Gadebridge parkrun

Gadebridge is a district of Hemel Hempstead which was developed from land that once formed part of the grounds of Gadebridge House. This house was built in the early 1800s for Sir Astley Paston Cooper, a surgeon, and after being passed through the family for a few generations eventually became the Gadebridge Park School.

The school remained in the house before being forced to move by the Commission for New Towns in 1963. The house was demolished and the new building on the land was initially used by Kodak as a marketing education centre. That building was demolished in 1995 and the land is now used for housing.

gadebridge park [photos: 7t]

The New Town of Hemel Hempstead is home to Gadebridge Park, which at 32 hectares is the largest park in town. The park is made up of two main areas which are separated by Leighton Buzzard Road; the two sides are linked by a short tunnel that runs underneath the aforementioned road.

In 1963 a Roman Villa was uncovered in the north-west corner of the park. I would have liked to have had a look but from what I have read, the remains have been re-interred so I didn't wander over to that particular corner of the park.

pre-run [photos: 7t]

Instead I focussed my attention on the central parts of the park which is where Gadebridge parkrun takes place. The event had its inaugural run on 2 May 2015 and averages around 100 runners per week (97.1 at time of writing).

I drove to Gadebridge from Dartford via the M25/M1 route which took me through the centre of Hemel Hempstead and around the Magic Roundabout (6 mini-roundabouts placed around one large central roundabout and officially called the Plough Roundabout), which I had heard of but never actually experienced before. The funniest thing was that my phone's sat-nav app lost the plot and got stuck in an eternal loop of 'exit the roundabout / at the roundabout / exit the roundabout....' without actually telling me where to go!

the opening section [photos: 7t]

There is a large, free of charge, car park in the park which can be accessed at the junction of Leighton Buzzard Road and Gadebridge Lane. This is only a few minutes walk from the start-finish area which you'll find towards the south-east corner of the park.

For visitors arriving by train, the nearest station is Hemel Hempstead and this is approx 2.5km away from the park - I'd walk/jog the rest of the way, but it looks like there are bus services that would help with the connecting journey if required. I didn't spot any cycle racks in the park (there are some on the adjacent High Street), but there are various fences and railings that will serve as a anchor for securing one.

bridge and tunnel [photos: 7t]

A few metres from the start-finish area is a toilet block - the official Gadebridge parkrun page mentions these but also says that they cannot guarantee they will be open pre-run. Fortunately they were open when I visited. With all that done, it was time for the briefing and then onto the start of the run.

Firstly it's worth noting that the start and finish points on the official course map are not in the correct places. The run starts and finishes in the same place and not at different places as shown on the map. Please see my GPS data on Strava for those spots and the rest of the course data.

west side 1 [photos: 7t]

The course is made up of two anti-clockwise laps with a short tail which links the loop to the start finish area. Underfoot is a combination of 1.6km tarmac paths and 3.4km on grass. When it's bone dry your standard road shoes will get you around, but during the wetter months you'll be looking at trail shoes. In fact the western half of the park is used for cross-country races and we all know what a mud bath they can be!

This is not the place to go if you are looking for a fast, flat course. I'd describe the profile as being undulating (some people might even go as far as saying hilly). To give you a quick overview of the course. After the start straight, the lap involves a three-quarter lap of a grass field in the eastern half of the park.

west side 2 [photos: 7t]

The route transfers to tarmac and crosses the River Gade and then goes through the underpass (where lanes of cones separate the runners from other park users) and into the western half. In the western half of the park it's just a straightforward anti-clockwise loop starting with an elevation rise of approximately 27 metres to reach the highest point of the course.

Underfoot the grass is a little longer here so it feels a little slower underfoot and there are small outcrops of trees scattered all around. All the hard work now pays off as the course reaches its southernmost tip and the long downhill with a great view across the Gade Valley towards St Mary's Church whose 200 feet high spire, topped by a gilded weather vane, dominates the skyline.

back on the east side [photos: 7t]

The route then works its way along parallel to Leighton Buzzard Road until it reaches the underpass which the runners head back through. Back in the eastern half the runners head back across the River Gade and straight along the tarmac path where a left hand turn marks the start of the second lap. At the end of the second lap the runners turn right and head towards the finish.

