Now that I have been to a dozen different parkruns I’ve realised the Volunteer team can really make (or break!) a parkrun experience and the Hereford parkrun team didn’t disappoint! 

With today marking the Hereford parkrun 400th event they promised a super fun morning and that is exactly what they delivered!

But before we get into that lets start with the basics…

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Where is Hereford parkrun? 

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The Hereford parkrun is located at Hereford Leisure Centre, Holmer Road, Hereford, HR4 9UD where you’ll find toilets and a cafe.

There is plenty of parking available and is £1 for 4 hours or £5 all day (free for Halo active members)

For those who are interested in visiting from further afield there is a Premier Inn (Holmer Hotel) with a Beefeater attached walking distance up the road.

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The Course

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The course is 2 laps (anticlockwise) of the inside of the racecourse. The first half is a slight incline with the 2nd half being a lovely downhill!

The course is liable to flooding so do check cancellations before you travel!

Not so much to look at on this one, but also less for me to get distracted and want to take pictures of.

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The Warm Up

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As it was a very special day to celebrate 400 events Beck started the event off with a very energetic warm up to ‘Celebrate’. It was lovely to see so many people joining in and it certainly warmed us up on this very cold morning!

They then did a group photo before completing a celebratory 400m lap on the track (I sat that one out and took photos instead!)

As it was also pacer week they had a selection of pacers from 20 to 38 minutes you could follow if you wanted to aim for a specific time.

I do wish more parkruns had them, this is only the 2nd one I have been to has had pacers.

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Briefings

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The first timer briefing was done with enthusiam and some crowd participation reminding everyone it was TWO laps of the course. They noted all the tourists ready for the pre run brief.

The pre run brief welcomed all the tourists from Exeter, Tewkesbury, South London, lots of us from Worcester and even someone from Ireland.

They did also give some stats for their parkrun that in the last 399 runs there have been 11,136 finishers, an impressive 10,094 personal bests, 641 people have volunteered and they’ve had an average of 164.3 participants per week.

We headed done to the start and it was time to go! The parkwalker was chatting to me as we prepared to start and when I mentioned I would be following the couch to 5k app so I would probably be one of the last finishers 2 other lovely ladies asked if they could join me, which they did!

The course was dry and fairly flat with some loose gravel in places, but perfectly suitable for buggy runners. The marshals dotted around the course cheered us on which always makes the run all that bit better.

The finish funnel team also cheered us right to the end, even with us being the 300th finishers which was just what we needed at the end of our run!

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The Cafe

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The Cafe inside the leisure centre is VERY busy post parkrun and only has limited seating. It is also card only.  

There are 2 vending machines and they serve a selection of muffins, cakes, sandwiches, hot drinks and fruit smoothies which seemed to be very popular. I think they would be amazing in the summer after your run but not so much today.

Drinks started at around £2, I had a latte which was £3. I did notice they also had a trainer donation station where you can drop off old running shoes if you have any too good to throw away but no longer good for running in.

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Hereford parkrun Stats for event #400

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Today 310 people took part. 16 people took part for the first time. A whopping 50 people set a New Personal Best and 55 took part at Hereford for the first time.

Congratulations to Sam who was the first finisher with a time of 16:32 and an age grading of 78.02%.

Congratulations to Paul with the highest age grading of the day with a masisve 82.08% and Marcia being the highest graded female with 78.85%.

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Hereford parkrun milestones

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Well done to…

Grant and Samantha who attended their 25th event
Richard who attended their 50th event
Elyssa who attended their 100th event
Arwen who attended their 150th event
Paul who attended their 200th event

And to one of the volunteers who hit their 100th event volunteering!

Thank you to all the volunteers this week

Dave AINSLIE, Isobel BIRD, Sue BISSELL, Andrew BRISCOE, Chris CAMPBELL, Christopher CLEARY, Lynne COMPTON, Jonathan EDWARDS, Lavinia EDWARDS, Hollie FRANCIS, Fiona GILLETT, Andy HURRELL, Valerie HURRELL, Nicholas LATTEY, Rachel LATTEY, Brent LOWSON, Clare MALLENDER, Jo MARRIOTT, Luke MASON, Adam MICHNIOK, John NOONAN, Colin PAVEY, Kim PICKETT, Jane POWELL, Chris RUCK, Avrl SEFTEL, Mike SHAW, Suzy SIDDALL, Samantha STACEY, Sandra TAYLOR, Andrew TYLER, Bronwen TYLER-JONES, Rebecca WHITE, Martin WILLIAMS

Overall Hereford parkrun is a lovely flat course, perfect for a PB (as the stats show!) and with an incredibly friendly and welcoming volunteer team. I will be back when I am ready to grab a PB!

ChrissyJ x