We headed to Brickfields Park parkrun in Bath as it was their eight event, which I needed for my Wilson. A Wilson Index is whereby you do each event number in order. So obviously starting from an Inaugural Event to get your number 1. Previously I was on 7. There’s also a Floating Wilson – where your numbers are in a row, but not starting from 1.
Read more about parkrun Stats and Challenges.
Brickfields Park, 1A The Hollow, Twerton, Bath, BA2 1LX.
Also we are looking into Universities for our son and Bath is one to consider, so it’s nice to just pop along to get a general feel for where he may end up living. Turns out we are hoping he goes somewhere with a slightly flatter terrain!
Facilities at Brickfields Park parkrun, Bath
Parking
There is free parking at Twerton Park, Bath City Football Club, BA2 1DB. It is clearly mentioned several times that this car park needs to be emptied of all parkrun users by 11am. Particularly on Match days!
The train station is closer – and probably easier to get there – as the walk from the carpark is uphill. It took me around 12 minutes and was just under 1km. Also Strava says that the elevation gain was 28m.
As well as a marshal giving very clear instructions there are signs – and it was rather straight forward.
Toilets
The parkrun page says that there are two toilets nearby that both need 20ps. To be honest we didn’t see either of them. However, there is a local McDonald’s and so we popped there. Who doesn’t love the excuse for a cheeky morning Maccys. Well actually since it is so much more expensive without employee discount just the boys had it – but we got free coffees with our points!
Course Description of Brickfields Park parkrun
Hard. Honestly I am not sure I could explain it any other way. Would hate to have been the front runner. All I remember is that we went around the Brickfields Park grass area twice. Even this had elevation in it! Apparently that was approximately 1km.
Next there’s a route along Linear Park with a tarmac surface as far as the Devonshire Tunnel. This part of the route is undulating and gradually uphill. Just before the tunnel the route heads left for a short out and back in Bloomfield Green, heading back along Linear Park UP to Brickfields with a short finish within the park on a grass surface.
When you come on to the grass you will see some cones up ahead, these are NOT the finish, as it then bends back around on itself! I started (trying to) sprint on the grass and it was definitely too far!
Due to the volume of public use of the pathways, double buggies are not allowed.
My Experience
There was no indication of where to stand based on your time, I guess mostly because a lot of people it was their first time there. Plus it is still fairly new. However, it felt like so many people just kept moving forward – like they were going to be really fast. It starts on a field so it was always clear that it was going to spread out really quickly anyway.
Instructions were clear that we were to keep left – and there were times that other park users were going by on bicycles, so it really was important to follow this instruction.
By 2kms I had to walk. Turns out that our speedy son also had problems feeling like he’d have a heart attack by 2km – so also had to slow down by that point.
Everyone was really lovely. Lots of nice comments about my running clothes. I love how parkrun is just so inspiring – like the lady who ran and then sat down to breastfeed her 7 week old baby on a bench!!
Thank you so much to the wonderful 33 volunteers.
Brickfields Park parkrun Stats
There were 254 participants. 154 male, 92 females and 8 unknown.
144 Tourists and 2 people who did their very first parkrun.
Times ranging between an impressive 18:07 and 53:47 (which is also very impressive for a Tail Walker time, especially considering the elevation!!!).
Love how both the first female finisher and the highest age grading were both ladies named Caroline. Different ladies as the highest age grading just got over taken by our youngest at the end.
162 people finished in sub 30.
Other Nearby parkruns I have done:
Somerdale Pavilion parkrun (5.8m), Pomphrey Hill parkrun (8.1m), Eastville parkrun (9.9m), and Chipping Sodbury parkrun (11.5m)
Jackie Law has also previously visited Brickfields parkrun
This does sound very challenging! I know that Bath is an extremely hilly city. My sister went there for uni and just spent three years walking up hills.
How far does the Wilson challenge go? Is it just one to eight? It must be a very hard one to achieve!
It goes up to whatever Bushy is at the time.
All the courses seem hilly at the moment! Makes my home ones feel flat