Barcode scanning took place right next to the finish funnel and my results text message arrived less than an hour later. 108 runners took part on the day I visited [event 66 results] including the local MP who I had a quick chat with during my cool-down.

end [photos: 7t]

For anyone planning to stay in the park for a while longer, there is a walled garden, the SANDS (Stillbirth And Neonatal Death Society) 'Forget me Not' memorial garden for babies, a children's playground and a skate park. For a small fee there are also crazy golf, giant chess/draughts board, petanque (boules), and croquet facilities.

Post-run the parkrun team move onto 'Elbows Off The Table' for a coffee and chat. Sadly this was another one of those days where I had to get back on the road home so didn't have time to join them. I left with great memories of my run here, and headed back in the direction of the Magic Roundabout where the sat-nav went into meltdown again!

Run>Dartford: Joydens Wood 5k Series 2016 - July

As you'll know if you've read any of my previous blogs about this series of races, the Joydens Wood 5k series is hosted by Dartford Road Runners and takes place on the last Wednesday of May, June and July. There are three different courses in use but I had only ever run on one of these courses (previous Joydens Wood blogs: 2014 Race 3 / 2015 Race 1 / 2016 Race 2).

So I was quite excited to finally get to try out a different course, which for this event happened to be the original Joydens Wood 5k course. This course sticks to the main pathways through the woods which are generally quite gravelly underfoot and the terrain is undulating/hilly.

joydens wood (pre-run) [photos: 7t]

The third and final Joydens Wood 5k of the 2016 series was also the 4th race of the 2016 Run>Dartford series, which is my main racing focus at the moment. I have completed all of the races in the series so far (Links: Dartford Heath 5k / Central Park 4 Mile / Darenth Country Park 2 Mile Relay)  and am in a good position in the overall standings, which are decided on age grading rather than absolute time or position.

The race opens with a long downhill section on quite an uneven path and then continues to go up and down the hills through the woods. There was one particularly steep incline at around the 2.3km mark and if you look at my GPS data on Strava you can see my pace plummet, but the elevation profile graph doesn't show the hill. However, it had recorded a brief spot where the gradient reached over 10%.

joydens wood [photos: dani / 7t]

The final kilometre includes the infamous 'Mount Misery' (or just 'Misery') which varies between 7% and 11% incline for a good few hundred metres. It's a tough way to finish a 5k but these features of the woods are what make it such a great place to run, and in turn make the Joydens Wood series such a great event to be part of.

In the previous month's race of the Joydens Wood series I had a particularly bad time with the hills, so I was pleased that I finished this race 28 seconds faster (although difficult to compare directly as they were run on different courses). I crossed the line in 22.04 (2 minutes slower than flat 5k time is about right) and reached out to take my finishing token (reminder, this is not parkrun!) but instead had the 20th position spot prize, a bottle of wine, placed firmly in my hands instead.

joydens wood (post-run) [photos: dani]

As far as the Run>Dartford series goes, that 22.04 finishing time gave me an age-grading of 61.40% which translated into 61.4 points towards my tally in the competition. I'm now on 254 points and this leaves me in 5th position on the consolidated points table with one race, the Thames River Path 10k, left to go.

Full Results

Time: 22.04

Position (full race): 20/128
Full Results: Joydens Wood 5k Series 2016 - July (click link to pdf)

Run>Dartford Results
Position by age grade: 9/39 (6th by time)

Age Grade: 61.40%

Full Results: Run>Dartford: Joydens Wood 5k

Current points in the Run>Dartford points table: 254.30 (5th position)

parkrun du Bois de Boulogne

*Please note that as of 29 February 2020 the course (including the meeting point) is changing - Please see the following links for further information:

Official News Page - Revised course map
Facebook - Notification post (with some maps)

Original post:

During the reign of the Emperor Napoleon III (the nephew of Napoleon), Paris was expanding to both the east and the west, and as the only public parks were situated in the centre of Paris, the Emperor decided to build two new large public parks. In the east he would create the Bois de Vincennes and in the west the Bois de Boulogne.

