We headed to the Forest of Dean junior parkrun to volunteer. Following yet another round of Cross Country I thought it the ideal time to go and visit the sacred well, which is not far away. So what better idea than to combine the two. Plus this was the second Junior parkrun to ever be established, following Bushy junior parkrun
The Forest of Dean at Coverham Enclosure Five Acres
Forest Leisure Coleford, Berry Hill, Coleford, Glos, GL16 7JT
You can read my previous post about junior parkrun.
Facilities
Obviously this is in the forest. With no toilets.
Parking a few minutes from the start
The Forest of Dean junior parkrun Course
Note that the start is not at the same location as the 5K Forest of Dean parkrun. With the start and finish being in the same location.
Terrain all muddy forest and no hard surfaces. Description says the paths are stone based and some are raised. All the bits I saw were just mud and flat.
Hazards on the course were horse chestnuts and tree trunks.
- No dogs
- Prams/pushchairs unsuitable
The Route
Forest of Dean junior parkrun route is much easier route to understand than the adults
There’s a big triangle loop to start which heads back out towards the road where you come into the forest. As I said there is a marshal there to make sure the children don’t go out onto the road. Instead they turn right. Following it around (all clearly marked and marshalled.
This is in the shape of a big triangle. Which they then cut across to repeat a section of the course they have already done – a smaller triangle. After completing this part for the second time before branching off to the finish funnel.
My Experience
Nice welcome on arrival. Met a couple of young ladies that had raced at the cross country the day before. One was now too old for junior parkrun and helped her (I’m assuming) younger sibling round. The other was the first finisher.
At the end there were cakes, sweets and hot drinks provided.
Volunteer Roles
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do the warm up, as someone else was already doing it. Possibly they do this each week. Additionally I was asked if I could be a marshal for the first point before doing the finish tokens. This is because the children run by this point right at the start and therefore the role is over very quickly.
Finish Tokens
For my finish tokens role I was able to watch them do part of the course before assuming my position. Having done this a few times now I am aware it is a good idea to pull a few tokens off at a time. What was different here is that all the parents seemed to hand over the children’s barcodes to them in the finish funnel. Guess it makes it easier for people to forget to scan. However, one young lady’s barcode was with her mother who was volunteering – and so results were uploaded without her result. The RD was going to sort this.
Scanning
My husband did barcode scanning but another person was also added to the roster later on. As there was only one bucket for the finish tokens he wasn’t able to hold it – and seems that it is routine that it sits in a particular place under the PB bell.
Forest of Dean junior parkrun Stats Event 522
- 42 finishers
- 19 volunteers
- 8:46-22:24
Two first finishers both congratulated each other on a great run. It was in fact second place who had the highest age grading (67.95%) with her time of 8:52.
First boy to finish was 5th in a time of 10:08. With the boy who had the highest age grading (60.17%) finishing 8th in 10:21.
14 children were finished in under 12 minutes.
One boy completed his first ever junior parkrun.
Read about my other volunteering at Junior parkrun
We started our parkrun journey with junior parkrun after reading about it on Sarah’s blog (MumofThreeWorld). You may also be interested in my previous post about Should children do parkrun?