We headed along to Three Brooks parkrun inaugural. It was just myself, my husband and friend, leaving the children at home. It was also nice to put a name to a face for both Jackie and Chrissy who also went along! This was a well-organised parkrun. Everyone was really nice to me and a volunteer even shouted nice Skort!
Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve, Bradley Stoke, Bristol.
What3Words: index.drive.slows
Three Brooks Information
Stay Home!
Tell your friends to stay at home! That was the message this morning in the run briefing. Three Brooks parkrun have worked hard on getting the event up and running and don’t want to upset the locals and have it cancelled. Ideally they want people to not start coming until the autumn or even winter!
In fact when he asked if there were any Tourists it was bit of a rhetorical question – with a laugh! However, if you do come make sure you give way, especially to the local dog walkers!
Parking
Along with the stay home message it was clear that they’d be happier if people didn’t tour at all and stuck to their local parkrun. Arrive on foot or bicycle!
There was a lot of emphasis on keeping locals happy. This includes making sure you have parked at The Willow Brook Centre (BS32 8BS) and not on local roads. This will mean making sure you do not leave it to the last minute as the start is a 10-15 minute walk away! The What 3 Words wasn’t quite correct but did offer the right place.
Facilities
The Willow Brook Centre has plenty of facilities – including toilets upstairs and lots of different shops and eateries. As well as not being far from IKEA there’s also the very fabulous West Country Water Park – which has a great lake and an inflatable course!
Three Brooks parkrun Course
The course is simple in that you go out and back one way from the start, then the opposite direction out and back and repeat this again. It is reasonably flat, but not totally. Strava says the elevation was 31ft.
It is road trainers as it is run entirely on compact gravel paths. Someone did comment on how it was a bit dusty.
Experience as a Jeffer at Three Brooks parkrun
Volunteers
The volunteers were fantastic – thank you ever so much for everything. Although I do wish people would be polite enough to remain quite during the briefings! Especially as there was no megaphone and a lot of people there!
However, there was also someone there signing. A nice lady taught me how to sign well done at the end too.
Three Brooks Inaugural parkrun all ran really well. Including someone reminding me to keep moving through the funnel when stopped for a number check. The results were out in good time too.
Crowded Start
Surprisingly we rather quickly were able to run, if not slower than normal. Many crowded starts we have to walk a while, but this wasn’t the case. Out and backs are always tricky, especially on paths as opposed to a field! Honestly I didn’t think I was going to be able to Jeff it. But after just two and a half minutes continuous running I did a 60 minute run and a 30 second walk.
Going Slower
There were times when we all had to slow down, and even walk at points (like the turning points). Around me most people were polite, embracing the community spirit that is parkrun (it is not a race!); with just the odd person deciding that they could run ahead when there was really no room to overtake!
Someone said that they felt this was a PB course but I would have to disagree – unless you were right at the start. Our children did not go because of it being the inaugural so I do not have any front runner feedback this time. Maybe if they can get pacers to get people in better start positions in future it may help. Otherwise hopefully overtime regulars will know where the best start positions are.
How the Three Brooks parkrun Course Worked
I finished around 31 minutes and did not get overtaken by any of the fast runners so seems a good set up. However, I wonder if it would be any better if we headed out in the opposite direction first would work better – as it would allow us to spread out quicker. Especially given that we then had to head towards participants coming up to the finish to get back to the car park.
People could do with staying right a bit more too – with someone in front of me having to shout out “keep right” to remind people. However, the finish is on the right so if I was overtaken that may have been awkward.
Three Brooks parkrun Statistics for the Inaugural Event
There were 414 participants. Made up of 222 male, 186 female and 6 unscanned. For 21 of them it was their very first time.
Times ranged from 16:57 to 1:00:21. 235 participants finished in 30 minutes or less.
- Male Course Record/First Finisher – Callum Moore 16:57 (SM 30-34)
- Female Course Record – Freya Bradley 17:08 (JW 15-17) – who also has the highest age grade of 88.23%. A new overall PB today too!
- The highest male age grading today was Maciej Bialogonski – 78.43% (VM 35-39) in 17:09 and the course record for his age group.
