Starting the year with a parkrun. Of the various challenges and special events that parkrun offers, banging out 5km just hours after Big Ben has tolled is one I have enjoyed since I started. It was for that reason that I found myself at the parkrun with the longest name in the world to see in 2024: Millennium Country parkrun, Forest of Marston Vale I did my first New Year’s Day parkrun back in 2019 when my home event of Pocket parkrun attracted almost 3x it’s average turn out with over 500 starting the year with me. I remember still feeling quite delicate but made it round and felt so much bet ..read more

On the southern coast of Cyprus, about halfway between the airports of Paphos and Larnaca sits the city of Limassol. Probably more famous in running circles for the Limassol Marathon each year, it is also a lovely place for an early morning run as I found out. Back during the pandemic, and we were all working from home, several interest groups were set up at work including a running club. Every couple of weeks we’d have a virtual catch up and discuss doing a group run when we could finally meet up. However, this had proven difficult to organise and the group had waned a bit. A small subset of ..read more

Settled a few miles in from the coast on the banks of a river, Dalyan is a very popular resort for Brits wanting a relaxing holiday in Turkey. I’d been there once before briefly on a works trip but had never stayed and had no plans to. Therefore the below run was very much “The Unexpected Run”. We had been staying at Club Tuana Fethiye but just as we were due to fly home, ATC issues in the UK saw our flight cancelled and we were put up at the beautiful Asur Hotel in Dalyan until a replacement flight could be found, and I wasn’t going to miss a chance for a run. www.plotaroute.com/route/2381405 ..read more

This summer I headed back to Turkey for the first time in a few years and, despite this being a holiday rather than a work trip, my trainers came with me. Now most of my posts on Running in Turkey can be adapted for many hotels in the region. This time though, because Club Tuana Fethiye is a bit isolated, the run is perfect if you are staying at this lovely hotel but is a bit out the way if you are staying anywhere else in the Fethiye region. https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2369882?units=km Before travelling to Turkey I had done a little bit of looking at the map and seen that there was a sma ..read more

If you look at most parkrunners tourist maps, it will usually have a cluster around their home location, unless they are an uber tourist travelling the country. For me that isn’t quite the case. Within a 75 mile radius of my home are hundreds of parkruns, I have done two! However, in a pocket of West Yorkshire, my spread is much more as I branch out from my in-laws. It was as part of this expansion that today I found myself at Nostell parkrun. We had stopped off on our way back from a week in Northumberland although unfortunately this year I hadn’t managed a trip to The Pastures parkrun. I had ..read more

A weekend away means, as any good parkrunner knows, a chance for a little bit of parkrun tourism. Therefore, as soon as we arranged to head to a place just outside of Alton, Hampshire to go glamping with friends, my first task was to work out where to run. The choices being Alice Holt parkrun or Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun which were almost equidistant from where we were staying. Fortunately on this trip some of the friends we were with are also runners and after much to-ing and fro-ing and weighing up any pros and cons, we settled on Alice Holt. Going since 2012, Alice Holt parkrun is a well es ..read more

Everyone remembers their first time. For me it was wet, dirty and at the end I was absolutely knackered. I am of course talking about parkrun where back in March 2018, Huntingdon parkrun took my parkrun virginity. I’ve written about all my parkrun tourism before but back when I headed to Hinchingbrooke Park I didn’t have a clue what was happening. I’d started running again in 2016 and as I had started to do a few races, I had heard about parkrun. I’d even gone so far as signing up for my barcode but at the time I couldn’t see the point of driving 20mins away just to run 5k when I could just go ..read more

Usually when I find myself partaking in some parkrun tourism, it won’t be long until I have added a post here. However, there are a couple of parkruns that I did before this blog existed that I thought it was about time to write a review of, including Roundhay parkrun in Leeds. I have quite a few of my family who live in and around Leeds so have spent quite a bit of time in the beautiful Roundhay park in the north of Leeds. Be it having ice cream next to the lake, playing in one of the various play parks with the kids or going to the Manison House for a wedding reception. However, my first eve ..read more

Stockholm was never a city high on my list of places to visit, but when the opportunity came to head there for a business meeting, I jumped at the chance. However, with the exception of a short boat tour to a restaurant on one of Stockholm’s many islands, there was a risk I wouldn’t see much more than the airport and the meeting room I’d be in all day. What better excuse to knock out an early run and see a little more of this city. I was staying at the Courtyard by Marriott Stockholm Kungsholmen, west of the city centre so I quickly started scoping out a route that would take me more towards t ..read more

Every year thousands of people head to the beautiful resort of Side near Antalya in Turkiye. Fortunately, my work took me there a couple of years ago and the first thing in my bag as usual was my trainers so I could go for a run. Luckily, like I have often discovered when running in Turkey, quite a few Turkish resorts have great promenades and Side is no exception. It might not be quite as long as somewhere like Marmaris at 3km end to end but it provided a perfect base for my route planning. However, Side is also famous for its ancient ruins and I wanted to incorporate these in to my route whi ..read more