. This year was the third year in a row that we had headed to Stamford. The past two years a small group have headed off to do Rutland Water parkrun but, for various reasons, I hadn’t been able to join them. This year though I was going to make sure I made it.

When using the Running Challenges plugin, there is one section that shows the average position of all your parkruns. Right up until I ran at Danehy Park parkrun just outside Boston earlier this year, this average had sat almost right in Rutland Water. The USA run has pulled me further west now towards Coventry. It felt like I had to do it some time.

Ironically, whilst I hadn’t officially run Rutland Water parkrun, I had previously run the course, albeit in reverse. Back in April 2021, as we were coming out of lockdown, we met with my sister in law and her boys at Rutland Water. Whilst the kids went on their bikes, I ran alongside, but this time I would be able to do it “properly”.

Having arrived in Stamford on the Friday night, a group of us got up nice and early on Saturday morning . It was warm and sunny as we headed over to Rutland Water. Having parked up (you can pick up a discounted parking token if running else it is quite expensive), we headed to the start area. This is right next to the very picturesque Normanton Church that sits on a small piece of land that juts out in to the lake.

The rest of the group had all run the course before and it is a simple course so I skipped the first timers brief and before long it was time to go.

The start was a little hectic as 340 runners started quite wide and started to merge on to the concrete path. However, before long I was on the hard path at a nice steady pace. The first 300m or so was shaded which was really pleasant but then it opened up and the sun did start to beat down.

One of the reasons that I knew I had run the course when here a few years ago is that there are permanent km markers as you go and as I went through 1km I felt good. Not long before 2km you turn on to the dam of the lake and here all of a sudden the wind picked up coming in from the side. It was nice as it eased the temperature a little.

The course is a simple out and back so most of the way along the dam, we hit the turnaround point and started back the way we had come. However, now the side on wind was slightly in faces as well and it started to get a little harder. That said, we hit 3km towards the end of the dam and my splits were still looking ok.

The problem is that whilst I have managed a few more parkruns of late, I haven’t been able to put any base training in and I was tiring. It was a good thing then that the turn off the wall didn’t put you straight in to a headwind. Actually…. 

With the temperature rising, the wind in your face and my general lack of fitness, (and maybe the beers from the previous night) unfortunately the last 2km did slow significantly. I crossed the line in a time of 24:34. Slightly disappointing for such a flat course but it did, for the first time in a while, tick off another number on Stopwatch Bingo (now up to 41 out of 60).

Of our group, Ryan had finished ahead of me but I was then able to cheer home Josh, Ros, Oli and Becky. We then stopped for a coffee before heading back to the rest of the group back in Stamford.

Rutland Water parkrun was an enjoyable run to do and I was pleased to finally knock it off. Generally I’m not as keen on out and back courses but this would be a great PB course, if I were anywhere near full fitness. One to keep working towards as I’m sure we’ll be back staying in Stamford again.