Parkrun Milestones
- 50 Bridget Matthews
- 100 Pascal Coulon and Jo Sanderson
- 150 Callum Moore and Trevor Wilson
- 200 Alex Cooper and Lee Jackson
- 350 Sandra Reed
Most parkruns
- Alan Wilcox 612 parkruns
- Heather Griffin 518 parkruns
Three Brooks parkrun Course Records
Under 18s
- JM10 Jack Hamblin 22:19
- JM11-14 Isaac Connolly 22:30
- JM15-17 Sebastian Aquilina 19:53
- JW10 Eliza Turner 37:25
- JW11-14 Charlotte Turner 24:57
- JW15-17 Freya Bradley 17:08
Adults
- SM18-19 Alex Cooper 20:07
- SM20-24 Lewis Adamson 17:43
- SM25-29 Ewan Joyce 20:53
- SM30-34 Callum Moore 16:57
- SW18-19 Abigail Lazenby 35:14
- SW20-24 Ella Bradley 24:46
- SW25-29 Ella Kulman 21:48
- SW30-34 Liana Gynn 24:14
Veterans
- VM35-39 Maciej Bialogonski 17:09
- VM40-44 Stephen Honight 18:07
- VM45-49 Robert Kolakowski 20:54
- VM50-54 Paul Stuart 20:10
- VM55-59 Alan Wilcox 22:18
- VM60-64 Mike McBeth 22:30
- VM65-69 Jonathan Goodland 24:07
- VM70-74 Alan Maddocks 30:41
- VM75-79 Stuart Ellis 28:01
- VM80-84 –
- VW35-39 Caroline Buckeridge 20:23
- VW40-44 Fi Lang 23:24
- VW45-49 Jane Duffus 25:51
- VW50-54 Nicola Lewton 26:36
- VW55-59 Helen Hinsley 24:27
- VW60-64 Sian Davies 25:44
- VW65-69 Lorraine Smith 28:50
- VW70-74 Elizabeth Manley 33:15
- VW75-79 –
- VW80-84 –
Running Club Representation at Three Brooks
Participants represented 61 different running clubs:
- Active soul UK
- Airey Airways
- Albany Road Run Club
- Almost Athletes (2)
- Ashton Court parkrunners (2)
- Avon Valley Runners (2)
- BHAM! Runners
- Bitton Road Runners
- Black Pear Joggers (2)
- Blaise Runners (4)
- Bristol & District Tri (2)
- Bristol Advanced Motorcyclists (2)
- Bristol and West AC (7)
- Burnham-on-Sea Harriers (2)
- Chepstow Harriers (2)
- City of Salisbury A & RC
- Clifton Running Club
- CSSC Sports & Leisure
- Darlington Triathlon Club
- Defence Sports & Recreation (2)
- Emersons Green Running Club (11)
- Forest Fitness
- Frampton Cotterell Harriers
- Frampton Running Friends
- Girls That Jeff
- Great Western Runners (5)
- Hayle Runners
- Les Croupiers RC (2)
- Lliswerry Runners (2)
- Lonely Goat RC (2)
- Nailsea RC
- No Club Running Club
- North Bristol Running Group (43)
- Petts Wood Runners (2)
- Phoenix Harriers Frampton Cotterell
- Portishead Running Club (3)
- RAF AC
- Reading Roadrunners (2)
- Rhondda Valley Runners
- Riverside Runners (Yate)
- Running Bear Running Club
- San Domenico RC
- Sole Sisters (7)
- South West Road Runners (2)
- Southville Running Club (11)
- SPFit – Sherborne
- Stanbridge Fliers
- Stokes Striders Recreational Running Group (5)
- Sutton Striders
- Team Bath AC (3)
- Tewkesbury Allrunners
- This Mum Runs (3)
- Thornbury RC (4)
- Town & Country Harriers
- Twemlow Track Club
- UK parkrun Tourists (2)
- UoB Cool Runnings
- Vegan Runners (6)
- Westbury Harriers (7)
- With Me Now
- WOTTON TROTTERS
Other parkrun locations nearby that I have blogged Severn Bridge (8.1m) and Rogiet (10.9m)
More parkrun posts