The Pastures parkrun, Alnwick – I must be on Holiday!

Every year (this was our 20th) we head for a week in Northumberland with my wife’s family. It is a great chance to get away, relax and often get some good running in. Back in 2019 The Pastures parkrun, Alnwick started nearby and I had added to my tourist map along with my brother in law’s. After a brief hiatus for COVID, we returned in 2021 but, for a variety of reasons, I hadn’t been back since.

This year though there were no excuses so my brother in law headed over for my third visit. With it’s views across to Alnwick Castle, The Pastures parkrun is probably one of the most photogenic parkruns out there, especially from the B course that we were on this time. My previous two visits had been on the A course that runs alongside the river. However, as the name suggests, the course is in Cow Pasture and they had been moved in to the lower field so it was a first trip around the B course.

The Pastures parkrun definitely has a seasonal profile to the numbers running but it did feel busier than my previous visits. Indeed looking at the results history, only the inaugural actually saw more than today where 170 ran. With the vast majority being first timers, there was no specific first timers briefing, we just had the main briefing of 3 laps and watch out for the fresh cow pats!

At three laps of a big field, the course is not the most inspiring, but the views do make up for it. You start be heading up a slight hill, back along the top of the field, down the far side and along the bottom before a small uphill around a copse of trees. I started well and at 1km my pace was if anything a bit too fast. Unfortunately though, for some reason my asthma started to play up. Therefore as I hit the 2nd lap, I actually walked the hills. I knew it would be a poor time for me, but it did let me get round. I finished in 25:58 which is quite probably the slowest parkrun I have done without a kid running with me. However, it started the day well and I was glad to return for the third time. Short of another Northumberland parkrun starting up close(ISH) to where we stay, I am likely to come again.  Now the target is to find another run to do a 3rd time and increase my p-index to 3.