One of my favourite parkrun courses, and also my parkrun PB course. It's described as a Lollipop type course (out along the stick, two licks (or laps) of lollipop and then back along the stick. It's a park based run starting in a skate park, run entirely on footpaths, and it is a quick fairly flat course. It also has a PB bell (which I haven't rung in a very long time). I also got shat on here by a bird once, which is supposed to be lucky but it happened after my run not before, so it didn't result in a PB.
Difficulty
This is my PB course, so I'd have to give it a 1 out of 5, the paths are good, and it has a gentle downhill to begin to get you off to a good start, there is a gentle incline to finish, my strategy is to bank time early on so I've got some time in hand at the end.
The Course
So the parkrun starts with a briefing in the skate park, before running out through parkland which is gently downhill, a right and left turn before reaching a footbridge over a river you then follow the river (on your right), past a football pitch and playground on your left. Next you'll reach a marshal who will direct you right, before reaching another marshal who will direct you straight on (you'll see the same marshal in a bit). You're now on the lapped section. You stay on the same path following the river, you'll do a slight up and over another footpath before tracking left and towards a nice little section of park with a basketball court, you'll see faster runners who are slightly ahead of you on your left. You head around this section before you enter a slightly twisty wooded section with another playground and a couple of footbridges (careful over these if wet). Eventually you'll see runners in front of you heading left and back to the marshal at the start of the loop (where you will be directed left for a second lap. Go around the whole loop again before turning right at the familiar marshal (who you will be thanking for the third time this morning). It's now just a case of heading back up along the path to the skate park (unfortunately what started out as a gently downhill is now a slightly less gentle uphill). Don't forget to ring the bell if you get a PB!
Elevation
This course is a generally flat, with only really a slight downhill start and a slight uphill back to the finish. Despite this, according to https://jegmar.com/stats-hq/fastest-races/parkrun/ there is still a total elevation of 65ft (or 20m) which at time of writing makes this the 191st flattest parkrun out of 519.
Parking, Facilities & Coffee
Use the Waitrose car park, which is 50p for 2 hours I think and is a very short walk from the start of the parkrun... just follow the other runners to the start. I think Waitrose may have some toilets. There are a few places nearby for a post parkrun coffee, the official coffee venue for this run is the Gelateria Gazzeri.
Link to the Buckingham parkrun website:
A Youtube video (not mine) of the course can be found here:
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