We headed to Newborough Forest parkrun in North Wales to help celebrate the special birthdays of tourist legends Iain and Ann. Sometimes parkrun isn’t about the challenges it ticks off but rather the community surrounding it. As it happens I did need an event starting with N towards my 3rd parkrun alphabet!
Newborough Forest, Llanddwyn, Anglesey, LL61 6SG
Facilities at Newborough Forest parkrun
- Free parking if you arrive at the top barrier after 8am and leave before 10:59am, then register with the correct details on the RINGO app.
- Free toilets (open at 8am summer and 8:30 winter)
- Right next to a sandy beach and the sea
- Mobile catering van
- Cold water shower point
- Picnic and BBQ facilities
Accommodation
Myself, husband and almost adult son stayed at Birdworld Leisure in our tent. If you book directly with them it is only £25 for the night. We were able to return after parkrun too.
The Course at Newborough Forest parkrun
A stunning one lap course that is actually quite challenging. Uphills and a bit of downhill. Sand, trail and fire roads. Wendy signed it again.
All well marked and marshalled. However, I did just follow the person in front. The finishing straight is a right turn and then on sand!
This also resembles something quite naughty when viewing on Strava!
My Experience of Newborough Forest parkrun
The Start
Another week where the 3, 2, 1, go was too fast and so my watch was delayed. If I use the jeffing app I have to allow it to count down so my watch was the 3 seconds behind.
At the start it was really slow moving as people cautiously people went uphill on the moving rocks. It was a fire track path that had been recently been putting down. One child fell near me and everyone kind of jumped in the way to see if they were okay. Obviously this having a bit of a knock on effect all around and behind. Luckily said child was alright and got up and got on with the run.
Some people had split off to the side of the path but I decided to carry on slowly where I was.
Jeffing at Newborough Forest parkrun
At first it was rather busy to start jeffing. Plus it was a slow start so I decided to keep on running. However, when we reached the sand dune I decided to walk. It wasn’t the easiest of courses so it may have been from there on in I decided that I would jeff.
The course had been described as hard, plus it was hot. Therefore, I had opted for a 30:30 ratio. My thoughts were I could always run through if need be. As it turned out 30 seconds of running at a time was plenty.
Iain Joining in
Iain, whose birthday we were celebrating (along with his wife’s), asked me how far I was running. His thinking was that I was doing 100m. Obviously I explained that it was 30 seconds on and off. So he then joined in with me. Prior to this I had also managed to sprint in front of him and get his picture!
The Finish
My husband had gone on ahead of me, as is usual these days. At one point our son did pass me but I did end up finishing ahead of him. There was a young man I had been encouraging as I went round, and I was really pleased that he listened to some advice I gave. Turned out that it was only his second ever parkrun!
Sprinting
However, I did not manage to give him a good sprint finish in the end as turns out I just can’t do this on sand. It was quite a shock as I had never tried before (not in trainers). Plus I just had cheap road shoes on.
But, our son, it turns out, can! As he encouraged two boys in and congratulated them at the end!
Newborough Forest parkrun Stats
There were 250 participants for what was Iain’s 250th different parkrun in a row!
These were made up of 119 male, 119 female and 12 unknown.
Continuing these 50/50 split and coincidence with numbers theme – Iain and Ann now have a combined age of 125 – and I came exactly in the middle in postion 125. Iain just missed out on it!
Finishing Times
The finishing times ranged between 18:11 and 1:07:14.
- 2 sub 19
- Total 6 sub 20
- 37 sub 25
- 123 sub 30 (just missing out by 2 seconds, but I did slow for a lot of photos!)
- 203 sub 40
- 231 sub 50
- 242 under the hour
Highest age grading
An incredible JM10 had the highest age grading 78.48% with a time of 20:50. Congratulations to him on his new PB!
With first lady finishing in a super impressive time of 19:20 (SW30-34). Not surprisingly she had the highest female age grading of 76.90%!
More Stats
- 21 PBs
- 37 volunteers – Iain and Ann were almost among the top 3 participants with the most parkrun volunteering
- 7 first timers
- Further 114 tourists
Final Thoughts
It was an amazing weekend. We had met up on the Friday evening for dinner and again Saturday for a fish and chip super on the beach. Most did parkrun junior the following day but I needed to be back for coaching. Also some of us went and had a lovely swim in the sea. In fact we have already booked for something similar next year!
I haven’t done any of the other nearby parkruns.
Visit these other bloggers who cover parkrun: Sarah at Mum of Three World, Jackie at Never Imitate and Chrissy at It’s Me Chrissy J and Nickie at I am Typecast