On the eve of my 14th parkrun birthday (EDIT it’s actually my 13th), I am lucky enough to have completed my second international parkrun.
After landing at Amsterdam Schipol at 8:30 on a Sunday morning, I took the train to Den Haag (The Hague) it was beautiful in parts with stunning architecture and lovely greenery, but largely closed on a Sunday morning.
Unfortunately I had booked a hotel/hostel in an area full of industry and offices. I couldn’t find any general shops or restaurants open on a Sunday afternoon (Geoff fail).
But this morning I travelled to Delft to visit Delftse Hout parkrun and the place was gorgeous with loads of character and lots of shops, very few of them were open at 7:15 in the morning on a public holiday unsurprisingly but I could wander and explore my way towards the park.
The park was the other side of a major road, but the path (as always in Holland) allowed walkers and cyclists to travel under the road and before I knew it, I was traversing some wonderful paths and exploring the green space until I arrived at the start before 8am.
Well, I was assuming it was the start, there was no-one or nothing there. I found a bench and read my book until Adele and Wendy arrived, then more tourists started to flood in and the volunteers arrived. There was soon a queue to have photos taken with the Start sign, and Wendy became the ringmaster/photographer.
There were some locals there, but it was largely tourists, I even bumped into Eve and Ian Taylor who I knew from my Year as an Ambassador.
The weather on the Sunday was beautiful, hot with blue skies. For the Monday, we weren’t so lucky. It threatened rain and thunderstorms, and about 20 minutes before the start, the heavens opened. And it rained on and off through the whole event.
The run briefing was quick as there were no first timers and the team dealt with the increase in number without seeming to break a sweat.
I didn’t even realise that someone had shouted Go and I set my watch off a few seconds late.
The course is a 2 lapper all on trail or grit paths. It passes a beach on the lake where people swim (some were doing it at 9am on a cold public holiday) the course otherwise goes through the trees. It’s very flat, in fact Strava claims 0 elevation across the whole run.
There was only one marshal on the course where there seemed to be some tram or train lines, but otherwise there were arrows at every junction to direct the runners, and I don’t think we lost anyone.
Lots of the tourists were waiting as I finished and cheering people in. I got the feeling that on a normal parkrunday, this would be an intimate event.
As I finished I was speaking to the timekeeper, asking him if he had any plans for the public holiday and the heavens really opened, I walked with soaking wet feet the 30 or so minutes back to the train station in Delft, over the canal bridges and through the pretty streets with the rain continuing to bucket down.
It was a great experience, but I wouldn’t do it like this again, I feel that I will get much more out of an event on a normal saturday with mainly local runners, rather than tourists.
No stats at the end of this one, back to normal on Saturday
Geoff’s 2024 parkrun tourism challenge 
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