Due to a change in family circumstances, plus a landslide, we made a last minute decision to head to Dudley parkrun. This meant I would get my letter D. It was their 263th event, Here is some information you may wish to know about it.
The Dell Stadium, Bryce Road, Pensnett, Brierley Hill, DY5 4NE
Information About Dudley parkrun
Dudley parkrun was such a friendly parkrun and a lot of fun. Actually it is the first parkrun I have added as a favourite in an app I have. Straight away a lady in the toilets began talking to me – telling me how fun the mud was! Then it was my first time wearing my Flanci Moove-it Skort and another Cowell Club gentleman spoke to me. Ironically he had already seen me at the services grabbing a coffee when I was much closer to home!
Getting There
Dudley parkrun is at The Dell Stadium, Brierley Hill. The Dudley parkrun website says not to park at The Dell Stadium but instead head for Fenn Pool Warden’s Office or The Brockmoor Community Centre. With additional overspill car parking on Bryce Road. However, we think that people were parking there. When we reached the Brockmoor Community Centre there was a sign saying about not parking there. Seeing as we had left a lot of time we decided to use street parking about a km away and just walk up.
Dudley parkrun is accessible by bus, train and obviously more locally on foot. It is approximately a 30 minute walk from the Merry Hill Centre.
Facilities
There was toilets, a play area, outdoor gym and somewhere serving snacks (I am assuming drinks too but did not check). You could leave bags, etc., with the marshals on the running track.
As mentioned above Dudley parkrun is not far from The Merry Hill Centre – amongst other things there is a McDonalds there.
Briefings
Andy kicked off the first timers briefing promptly at 8:50am. There was a board with a map to show where you were from that wiped clean. Obviously a pen to add it on too! He explained all the basics, including how to run around the course and asking where we were from. I was a bit embarrassed to ask if anyone would help direct us and did separately at the end. He assured me that it was fine that there were lots of volunteers.
Becky was the Run Director and she announced all the usual things – including volunteer achievements, birthdays and so on.
There were people with “quiet please” signs but still people were talking. A lady next to me had to ask the men in front of us if they could indeed be quiet. This appears to be becoming a problem at a lot of parkruns lately.
Dudley parkrun Course
Dudley parkrun offers everything you could want in a run all at once! There’s track running (with the opportunity for a sprint finish if you wish), there’s tarmac paths, canal towpaths, trail paths – with mud and hills, and even a bit of railway track!
Dudley parkrun is not suitable for dogs and double buggies – and possibly not for single either.
Today, despite the fact it was really muddy, I did not wear trail shoes and was okay. Although they may have been really useful on the mud and hills personally my footwear was fine. In fact I don’t think I would have liked to be wearing my trails on the running track. Also a lot of people were walking on the hill, with it being so narrow it meant I didn’t attempt to pass anyone.
A One Lap Course
Technically Dudley parkrun is a one lap course. Actually you need to go around the track more than once at the beginning and end. If you are 30 minutes or quicker then it means you are unlikely to get speedier runners going around you. Seeing as it was on the track though it wasn’t too overwhelming for me and it did make it clearer about when to get off the track and exit the area.
When finishing you go past the finish once to do another lap and then you go through the finish the second time you get there. A nice volunteer knew I was nervous about knowing when to go where and kindly let me know that this was the case too.
How it was Jeffing at Dudley parkrun
When my first beep was about to go off I realised that I wasn’t quite at the edge. This meant I accidentally caught my husband’s foot as I tried to move out the way. Then I actually missed that walk as I was trying to keep up with him and explain that sorry it was my fault. From the next walking beep on I did Jeff though.
As mentioned above there were points where I walked rather than ran, or went a bit slower due to the nature of the course and me jeffing. All in all though I was able to jeff normally and everyone was really accommodating of it. In fact one nice lady told me that she was trying to keep up with me. She did well until the hills and she was slightly older than me.
The only other thing was there was a man with a Go Pro who was encouraging us – saying we would be on YouTube tomorrow! That would be good as I could only find one video of this parkrun and the start was too boring to even watch it. Would be good for our youngest to see the course if we were to bring him – as it can be a bit confusing.
The Sprint Finish
The finish isn’t out at the very start and usually I hate that. But it was okay as it was out on the track whilst we were going around the track so I had a clear understanding of where I was going.
There was a boy who occasionally was walking. Rightly or wrongly I thought he looked like he had a lot more in him to give. When we reached the play area before coming back to the track I suggested that he looked like he had a sprint finish left in him. He was walking at this point.
As we went around the track he ran a bit and then walked. I had told him that I bet he could make my lungs burst – or something like that. As we got near to where I could sprint he was walking and I said that now was the time. Wow did he move!
This is one of the reasons I like to be able to check the stats because I felt certain that his PB must be in the low 20s. It turns out it wasn’t actually as fast as mine (which is around 27 and half). This means I am even more impressed with how quickly he finished. I doubt he is reading but well done – very impressive.
Dudley parkrun Statistics
On Saturday 10th February 2024 there were 190 participants at Dudley parkrun. 34 of those were first timers.
Representatives from 32 different clubs took part and 17 people recorded new personal bests.
Their times ranged from 18:31 to 62:24.There were 76 people who finished sub 30. Although it would have been 77 if my husband hadn’t have stopped to help someone. The highest age-grade (73.65%) came from the category male 65-69 in a time of 22:46.
At that time the average finish time for Dudley parkrun was 30.49.
Stats No Longer Clearly Displayed
The first finisher was the male course record holder Luke Vine. He had previously run it in a time of 15m 18s. However, parkrun is no longer displaying these records and so I am unsure if they are being updated anywhere. As far as I can tell he also held the highest age graded record on this course of 84.31% in the aged SM25-29 age category. This also happens to be his current category.
The fastest female today completed it in a time of 22:22 – not beating Sophie Wood’s previous female course record time of 18m 21s. Personally I am sad that these will not be available. Regular readers will know that I tend to include them in my posts.
Milestones
I myself got my quarter Cowell today – that’s 25 different parkrun locations. Other milestones at Dudley parkrun today were:
Abigail Lysek – 25 Volunteering
Jon Briscoe – 25 Volunteering
Joseph Janjua – 50 Volunteering
Martin Southall – 50 Volunteering
Norman Smith – 300th Run
Thank you to the 30 volunteers today:
Andrew EVANS • Mark WARREN • Laurence DYER • David BROWN • Mark PINNEY • Chris SMITH • Nicky SMITH • Jonathan BRISCOE • Stuart R HANNAN • Kate LANFEAR • Hayley LYSEK • Steve COLDICOTT • Andy HALE • Ashley GRIFFITHS • Rebecca PAINTING • Graham HILL • Stuart BOND • Martin SOUTHALL • Rachel TROMANS • Oscar TROMANS • Jodie NORTH • Phil COLDICOTT • Orlaith-Anne O’DONNELL • Simon BILLINGHAM • Kevin JOHNSON • Joseph JANJUA • Stewart BUCHANAN • Abigail LYSEK • Alex BUCHANAN • Wendy DUNN
More parkrun run reports