Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun – For the Y

We headed to Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun in Lincoln for the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

Yarborough Leisure Centre, Riseholme Road, Lincoln, LN1 3SP.

Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun seemed to be the perfect choice this was for several reasons not just because we were chasing a letter Y for the Alphabeteer parkrun Challenge! The most important thing though was that it was a course suitable with my fracture boot!

Parkrun Letter Y Alphabeteer Challenge

Yarborough is one of only 2 Y parkruns in Europe. Along with York. The others are in Australia and Japan!

Getting to Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun and Facilities

Budget Hotel

We stayed in a Travelodge in Sleaford. It was £35.99 for the four of us for one night. That was a flexible booking – and only £32.99 without! It wasn’t the greatest place to stay but okay for the money paid. It was then only a half an hour away drive to Yarborough Leisure centre. Quite a normal distance for our regular parkruns.

Locating and Parking

Getting there was simple with the Satnav and there was ample free parking. If your vehicle is over 2.1m do not try and squeeze under the barrier – there’s plenty of other parking.

Although with a fracture boot on it did feel like quite a little way from where we parked to the start but certainly manageable and all on path.

Facilities

We didn’t use any facilities but toilets can be found at the track hub building next to the start. The leisure centre has a pool and many other activities. You can also shower there for £3. Our hotel check out time was also noon so it was possible to head back.

Pickles café is open from 8:30am and have a special offer with your barcode.

Check out the Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun Facebook page for ideas of places to visit whilst in the area.

Briefing

There was the usual briefing and as you can expect there were quite a few tourists. In fact almost half, 176. They did ask Y we were there!

Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun Course

The course makes use of the cycling club’s race track – so all path, apart from the smallest bit on grass for the finish. This is so that it moves people out of the way. So this is definitely a course for road shoes.

It is three and a bit anticlockwise laps around the perimeter of the Yarborough fields. The easiest way to think of it is that it is just three laps. However, on the first lap you have to do small loop twice.

You need to keep left. When joining the small loop this was a little tricky but after that it made perfect sense – as the finish splits off to the right.

Accessibility at Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun

Yarborough Leisure parkrun pride themselves on their accessibility. They are a disability-friendly, all-inclusive parkrun. They welcome feedback – not just positive but they also want to know where they can improve so they can make it a better experience for the next person.

Wheelchair Users

Not only is the course 99.8% on wide open tarmac paths and essentially flat – so suitable for wheelchair users – but they offer an alternative finish for those who cannot use the grass finish. This is prearranged before the start.

Also that if you are in a wheelchair on the last bend the best line to take is on the outside due to the camber of the bend or that the different types of tarmac affect the rolling speeds of a wheelchair.

Visually impaired

Feedback has also told them that it is a good course for visually impaired individuals, who have partial sight, so they can reliably use the contrast between the grass and the tarmac as a guide to get round in conjunction with a sighted person.

Other

If you have any questions or concerns about completing their course they welcome that you drop them an email at yarboroughleisurecentre@parkrun.com.

Personally I felt that they covered things well – such as clear signs and reminders for those with poor working memory and that they were very neurodivergent friendly.

Our Experience at Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun

From the off everyone at Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun was very welcoming. Everything was well explained but I had also been following posts on Facebook which made things even clearer. For example the map of the course.

New PB

Even though it wasn’t pacer week our 16 year old smashed his PB. His parkrun recorded time is now 20 minutes 48 seconds. However, he needs to record his running for his Gold DofE and so recorded it on his Garmin. His 5km time was 20 minutes 24 seconds. This is due to him weaving in and out to overtake people so his parkrun was actually further than the 5km.

Thank you most kindly to the man who finish just behind him who kindly moved over to the left a bit when I asked, so that our son could sprint.

Other Teen and Husband

Our other teen made his dad slow down for him and then sprinted off at the end! His sensory sensitives I feel affect him each week and this time he was saying about his shoes not feeling right. Wonder if this is because he wasn’t in his trail shoes!

My Experience at Yarborough Leisure Centre parkun in a Fracture Boot Dressed as a Bunny!

Obviously I wasn’t jeffing this parkrun as I am still in a fracture boot. But this would have been possible but maybe not too practical until after spreading out from the small loops.

As last week, at Oaklands parkrun, the boot really rubbed my leg I opted to wear jeans. Then it turned out to be a really sunny day and they were a really big mistake!

As it was the Easter weekend I also wore an inflatable bunny costume. This went down really well and lots of people spoke to me. They also took my picture which was nice. In fact I was also told that I was an inspiration!

It was nice that people also seemed to be looking after me. Not just the marshals. There was one man in particular who made sure I was able to get to the left of the small loop, and he checked on me further as I went round too.

Statistics for Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun Event 57

Due to tragic reasons Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun had a higher than usual number of participants. There were 371 of us ranging in time from 16:59 to 57 minutes. 14 people were brand new to parkrun.

223 of those were in a time of sub 30.  At that point the average time overall (for all 57 parkruns) was 29:21

The highest age grade (87.98%) for event 57 was in the JW15-17 category

Volunteers at Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun Event 57 were:

Daniel AMSBURY, Jos BARTLETT, Natalie BLACK, Andrew CALPIN, Steve DYE, Denise FOXE-KING, Samantha FOXE-KING, Peter GAVIN, Robin HARRISON, Annie HATHERLEY, Phil HATHERLEY, Joy JACKSON, Tom NICKELL, Austin OVERTON, Sarah OVERTON, Emily RATCLIFFE, Harry RATCLIFFE, Louise RATCLIFFE, Matthew RATCLIFFE, Emma RODGER, Andy SCOTT, Kerry SCOTT, Ann STORR, Charlie SUMNER, Mike TEMPLEMAN, Kate TROLLONE, Shireen WALKER