Burnham & Highbridge parkrun

Updated: Mar 24, 2023

For my 29th different parkrun venue, I decided to do my first coastal parkrun. So on a wet and blustery October morning, I found myself arriving at Apex Leisure and Wildlife park in Highbridge hoping it wasn't going to be too windy out on the sea front today. Burnham on sea is a popular holiday destination in the summer, a sandy beach on the Bristol Channel coast, but is a quiet town this time of year. I definitely plan to revisit this parkrun on a summers day sometime next year. Burnham and Highbridge were originally two neighbouring towns in Somerset, but due to housing growth over the years have become effectively merged into a single settlement.

Parking for this parkrun is right next to the start and is free, the assembly point is outside a brick built hut, with some parkrun literature pinned up on the outside of the hut and a map of the route on the door. [I visited this parkrun on 26th October 2019].

Difficulty

Fast and Flat with PB potential... The main difficulty I experienced was the wind up on the sea front, but I still managed a quick time. On a calm day I would rate this as a 1 out of 5, on a windy day 2 out of 5. The parkrun route is all hard surfaced, and there are no hills to speak of. Another road shoes course.

This is the turnaround point, looking back along the parkrun route!

Briefings

The briefing is held outside the Apex Leisure Centre hut, they give a good description of the course including warnings to keep left of the cones where placed, because being an out and back course there will be runners in both directions for a good chunk of the course. They also gave a weather warning (very windy on the front), and advised they were not expecting may PBs today!

Course

You start on a footpath next to a BMX course, and head south towards a lake, a few turns as you follow the shore of the lake and you're soon heading east (away from the sea-front), after the lake you'll reach a playground, take a right turn, after that you'll take another right and follow the path until you reach the estuary, once you reach the estuary, you'll head along the coastal path heading west alongside the estuary all the way to the sea front. Reaching the sea-front you'll run North until you rach a very lonely marshal point at a hut. They'll direct you round a turning point and back the way you came. On the way back along the Estuary you'll be doing a shorter route back to the start, taking a left turn passing the Lake on the right and back to the start.

I went back to the lonely marshal on the sea front after I'd finished the run to thank him and have a quick chat.

Elevation

No elevation to speak of only 20m of total climb across the route. There is a very short sharp climb up onto the sea front from the estuary, but other than that nothing springs to mind.

Parking, Facilities and Coffee

The car park at Apex park is free, toilets are open at the hut before the start, and there's a mobile catering van serving tea, coffee and snacks, so this parkrun is well served.

Other points of interest

At the start if you look over the fence you can catch a glimpse of the BMX track, which looks pretty cool.

Summary

This is a very pretty parkrun, with great views and scenery (even on a rainy blustery day in October), I suspect on a warm sunny spring day it is stunning! A friendly core team, free parking and facilities what's not to like. And on a nice day you could even run or drive back to the sea front afterwards for a walk along the beach.