Rothwell parkrun

With the bonus days over the Christmas period, you never seem too far from a parkrun day. Today gave the opportunity of a 4th run in just 10 days. After a few days back home, we were back with family in Leeds so the question was where to head. A question answered by a trip to Rothwell parkrun.

Last year, on the first Saturday of the New Year, my hopes of running in Edinburgh were kiboshed by ice. With sub zero temperatures across the country, I was fearful of a repeat this year. Indeed, as we were driving up on the Friday night, I got an email confirming that Pocket was cancelled back home. When I had first realised we would be up north, I had thought about trying to tick off another new event for me in Leeds. But when my brother in law said he’d like to run as well, I was drawn closer back to home. This led me to settle on Rothwell parkrun and a close view on their Facebook page. Fortunately, just before 8am the post went up. It was on and lightning wasn’t striking twice.

A return to Rothwell parkrun had been on my radar for a little while. In fact, had my brother not been around, I may well have run here rather than Roundhay parkrun on Christmas Day. The reason for this was that my P-index had been sat stubbornly at 2 ever since my last visit to Rothwell in December 2019. After my summer trip to The Pastures parkrun, this would push me up to 3. It’s a small thing but the parkrun challenges are always at the back of my mind.

With the location sorted and confirmation it was going to go ahead, my brother in law and I headed to Rothwell. There is parking in the park itself but this is limited and was already full when we arrived. However, the nearby Morrisons is just as good for parking and we parked here.

There may not have been any ice on the ground but it was definitely quite chilly as we headed to the start area. With nearby Temple Newsam falling foul of the weather, it was a slightly bigger field than normal at 503 runners. After all the usual briefing it was time to head off. Here I had made a mistake. I thought we got walked about 100m down the path but his was not the case and I found myself the wrong side of a barrier as Go was signalled, not a great start. It was also a little crowded in the first few hundred metres so I did have to take care but soon we started to spread out.

Rothwell is a course of 2.5 laps which means three trips down through the flat part of the park. Heading out was lovely. Conditions felt great and as we approached the turning at the end, the sun was breaking through. However, the return leg had you running back in to the wind and it was bitter! Even with gloves on I lost all feelings in my fingers!

Once you have done the park section there is then a small hill up and through the tennis courts. Compared to somewhere like Roundhay it’s little more than a mound but after the cold stretch it drained my legs. At least it is over quickly and you can then head back down to the start again.

At the end of the third trip out and then back in to the wind, you head right to the finish rather than a 3rd trip up the hill. It was then a short section to hit the finish line. For me it was in a time of 23:59 so keeping just below 24mins again. I do want to exit 2026 faster but for now I’m pretty happy with the consistency, especially as I’m carrying a little more Christmas weight!

It was then time to head back, warm up and then get in with our day.

Repeating parkruns was never as high on my radar. However, realistically I am starting to run out of new events within a sensible radius of my in-laws so I think this and the Christmas Day visit to Roundhay could be a sign of things to come. But for now I have an increased P-index and 4 parkruns in 10 days is not too shabby at all!