Bramley parkrun – Event 27 – 2024

Now I’m 27 events into this year, some of the details are starting to merge together which makes me glad I’ve been writing these posts, Hopefully when I read them back in the future, it will help me remember details that will fade from my memory.

This week’s tourist visit was memorable though, mainly because I met an old work colleague afterwards for a catch up. This was arranged at the last minute, but Neil’s a really nice guy and he travelled half an hour across Leeds to see me (and Luna) for half an hour. There were other reasons too which I’ll come onto later.

I was up very early as I’d not remembered to refuel and I didn’t want issues with this causing me to run late, so after a pitstop I was on the road, but running VERY early. Sat Nav said we were going to arrive at 7:49. I like being early, but this was a bit extreme.

Bramley isn’t just off the motorway, there’s a fair bit of A road driving once you get to Leeds, but the roads were quiet on a Saturday morning, and I made it there without much drama and parked just outside the gates near where I believed the finish to be.

We took advantage of our early arrival, but listening to the rain as it landed on the car roof and reading (Me, not Luna. I forget her book) but at about 8:30 the rain stopped and we went to explore the park.

It would be easy to drive past this park on the main road as it’s largely hidden behind houses, but it’s a lovely open green space with great views from the top of the hill.

A walk up the hill from the finish to the start showed no sign of the, err, sign, so we had a mooch around, spoke to some other runners and generally waited for the start and hoped that the rain would stay away. I spoke to a young lady who was meeting het friend to do her 3rd parkrun in a row, and I could hear that she was loving the new challenge as she wasn’t a runner.

All of a sudden at around 8:50 the crowds arrived, including an almost literal tail walker

The route is a 3 and a bit lapper which is about 65% grass with 35% tarmac. Apparently (According to the volunteer I spoke to beforehand) the grass was rock hard last week, but this week it was a bit soft. I can believe it as there had been a fair bit of rain in the previous week.

Luna was her usual self before the start and I had to scoop her up so others could hear the briefing.

The start is from the top of the hill and is a lovely downhill section, then you join the regular laps and the climbing and descending commences

I used to laugh at Nicola Forward talking on the parkrunshow and With Me Now (podcasts) about “Yorkshire Tough” parkruns, but so many of them have hills, and not just minor hills either.

The main uphill is largely on Tarmac which is great for traction, the downhills are mainly on grass, and I could imagine after a really wet week, that it could get quite slippery in what are relatively steep downhills, but because of the mixed terrain, If you’re a person who has many different shoe types to choose from, I don’t know which you’d choose.

There were volunteer Marshals on lots of positions (I counted 10 or 11 points which had people directing) and the encouragement was amazing, the energy levels and friendliness were so uplifting. One of the poor deluded fools even called me “Young man” It’s a long time since that happened. I directed him the Specsavers 😉

There’s plenty of space for those who are lapping other runners, they’ll just need to do so carefully in a couple of spots.

If you want to feel young again, and don’t mind some hills, this is the one

On the way home, I got the notification that I had a text message from parkrun, this is obviously my results text, and with CarPlay in the car, I can safely listen to these messages. My time of 49:21 isn’t earth shattering, but finally I achieved Stopwatch BINGO! Yes, after waiting 52 parkruns and 20 months since I gained my 59th number. I’ve finally achieved number 21 for the 60th number.

Life is happening a lot at the moment, so it’s meaning that I’m having to rearrange events as I go, sometimes at short notice. If you’re thinking of meeting me somewhere, give me a shout beforehand so I know and if I can, I’ll lock that one in as unchangeable.

Challenges Progressed

• parkruns completed in 2024 – 25/25 UK runs available
• parkruns completed in 2024 – 27
• Cowell Club – 96th Event out of 100
• Yorkshire – 14/64 (20%)
• Stopwatch Bingo – 60/60
• The West of Yorkshire (Those events west of the M1) 11/32 (34%)

Next 4 planned parkruns

• 22nd June – Crewe
• 29th June – Carlisle
• 6th July – Roundhay
• 13th July – Chester