The Bois de Boulogne [bwa.d(ə).bu.lɔɲ] covers 845 hectares (2090 acres) and sits within the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally part of the ancient Forêt de Rouvray (Forest of Rouvray) which stretched from the western edge of Paris all the way into Normandy. The park was created between 1852 and 1858. The emperor had spent some time in exile in London, was impressed by Hyde Park and wanted to create something similar in Paris.

paris [photos:7t]

He was personally involved in the planning and insisted that the Bois de Boulogne should have a lake in the style of the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park. This plan almost went wrong when the original design failed to take into account the difference in elevation between the two ends of the lake.

If you visit the park today you will notice the two lakes 'Lac Superieur' and 'Lac Inferieur' have a cascade in between them which was created to solve the problem. The park has also been the subject of works of art by Manet, Renoir and Van Gogh.

bois de boulogne [photos: 7t / dani / nicolas vaissiere]

Moving into the present day, the bulk of the park is still forest with paths, allees and avenues that criss-cross their way through the park. There are also various gardens, a complex of greenhouses which contain 100,000 plants, a zoo, an amusement park and boats available for hire on Lac Inferieur - we spent a day exploring the park and hired a 'Canot' (little boat) and enjoyed a good hour on the lake.

The park has strong links to horse racing and features two horse racing tracks on its borders. The French Open (tennis) is hosted at the Stade Roland Garros complex which is situated at the southern end of the park.

start and course [photos: 7t / nicolas vaissiere]

Putting everything else to the side for now, we were here for the park's newest sports-related event and that is the parkrun du Bois de Boulogne, which is a free, timed, 5 kilometre, run which is open to all abilities every Saturday morning at 9am. We had travelled to Paris a few days earlier and were staying in a flat just outside the park in La Muette; it's not the closest point to the start of the run, but it was close enough to travel there on foot.

The meeting point for the run is in the south eastern corner of the park at a crossroads in the path which is right next to a car park. If you're looking on a map you will see the road 'Route de Boulogne a Passy' which leads into the car park from the south. Then there is a footpath called 'Route d'Auteuil Suresnes' The point where these two meet is where the runners meet - the pre-run briefing also takes place here.

course [photos: dani / nicolas vaissiere]

This parkrun currently seems to attract a high percentage of British parkrun tourists and the run briefing, while being predominantly in French also had the most important parts also relayed in English.

We approached from the north of the meeting point via the entrance closest to La Muette and we (I) got a little confused on the way and arrived at the start with very little time to spare. The easiest way to find the start would be by travelling to the Porte d'Auteuil station on the Metro (served by lines 9 and 10), exiting via the 'Hippodrome' exit and entering the park at the southern end. If driving then you can head for the car park right next to the meeting point (I didn't check to see of you had to pay for this).

bois de boulogne [photos: 7t / nicolas vaissiere]

The start of the run is about 50 metres south of the meeting/briefing point and the runners head south from this point. Underfoot is a mixture of tarmac and dusty forest trails - we ran here in the summer and it was dry but I could imagine certain sections being wet and splashy during the winter.

The shape of this course makes it quite difficult to categorise and depending on who you ask, you'll get a slightly different way of describing it (figure of eight / three laps / heart shaped etc..). I have attached a diagram which I found on the venue's official Facebook page and I think this shows the route better than I can explain. However, I will try.

from parkrun du bois de boulogne's facebook page [image: david rayner]

The first section is slightly downhill and is run on a smooth tarmac path. At the end of the path, the course swings to the right and then right again onto 'Allee Saint-Denis' (there are a few different paths at this point of the park so pay attention to the marshal and look for the arrows).

Underfoot now changes to the dusty, slightly uneven forest paths. At around 1km into the run there is a cycle path to cross so it's worth looking boths ways just to be sure the way is clear. A marshal at a sharp right-hand turn shortly after directs the runners onto ''Route d'Auteuil Suresnes' which leads towards the wide 'Avenue de Saint-Cloud'.

