Hi, hope everyone is achieving what they want at the moment!
Just wondered if anyone had done the Bury St Edmunds Park Run at Nowton Park, or failing that if anyone regularly takes part in a park run? What’s your thoughts? What advice would you give and what are they like to participate in?
I have no experience of the parkrun you mention, but I am confident in saying that the wonderfully inclusive ethos of parkrun will be evident wherever you take part.
The general advice for those undertaking C25k is to not get carried away, so stick to your C25k workout and walk the rest. it is all too tempting to go hell for leather and do more than you may be ready for and has resulted in injury in the past. When you are overtaken by eight year olds and eighty year olds, the common reaction is to try and keep up with them.............they are more experienced runners, so let them go. You will still pick up a pb for the distance which you can reduce in the future.
Always attend the new runners briefing at a parkrun that is new to you, don't forget your barcode and register your club as NHS Couch to 5k.
have a great time.
Hi Rob,
Personally, I love them! Not done Bury st Edmunds, but you will find info about the course etc., on the parkrun page, if you haven’t looked at it already.....I couldn’t paste the link, but if you put bury st Edmunds parkrun in your search engine it’ll come up......
I’d recommend going along to watch / volunteer, and see what you think, join in if you want to, have a chat to any of the volunteers or other participants, you will be made welcome. There is always a first timers briefing, and if you do take part I guarantee you will not be last.
It can be daunting running in a crowd if you’re not used to it, plus, there is a risk of dashing off too fast, but many C25K ‘ers use parkrun as one of their planned runs, following the podcast - including the 5 minute warm up walk, and walk the rest.
Most importantly don’t forget your barcode - you need to register on the main parkrun website if you want your time/number of events participated in recorded (you only need register once and you’ll have barcodes to print off)
Parkrun is a fabulous community, made up of every different kind of person you could possibly imagine, brought together by the one aim of getting out in the fresh air with other like minded people......my only regret is I didn’t go sooner, I thought you ‘had’ to be able to run the whole 5k, which is not true, walking is just fine, or whatever you like.....
I hope you give it a go, if you do, don’t forget to report back here!
Mx
Ps - There’s free stuff too - milestone t-shirts, a 25 for 25 volunteers, 50 for 50 parkruns, 100 runs, 250 runs and believe it or not a 500 run shirt! (And yes some people do have them!)
Assuming that I don't chicken out because of the cold, tomorrow will be my third Parkrun. I'm very much a beginner (week 2) and I did my first Parkrun before I even started the programme. Everyone was lovely and despite my very slow time, everyone cheers as you cross the finish line. I walk most of it... tomorrow I'll be doing a W2 run so if I'm running for 10.5 minutes, I'll be walking for 37 ish! 
Parkrun is amazing, inclusive, supportive and non judgemental. At all the ones I’ve been to, it feels like Christmas... everyone being nice to each other for a change. They have pacers every now and then if you want to run a particular time, and other than that it’s just a case of running at your pace and having fun... maybe a coffee with the others after the event too. Go check it out.
Thanks for everyone’s input! I will register and am gonna go and watch next Saturday to get an idea
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