AVR do University Parks parkrun

Written by member, Sarah Emery

Another AVR parkrun trip and another incredibly early alarm which buzzed me awake at 5:45am to be at the meeting point in Bowerhill by 6:20am.

After the long trip, we pulled up outside Oxford University. Pauline Bradley, who was with us on the bus, works there and organised parking for us. We had a nervous few minutes after she’d jumped out to open the gate, where the minibus wouldn’t start again to drive through. We started having images of AVR being stranded in Oxford forever until someone worked out it was only because the side door hadn’t clicked shut properly – phew!

We were all instantly enthralled by the university and likened it to being like Hogwarts almost immediately – a sentiment that would return while eating breakfast later on.

A short walk later, we found ourselves at the start in the park and met Holly Newman and Toby Firkins who both attend Oxford Brookes University. We all took the obligatory group photo around the purple pop-up sign and listened to the first timer’s briefing. There seemed to be loads of tourists which was boosted by us but also because there was a pride event on in Oxford that day. Their average finisher count is 380 but on this day, there were 574!

With so many runners, the start was a bit slow (similar to Lydiard parkrun and the old start at Bath Skyline parkrun) but it spread out reasonably quickly to take in the flat, two lap course on offer. The course operates a ‘run on the right and overtake on the left’ policy which is really tricky to do when most of the parkruns at home are the opposite! There were lots of things to look at on the way round including a group of students playing Frisbee, a father and son playing catch, other morning runners going in reverse to everyone else and plenty of birds and other wildlife by the river and surrounding rugby pitches and tennis courts. There just wasn’t the chance to be bored at all!

It was very busy at the end and a strict two-funnel finish was in operation. I’m not entirely sure how it worked if I’m honest but it involved them handing our letters of the alphabet to some runners and handing out tokens to one funnel and then the other. Whatever magic they used, it was extremely well rehearsed and very slickly done. There seemed to be a million barcode scanners too meaning that everyone could get away quickly.

A massive shout out and well done must go to Mark Spiers. Before the event, he asked if someone would help to pace him following a really good result on the 10k run of the 51 Fiver Triathlon a week before. Holly stayed with him and he achieved 24:48 which is a massive parkrun PB as his previous fastest was at Southwick in December last year at 27:52 – a difference of 3 minutes and 4 seconds!

We walked back to the university afterwards to find the dining hall laid out exactly like the aforementioned Hogwarts with tables reserved especially for us. It was an incredible all-you-can eat affair with full English plates along with huge pastries and cakes too! What a day!

Thank you to Rich Newman for being our driver for the day, Pauline for arranging parking and food and to everyone who made the day a great sociable morning out enjoying this hobby of ours.

Next event: Seaton parkrun 22^nd July 2023

03/06/2023 | Avon Valley Runners |