A pretty and scenic single lap cross county course of a country park. This course is mostly trail based and takes in Lakeside views, open fields and woodland paths. In winter, trail shoes or at least hybrids would be highly recommended. The briefing takes place next to a road roughly between the start on a disused railway line and the finish at a recreational park. I attended the first timer briefing which advised this is a fairly flat course. Let's just say it is not the flattest of courses, while no Rushmere, there are several inclines to deal with and while they are not extreme, you will be aware of them underfoot. [I visited here on the 10th November 2018]
Difficulty
I would rate this as a 2 out of 5, moving up to a 2.5 out of 5 on a muddy day, as the course becomes a lot more difficult with mud underfoot. It's fairly flat, the inclines while challenging are not nearly as difficult as a lot of other parkruns you might encounter. Due to the trail nature of the course, the weather has a lot of effect on the ease of this course, and I suspect on a dry summers day this could be a quick course.
The Course
The start is a short walk from the briefing and is on a tree lined footpath along the route of a disused rail line. Heading north after about 400m you drop down onto a dirt path followed by a right turn underneath an underpass, through a gate into a meadow taking you south, you will pass through two more gates held open by Marshals, and you are now following the perimeter path of the country park, in an anti clockwise direction. It's very scenic with views of open fields to your right and some stunning views of the lake on your left, with large sections of woodland trails as well. Trail shoes are recommended after heavy rain and in winter because sections of the course are quite muddy. I found the terrain quite challenging, the inclines while not steep or significant can nonetheless feel like hard work underfoot, and with the muddy conditions, traction was also a bit of an issue in places. But it is a pretty parkrun with great scenery so don't forget to take it all in. After a full lap of the country park you start a second lap but only for a very short distance because once you reach the southmost part of the park a marshal will direct you right onto a concrete path and you'll head onto the road where the briefing was, you are heading uphill now and will be directed left towards the finish on some playing fields.
Elevation
Right, while technically 'fairly flat' was an honest description by the briefer, I would have preferred the description of 'mildly undulating' it better reflects the fact that there are some slight climbs to deal with on this course. With a total elevation of 60ft or 18m it's ranked 174 on the list of 519 ranked by https://jegmar.com/stats-hq/fastest-races/parkrun/. In my opinion this is not a quick course (having said that I visited on a day where it had been raining overnight, so the course was boggy), but it is a good challenge and very scenic. My advice is to forget the time and enjoy the route.
Parking, Facilities and Coffee
The postcode on the official parkrun website is not recommend as it took me to a housing estate to the north of the country park over a mile away from the start. I almost missed the start as I reverted to using point on map navigation to get me back to the leisure centre car park which is a free car park one short subway walk to the briefing area. The best postcode for the free car park is NN11 4FP, from here you can follow the other runners to the start, which is only about 100m from the carpark through an underpass. There are toilets and changing facilities close to the start and finish at Daventry Leisure Centre. The official post parkrun coffee is at Leisure Lakes Bikes NN11 4GL (just across the road from the leisure centre). Apparently they have cake and they offer a parkrun discount.
Link to the official parkrun site for this event - http://www.parkrun.org.uk/daventry/
Link to a youtube video I found of the course -
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