Once reaching the junction with 'Avenue de Saint-Cloud', the runners have completed a 'C' shaped loop of the left/upper part of the course in a clockwise direction and must now complete two full anti-clockwise loops of the right/lower section which is essentially all on tarmac.

bois de boulogne [photos: 7t nicolas vaissiere]

This loop starts at the junction where the runners emerge from the forest path and sees the runners following the avenue towards the southern end of the course where they turn left and head back up along the opening section, pass the start line and meeting area, then follow the arrows back around to Avenue de Saint-Cloud where they continue to repeat this loop a second time.

At the end of the second anti-clockwise loop the runners enter the finish funnel which is located at the aforementioned junction. Conveniently there is a Wallace Fountain right next to the finish line - these fountains provide free drinking water across the whole of Paris [link: map] so it's a great spot to re-hydrate post-run or to refill a water bottle if you have brought one along.

post run [photos: 7t / dani / nicolas vaissiere]

Barcode scanning takes place right at the finish and once all of the runners have finished, they pack up and head north along the avenue to 'Le Café du Bois - Chalet de La Pelouse St Cloud' for a coffee, croissant and a post-run chat to the team and some fellow tourists.

The results for event 25 were processed a few hours later and we are pleased to now be able to call ourselves not only 'international parkrunners', but also 'parkrunneurs'. However, with the strict French rules around what constitutes a 'race' you will not find course records, age category records or a points table published here. Also you'll find everyone's finishing times listed in alphabetical order rather than by finishing position/time which re-enforces the fact that this is a run and not a race - I wonder if this will eventually happen to the UK results pages. 

If you'd like to see the course in detail, my full GPS trace for the course can be found on Strava, here; parkrun du Bois de Boulogne.

Joydens Wood 5k Series 2016 - June

The Joydens Wood 5k series, hosted by Dartford Road Runners, takes place on the last Wednesdays of May, June and July each year over three different courses around this stunning ancient woodland. This is the third year I have taken part, but I have only ever managed to get to one race per series.

That was all set to change this year, but then I discovered that I had been scheduled to work the late shift and, even though I tried, I couldn't find someone willing to swap it with me for an earlier finish which meant that I missed race 1 of the 2016 series.

joydens wood

So for race 2 I made sure well in advance that I'd be on an early finish and planned my exit strategy down to a tee. Fortunately the trains behaved and after a quick pitstop at home, I arrived at the woods with plenty of time to spare and registered on the day for £6.

As I mentioned above there are three different courses in this series and somehow I have always run exactly the same course. I completely forgot just how painfully tough this 5k is and is an added bonus, June 2016 had been quite a rainy month which meant the conditions underfoot were much worse than on the previous occasions (Links: Joydens Wood 5k 2014 / Joydens Wood 5k 2015) I had run here.

joydens wood

A big thing I learnt during this race is that although I am currently running a flat 5k in roughly the same time as I was last year, I am not coping with hills very well right now. As soon I started running up any of the many hills in this race I really struggled and slowed down much more than the runners around me.

I lost places to those behind me but when the ground levelled out I stayed with those runners only to fall further behind on the next incline. This makes sense as I have had a long term knee injury which has lead to avoiding a lot of the types of training that would make me stronger in this area.

joydens wood [with thanks to richey for the running photo]

However, I'm not used to being so weak on hills so a few modifications to my training are in order. Over the last 3-4 months almost all of my training has been on the track and if specificity is a key part of training it's easy to see why my flat course 5k times are doing ok but throw in a hill and I fall apart. I'm also not currently including any long runs in my training as that could cause problems with my knee injury so that means that my endurance is pretty much non-existent.

So back to the race, and with the official results in, I finished in a time of 22.32. I had hoped to come in under 22 minutes so I'm pretty disappointed with the time. However, I did finish in 11th position which is fairly consistent with my previous finishing positions in the series so I'm pretty pleased with that. The last race of the series is also the 4th race of the run>dartford series so the plan is to be back here in a month's time for that, and I'm really looking forward to it.