Fantasy parkruns: the revival

It's only just struck me that I never posted about any of the other fantasy parkrun courses I'd tried designing. Let's make amends for that.

By now, I've actually run and posted about two such courses:

...but where else did I have in mind?

Plessey Woods Country Park near Bedlington offers more woodland, pasture and riverside running opportunities:

Plessey Woods fantasy parkrun route; 3 laps of the main loop

Starting near the visitor centre, it heads downhill through the open grassy area towards the footbridge over Pegwhistle Burn before doing three undulating laps up to and through the meadow, down to the River Blyth and back alongside Pegwhistle Burn to the start of the loop. After the 3rd tour, it's back up the hill to where you started.

To be honest, this would probably be a fairly brutal parkrun, with lots of up and down, some of it even up steps, if I remember rightly. But the start is nice and wide, meaning you'd not be too boxed in in the first few hundred metres, allowing the field to even itself out nicely.

Next up is Northumberlandia, the earthwork sculpture just outside Cramlington and only a couple of kilometres from Plessey Woods.

So tricky to remember that you'd be forgiven for losing track of which lap you were on

Frankly, this route is just a bit bonkers, with laps that change direction from one tour to the next. I'd be amazed if I actually managed to do it myself without making a mistake. If you want to see what I mean, follow the link, turn on the elevation chart and then waft your mouse along that chart to see where the dot goes on the map. If this ever became a real parkrun, it would need a lot of signage and some very proactive marshalling.

I did make an alternative route that used only 4 laps of the perimeter path, but that was as boring as the previous one was insane. What's the point of having a run at a massive earthwork artwork if you're not going to run over it?

Last one for now is East Cramlington Nature Reserve near... well, East Cramlington.

The perfectionist in me is irked by the start and finish points not being at exactly the same place

This falls neatly into the category of "Green, open space that's open to the public". If I'm honest, however, I've not actually been deep enough into the reserve to know how accurately onthegomap.com reflect the reality of the paths therein. I do quite fancy going along to check it out sometime though. And if I get to see people flying a load of model aircraft at the same time, all to the good.

So, I'll try to visit a few more of these places in the coming weeks and months, and to put a few more potential routes together. If I can't make it to an actual parkrun, I might as well play around with the idea of making my own.

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