Worden parkrun – Event 15 – 2024

Visit the “New Cuerden Valley” they said, “it’s flat“ they said, it’ll be easier than the original…

Bullshit

Cuerden Valley was a parkrun which was setup near Preston and I was lucky enough to attend the first event (before attending inaugurals was frowned upon) .

At a time when I was averaging about 33/34 minutes for a parkrun, Cuerden Valley’s 7 hills (with the worst saved for the finish) saw me stagger across the line in 38:33

The level of toughness exceeded any parkrun course I’d seen so far, even the second Bolton Course with 2 x up Cruella the Hill and then the final uphill before the out and back. Cuerden Valley was 4 to 5 minutes harder for me.

My understanding (which could be wrong) is that unfortunately when parkrun returned from the big COVID pause in 2021, the management of Curden Valley Park decided that they would do their own running event (They seemed to believe that the parkrun organisation was making money off their land while not contributing to them) and refused landowner permission to the Cuerden Valley parkrun event team to resume.

Pita and the team had spent a lot of time and energy creating, building, and maintaining their parkrun community. Between the pause and the decision not to let them continue, that could have been the end of it.

But as always, it’s hard to keep a good thing down, and the team searched for and found a new location. Worden park in Leyland, not far from Cuerden Valley.

Sometimes when parkrun events move (i.e. the community stays the same) to a new location, parkrun continue with the previous Parkrun’s numbering, so if the last event at Location A was 34, the first at Location B is 35 and Location A is renamed in the parkrun database to Location B.

This causes some strange effects for parkrunners with them “revisiting” an event they’ve done before because they’ve not noticed the change, or if the defunct location had a Y starting their parkrun event, the renamed event no longer gives the parkrunner their Y. Both of these things have happened in the past.

When Worden was setup, it wasn’t as a continuity of Cuerden Valley, rather as a brand new event. This left a hole in my parkrun Voronoi map which demanded to be filled in, alongside Clarence parkrun. It had to be conquered.

Worden is still in it’s infancy, only being on event number 22 today, but you can see the experience in the team, whether that’s because of the transferral from Cuerden, or training by those people, it’s obviously a well run event.

I’d heard that Worden was a bit muddy, but I wasn’t ready for the sheer level of squelchiness which would ensue.

Worden is pretty flat, but after the first few hundred yards on tarmac, it gets muddier, then muddier still, then muddier on a hill, and even more muddy before you get a bit of paving again. Which lets you run again.

It’s a bit muddy

At points, the mud is so deep, you can sink below your ankle, and there is no realistic way around to avoid the mud.

I wouldn’t recommend Worden if any of the following are true:

• You have any form of balance problems
• You like to wear your trainers loosely laced
• You like to stay relatively clean at parkrun
• You think you’d struggle to climb a (small) hill which is covered in mud
• You want a quick time

Both of my friends who were visiting with me, cut their hands on trees while using them to navigate muddy sections.

DO visit Worden if you want a challenge, you hate being clean, you’re training for Pretty Muddy, or you have a dog who will relish the sheer fun of bouncing through.

That’s not to take anything away from the Event Team, the friendly volunteers, or the beautiful park, just be clear what you’re taking on, or try and time if for a very dry spell.

Despite the absence of long hills, I think that this is harder than the Cuerden Valley course, I was 5 or 6 minutes off my average recent time ( 43/44 minutes) so Worden is tough, Cuerden Valley tough.

Beautiful views

The Cafe after was brilliant and for the first time I’ve ever seen, the park had a dog wash to allow you to rinse off your pooch before you travel home.

Luna did love the event, and had a ball in the mud, I, myself, wasn’t quite as amused.

If you want to cover a tough 5k, are not worried about your time, potentially losing a shoe, or want a park with a Dog Wash this is the one.

Challenges Progressed

• parkruns completed in 2024 – 15/15 available
• Cowell Club – 84th Event out of 100
• North West Region – 56/76

Next 4 planned parkruns

• 13th April – Clarence park
• 20th April – Millhouses
• 27th April – Birkenhead
• 4th May – Bowling park