Parkrun #32: Denton Dene

Another new parkrun venue! Huzzah! Oh, wait. Time for a goal update:

• Attend 5 new parkrun locations: ✅
• Goals achieved in 2023: 3 out of 6 🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜

In the end, I was getting frustrated at holding out on the parkrun locations goal simply for the sake of achieving it on holiday in Wales. The longer I held out, the less opportunity I gave myself to make a stretch goal out of it. So, let's make goal #7 here and now. But which of these should it be?

• Complete the Tourist achievement in the 5K app (which would mean a total of 8 new parkrun locations in 2023) ...and probably design myself a t-shirt listing them 😁
  OR
• Attend 10 new parkrun locations

The latter's obviously harder. If doing that, I need to think about which I can realistically attend. Let's see...

• Penrhyn (on holiday in Wales)
• Blackhill, in Consett (35 mins' drive)
• Silksworth, in Sunderland (25 mins' drive)
• Durham (35 mins' drive)
• Tyne Green, in Hexham (30 mins' drive)
• The Pastures, in Alnwick (40 mins' drive)
• Cotsford Field, in Peterlee (35 mins' drive)
• Sedgefield (45 mins' drive)
• Jubilee, in Spennymoor (45 mins' drive)

Okay, so Silksworth feels doable and Penrhyn is nailed on (barring changed holiday priorities). Of the rest, I'd dearly love to do The Pastures just for how picturesque it is, and Blackhill for the chance to meet up with my brother. So that's 4. What would be the 5th, if I were to go with the 10 locations goal? Possibly Durham, to meet up with a good friend and former colleague.

Okay, let's call it: a stretch goal for 2023 is to attend TEN new parkrun locations over the course of the year. And with that, back to the write-up for Denton Dene (at last!).

Looking across to everyone ready to go at the start line; I got there with 5 seconds to spare!

So yeah, this was a pretty tough 5K. My time of 27:22 was a combination of the undulating nature of the course and the heat and sun; 21°C, even at 9am! 😮 And maybe having done 7K the day before didn't help? I actually doubt that; I think it was mainly the heat that slowed me down.

Actually, had I set off when the rest of the field did, I would've shaved a few seconds off that time, but as it was, I'd turned up very late and was still tying my car key to my shorts (no pockets) when the race began. Plus, as I was stood next to the start line yet didn't justify being that far forward, I just let most  of the field pass before I joined in. Slightly regretted letting so many past after that, as I spent the first 500m passing slower runners on the grass while trying to dodge the brambles and nettles.

Prior to the day, I'd read that the start/finish was on a steep hill and I reckon that comment's justified. Some of the elevation traces I saw looking ridiculously steep, but in hindsight, that's a result of the app used to generate it. As usual, Google Fit's trace generated from my run was somewhat gentler looking. But yeah, there are definitely some gradients on this course and in the heat, they were hard.

From looking at the aerial shots on Google Maps, I'd expected it to be a pretty uniformly gradiented (is that a word?) and possibly even dull, public park-based course, but as you can see from the photo above, it's actually quite pretty. The course starts by heading south (the above photo is looking north) and then returning to the start line (after about 1.5km) and heading further north from there. That northern section was an especially lovely surprise, taking you into the trees and uphill through a kind of miniature gorge. The shade was very welcome, but generally, it was just a really pleasant place to run.

Heading back down through the dene after turning round a cone at the northern-most point

After getting back to the start line, you then do the south-and-back, north-and-back legs one more time before it's all over. While there's a good stretch downhill towards the finish, the last 50-100 yards is a proper uphill section, making sprint finishing pretty hard... not that it stopped the guy in front of me! Absolute animal! 😂

So, while I'm generally not a fan of out-and-back courses — and this one's narrow paths meant you really had to be careful with the traffic coming the other way — this was a venue where the attractiveness of it (in the sun, at least) more than made up for it.

One final note: right at the start, I bumped into an old colleague: Jonathan Rewcastle, who's a bit bloomin' fast. Was great to see him again and even more impressive to watch his progress as he passed me in the two-way traffic. He actually spent most of the race in 3rd place, but ultimately came home in 8th. Still, he exactly 8 minutes faster than me. Nice. It's always good to have someone to chat with at these things and while it sometimes happens naturally with strangers, friends are better. Turns out this is Jonathan's 'home' parkrun, so I may well catch him here again sometime. But hopefully next time, it won't be quite so hot. 🙂