Going to Holbrooks parkrun was a bit of a last minute decision. We had intended to go to the very last event at Frogmary Green Farm. However, a chance encounter with a Facebook post suggested that it was a good idea to stay away. Added to that news came in that I needed to visit family – so Holbrooks it was!
Holbrooks Park, Holbrook Lane, Holbrooks, Coventry, CV6 4BY
Facilities
- Plenty of free parking
- Two electrical charging points
- Currently no official bicycle rack but railings which people use.
- Accessible by bus. If you come by train you will still also need a bus.
- No toilets – but plenty of places nearby where you can use the facilities. We used it as a warm up jog.
- Children’s play area
- Basketball court
- Skate park
- Post-parkrun coffee: DKYC (Don’t Know You Choose), 158 Holbrook Lane, Coventry, CV6 4BN
Holbrooks parkrun Course
Starting not far from the car park you run towards the carpark. There is a path with grass at the edges. It is two anticlockwise laps around the perimeter of Holbrooks Park. Before forking of to the left and doing a small anticlockwise loop to the finish.
With the course being a mixture of grass and tarmac, finishing on grass. There’s a section of the course called Boggy Corner and apparently you can lose your shoes here! For us it was dry and not a problem so I ran in road shoes.
My Experience at Holbrooks parkrun
Starting reasonably close to the front I thought I would go off pretty quickly. In fact no, people came from around the sides and it felt like I was going to trip over someone’s heels. Checking out my Strava I ended up doing a 3:07/km pace to get round them!
To be fair this was just within the first 300m so maybe I just need to learn a bit more patience. Going that fast that soon undoubtedly had an adverse effect for the rest of the run!
Jeffing at Holbrooks parkrun
In the first timers briefing she stated that you didn’t need to stay left or right because it was such a small course. Personally I spoke to her about Jeffing and she said look it is a big field it will be fine. Settling on a 2 minutes run and 30 second walk off I went. The only time it felt a bit of a problem was at a narrow part where I just moved off the “path” in the grass and more into the trees/on the grass.
No-one said anything this time but the lady behind me got a considerable PB – and potentially this was because she wanted to keep with me as I kept walking. To be honest I didn’t think I would have caught her up in the finish.
How I Found the Holbrooks parkrun Course
Despite there being only 127, and first finisher Adam being so far ahead of anyone to follow him, I did manage to keep up with people in front enough to be able to know where to go. Personally I found it quite straight forward but not sure how I would have managed on my own.
The hills weren’t as hilly as I expected – and was relieved that we just went around the one by the play area! Good signage and support on the course.
Sprint Finish
But there was a guy who also was walking every now and then near the end and we were encouraging each other. He told me just to walk for 5 seconds. In the end I did manage a pretty decent sprint finish though. Although my top pace only went to 3:06/km – so not my quickest. Not sure but believe he was the guy who finished four seconds behind me in the end.
Holbrooks parkrun Stats
127 participants took part in Holbrooks parkrun event 151. Which incidentally is a Prime Number Event. Consisting of 63 male, 63 female and one unknown. With thanks to 19 volunteers.
- Times ranged between 16:49-54:08.
- Despite finishing in 35th place and 7th female, I was still third in my age category!
- With first female finishing in 22:43. She also had the highest female age grading 69.26% (VW40-44).
- However it was second finisher, YouTuber Tim Stent who had the highest age grading (and a new PB) with 80.53% in a time of 18:19 (VM50-54).
One person was doing their very first parkrun. With a further 32 tourists for the first time at Holbrooks parkrun. Tim was one of 23 people to get a PB.
Finishing Times
- 122 sub 50
- 111 sub 40
- 55 sub 30
- 43 sub 28
- 34 came in 27 minutes or quicker (the person in front of me)
- 24 sub 25
- 15 sub 23
- 5 sub 21
- 2 sub 19
- 1 sub 17
Other parkruns nearby that I have completed: Coventry parkrun (3.3m), Hastings High School parkrun (9.2m), Leamington parkrun (10.5m), Babbs Mill parkrun (10.6m), Brueton parkrun (11.0m), Warwick Racecourse parkrun (11.5m) and Kingsbury Water parkrun (11.6m).
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