PARKRUN CHAT – AUGUST 2026

A blog from my parkrun visits, plus some general talking points!

The height of the long, dry summer saw five Saturdays in August, although I only did four parkruns, and with good reason!

August saw the running of the Enduro GP of Wales of which I served as the lead commentator for one of the stages and the event hub, a report of the event can be found below:

ENDURO GP OF WALES – REPORT – Chris Czora

Quite often I’m able to combine my commentary work with a bit of parkrun tourism, and the Mid-Wales location of the enduro means there are some good parkruns not too far away. However wit this being an international event, and that the enduro started at 9am on both days, it wasn’t feasible. Not that I was too worried, it’s been a fantastic privilege to commentate on a Grand Prix event for the past three years. The Grand Prix goes on a sabbatical next year, it’s a huge event to organise so the staff and volunteers who make it happen are taking a well deserved break, although hopefully it will return in the future.

My parkrun visits were relatively local this month, a routine hospital appointment at Northampton meant a visit to the neighbouring University of Northampton parkrun. This venue is a particular favourite of mine, the three laps of Beckets Park where most of the course is located feels like a mini version of my hometown parkrun in Shrewsbury, and despite having a fairly testing hill on the lap, has a nice gentle downhill and flat section to gain some speed.

‘UoN’ has a rather different feel to many of the local parkruns. Whilst there’s a hardcore of local runners, it seems to attract a high number of tourists thanks to it’s ‘U’ letter being quite rare for the ‘Alphabeteer’ parkrun challenge where people attempt to complete parkruns beginning with every letter of the alphabet (except ‘X’ as no such event exists). I’ll bet few of the tourists have sampled the ‘Eat Street’ hospital canteen for post-parkrun coffee and breakfast!

Two of my parkruns were at my local event at Daventry. It’s always good to be able to visit a parkrun within running distance, and it’s a venue that’s always enjoyable to run, a one-lap course encompassing Daventry Country Park. It feels surprisingly rural considering it’s within a suburban setting, just minutes from the town centre. Whenever I see the event mentioned on parkrun social media, it’s often accompanied by words to the effect of “…it’s better than I was expecting” Backhanded compliment somewhat!?

Busy at the ‘Black Path’ where Daventry parkrun starts, but soon spreads out

It’s not a course that flows easily for me, so I was pleased on my most recent visit to set a course PB for this year. It also was the day that summer seemed to close, and what seemed the novelty of running in the rain… I’m sure that’s something that will soon become familiar!

My other location was my hometown parkrun in Shrewsbury… maybe it’s Salopian bias but this is one of my favourites in the beautiful Quarry park.

I did my first ever parkrun here, and reverting back to my cheap but effective Lidl carbon trainers put together an enjoyable run.

This was also a handy excuse to visit the new ‘Lucky Shot’ pub in town and sample a pint of Boddingtons… albeit the special version brewed by JW Lees, a cask ale that isn’t available in too many locations outside of Manchester and quite faithful to the 90s icon!

Creamy goodness… do you want a flake in that?

ps.. the Guinness in there is pretty decent too.

I also finally got round to making a parkrun review for Shrewsbury which you can see below!

PARKRUN REVIEW – SHREWSBURY PARKRUN – Chris Czora

Thoughts of the month… I’m planning to visit Newquay soon and will be visiting a parkrun. Not 100% yet, but maybe a return to Eden Project. Either way, there aren’t really any parkruns on the doorstep

Over the years there’s been a lot of talk about how great it would be to have a parkrun in Newquay, seems surprising there isn’t one in such an ‘outdoorsy’ town. I had heard one was quite far in the planning process but for a couple of reasons has fallen through.

People quite often go on social media to say about great locations for a parkrun, but like Newquay, you very rarely get local people from places like Spain and Greece calling out how desperately they need a parkrun. And that’s the important point, parkrun needs primarily to be a local community event, rather than a ‘nice to do’ for people on their holiday.

But I’m sure we all have ideas of great potential locations for a parkrun. Before I continue, yes of course I appreciate it’s all well and good saying these things but organising them is another thing. And I’ve certainly got enough on my plate to not organise a new venue!

But even so, I’m sure we all have some great location ideas. I thought Harlestone Firs (Northampton) would be a great venue… almost like a Newborough Forest style woodland run. But it’s unlikely to be feasible, there’s virtually no car parking, certainly not enough to accommodate a parkrun. And it’s an an area already well served for parkrun.

The latter point may extend to another ‘obvious’ location, Ryton Pools near Coventry. I’ve competed in several Big Bear running events here and it would be the perfect location for parkrun. But again, it’s in an area well served for parkrun, could a core volunteer team reasonably be formed? And Ryton Pools is a very popular area at weekends, even that early in the morning I wonder if parkrun may be too intrusive?

The third location that springs to mind, is a tunnel! I once took part in a 5k fun run at a long-abandoned railway tunnel that in recent years has become a semi-secret aerodynamic testing facility for the motor trade. A few strings were pulled and a fairly low-key 5k out & back fun-run was held there. As a venue it was perfect, same climate and temperature all year round, and the refurbished tarmac surface was fantastic to run on. I can’t imagine such a secret venue would be keen on having all and sundry turn up for a parkrun every week!

Still as parkrun continues to thrive, a steady stream of new venues to explore keep opening up. There’s one not too far from me, Bittesby Country Park near the A5 in Leicestershire that I’m keen to check out soon.