24/06/2023: After doing Brixworth for a couple of weeks. We decided to go to another fairly local one for us, Irchester Country Park. The parking situations is one of ample spaces but unfortunately, dictated by the council, is a little steep for 30 minutes, but no fault of the Parkrun itself! A beautiful location yet again for a parkrun, with high ropes courses and the park café to see when walking to the start line. Another really lovely touch is that there was a food bank drop off on the Saturday we went, which by the time we finished was over flowing with donations from fellow runners.
The day was incredibly close and humid, which definitely made the run much harder than it would normally have been. I came back to Irchester about a year on from this and I am so glad I did because it was overcast which led to a really beautiful run, but more on that in a future post! On this day, it was very hot and Irchester is full of hills. Both up and down but some very long. So really good for training runs and cross country, but not the easiest of Parkruns if ever going for a PB. Some great marshals and it is out and back so you get some lovely support coming both ways when doing the course. The first corner is coincidentally by the café, so the smell of bacon baps really spurred you on through the course and that also happens to be the final corner, which really propels you over the line.
As I said, my first time at Irchester was tough, finishing with 23:50 and Lee finishing with a 25:10. But a lovely course and one much more enjoyable on a colder day. my 2nd time at Irchester (a year and a small bit later) was finished in 20:34, so it was nice to see a pretty accurate improvement over the course of a year and a little bit.
Personal Stats and Rankings (As of 06/09/2024): Irchester Country Park
Current Course PB: 20:34
Course Events Attended: 2
Route (Terrain): 4
Route (Scenery): 9
Community & Atmosphere: 8
*Car Park (Price & Spaces): 2
*Cafe (Food & Price): 3
Overall: 26
*Out of 5
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