Morning, morning. I have another parkrun review, this time from my running club buddy Andy Cockrell. He’s a super speedy and super smart. He has kindly offered up a review for the Edinburgh parkrun. Hope you enjoy!
Location: The Edinburgh parkrun takes place on the shorefront of the Firth of Forth between Cramond and Silverknowes in the north west of the city. Once you’re on the shorefront, follow the stream of runners and you’ll find the start.
Parking: There are two options for parking. The first is the car park in Cramond village at the foot of Cramond Glebe Road to the east of the start line. The car park at Cramond does fill up quickly, but further on-street parking is available along Cramond Glebe Road. The second option is to park on Marine Drive on the Silverknowes side of the course to the west of the start line. Both options are free and equidistant from the start line.
Photo credit: WG12 from the Flickr group
Alternatively, there are regular busses to Cramond. It’s then a 5-10 minute walk down Cramond Glebe Road to the shorefront.
Amenities: There are public toilets at the Cramond end of the Promenade which are open from 0830 each day.
The Cramond Bistro opens at 1000 and offers hot drinks and homemade cakes (the scones are particularly good). This is located on the River Almond Waterfront, just follow the promenade around to the left where the river meets the shore when returning from the finish line. Alternatively, go down the steps opposite the entrance to the car park.
On the Silverknowes side there is Boardwalk Beach Club which opened earlier this year. It is located between Marine Drive and promenade about halfway along the course. If you have non-runners or spectators with you, this is a good place for them to base themselves as the patio area looks out onto the promenade.
Course: The course is effectively an out and return along the shorefront, with a small loop at the turn point to prevent the turnaround from being too tight.
The start line is about 500m east of Cramond Village, usually marked by banners and flags. The route then heads east along the promenade towards Silverknowes. With the number of runners, the start can seem a bit narrow, but the route widens up very quickly; the main promenade is 20m wide so there is plenty of room for everyone.
The route follows the promenade winding along the coast for 2km before heading left when you reach Gypsy Brae to hug the shoreline for another 100m, before turning right to run back to the main promenade. Turning right onto the promenade, you then run 2.5km back along the shore towards the start line. When running west you have a fantastic view of the Forth Bridges further along the coast. With about 500m to go there’s a fork in the promenade. Take the left-hand fork and you enter the finishing funnel.
The course is entirely on tarmac, so mud and slippery conditions under foot are not generally an issue unless it’s icy.
Elevation: The course epitomises the phrase “as flat as a pancake.” There are no discernible elevation changes apart from where the promenade forks with 500m to go, but even that is a very gradual rise of around 1m!
Photo credit: from the Flickr group
Number of participants: On average there are around 350 runners each week, but average attendance is increasing. There have been up to 500 runners at recent runs, with a record attendance of 642. For a city the size of Edinburgh there are a disappointing number of local parkruns, the only other one in the city is in Portobello on the East side of the city which was set up last year. Despite this, attendance at both runs is still increasing with Portobello seeing around 250 runners each week.
Other: The course record is 14:31 for men, set by Ross Toole and 16:35 for women, set by Sarah Inglis.
Photo credit: WG12 from the Flickr group
It’s a Scottish parkrun so remember it starts later at 0930. As it’s on the coast, the wind can be an additional challenge at times, but at least the wind will be behind you for half the run. In the winter, the wind can have quite a bite to it, so remember to dress appropriately! On a calm day, however, it is a very fast course.
Check out their Facebook page and Twitter for more info!
Have you done any non-English parkruns?
Do you prefer a flat but potentially windy course or a hilly but less windy course?
We’re now on the winter course, which is slightly different to last year’s winter course due to the construction work happening on the chapel. This means we run part way on the grass round the chapel. Huge piles of leaves cover the route though so we had to do a bit of improvising to clear the way…
We used the signs as brooms to sweep away the leaves. Oh the things we do for the love of running!
The start area is a bit more cramped and as I hadn’t done this course before and I wasn’t aiming for a fast time, I just wedged myself somewhere in the middle. This proved a little bit of a mistake as I was then hemmed in amongst a a lot of people not really my speed. But really it didn’t matter as I managed to get round them as we broke out into a bigger space.
So a successful parkrun! It was so nice to be back and see friendly faces again. Though it’s invariably cold and miserable in the winter, parkrun is definitely still worth going to!
Chest is not an area I used to train at all (“I’m a girl” was my excuse). But I soon realised that in order to be a more balanced athlete in terms of strength and muscle I need to train my entire body. I train my back so why not my chest? And I’ve felt it hugely help with my other lifts too.
After getting an absolutely drenching visiting a friend for their 50th parkrun (see Wally – dressed for the occasion!) we headed over for warm mugs of tea and avocado on toast where the results are processed at Fowlds Café, Addington Square. It is very small on the space front so head over promptly once you’ve finished your run to get a seat!
Course/Elevation: The course is an out and back with two laps of a lake in the middle. (See pic) Note the start and finish are not at exactly the same point as the start was moved further back to ease congestion. Most participants wander up, leave their belongings at the finish on a waterproof sheet and head to the start. 
The course starts with a long straight of about a kilometre before turning back on itself, out towards the lake, twice around, and then heading back to the finish (but cutting short the full kilometre straight!). It is well marshalled at each turn so the only thinking required is remembering two laps of the lake! There is a slight dip where you go through the underpass on the final straight and this is about the point where you want to consider kicking in for that final sprint.
It is ideal for pram/buggy runners – one flew past me as I headed onto my second lap of the lake. The volunteer team are very enthusiastic and there are usually post run goodies on offer. I tucked into fruit and homemade brownies as post run fuel – yum!
Course: Northampton is a one and a half lap course run entirely on tarmac paths around the edge of the park, other than the finishing funnel where runners are fed off onto the grass.
There is a mad rush at the start as runners spread out wide across the grass alongside the start line before filing into their positions on the pavement. It can take several minutes before the pack begins to widen out after the start.
As the park is fairly open, with trees just around the edges – you can make out the majority of the pathways from the startline. Really handy when trying to show the course to runners who have not been out on it before.
Number of participants: Having started out with a fairly small amount of runners, the Northampton course now regularly sees more than 400 sets of barcodes scanned each 
This photo made me laugh so much as I literally had no idea that Jim, the photo bomber, was behind me doing that. It was only when I looked at the photo I saw. Hehe.
The cowl (or buff) was actually really nice to wear as it was quite nippy at parkrun. Winter is definitely on it’s way 🙁 I’m really not looking forward to the cold morning’s of parkrun set-up and then running in the nasty weather. Hey ho.
Not particularly consistent really and fairly slow in comparison to previous runs (25:39). But my legs felt alright post marathon (well, they would do I guess after almost two weeks off!) andI’m still trying to take things nice and slow. I want to be really motivated when I get back into proper training so I don’t want to ramp things up too quickly now. I probably won’t run a huge amount in the next few weeks if I’m honest as I also have my eye laser surgery coming up this month. (I will blog about that experience.)
From my 
It was full of halloumi, feta, olives and aubergine.
Perfection. I did get enormous food envy though as one of my friends ordered the Willy Wonka Kinda special.
I mean WOW. It looked amazing. She found it got very sickly (as you can imagine) so I was able to help her out at the end 😉 But yes, it was ridiculously sweet. She was in a sugar coma afterwards which was quite amusing (seen as how it’s usually me who ends up that way!).