Corby parkrun

Chris Jeanes
May 15
7 min read

My 71st parkrun found me heading north to Corby and the West Glebe recreation ground, to pick up another 'C' for my pirates challenge. This is the parkrun where I broke my phone screen, more on that later... This was actually a suggestion by some running buddies of mine (Corby parkrun, not breaking my phone) but it was on my to do list and I was keen to check it off. The drive was fairly straightforward, up the M1 to Northampton and then picking up the A43 to Corby. There is lots of free parking at the West Glebe pavilion very close to the start so that was one less thing to worry about. The parkrun itself is a mildly undulating mixed terrain course, with a mixture of tarmac and grass. It's a pleasant course round some playing fields and is a decent challenge. There is also a Wetherspoons nearby but I'll come to that later. [I first visited this parkrun on 22nd March 2025]

Tourism is an experience best shared with some of your favourite running buddies!

Bit of History

West Glebe park sits on ground which was once Industrial having been used for Mining of Iron Ore. The pit from which the Iron was mined reached a depth of 60m, after the quarry was closed in 1916 the quarry was filled with water and was used for swimming for a time. In 2006 the park was redeveloped and today is home to a visitors centre a BMX track and skate park, football pitches, a multi-purpose games area for Basketball, Netball and Tennis as well as a paviliion with changing rooms and a community bar. The park also has a childrens play area. Corby is known as little Scotland due to mass migration of Scots in the 1930s due to the building of a steelworks. By the 1960s about a third of the course population was Scottish born and as a result Corby is full of Scottish culture, the shops and restaurants sell Scottish products, and while the town today has less people born in Scotland than the 1960s the links to Scotland are still strong, with a large section of the population still having Scottish ancestry. As a result Scottish accents are very common here and the most popular football teams here are Rangers and Celtic. I also understand that Irn-Bru sales here are the highest of any town outside Scotland itself.

These playing fields hide their industial past very well

Briefings

There were a number of completely new to parkrun runners at the visitor and first timer brief, they were advised to stick around after the course description so they could have the barcode system explained to them. We were then advised this is a mixed terrain course with tarmac, gravel, grass and mud, but with good going this morning, with nice firm ground, we were told we had missed the fun of the last few months (I think they must mean mud 😀 ). There was then a detailed course description which I will cover further on in this report. However it was impressed on us that there is a narrow section next to a road at the end of the football pitches section where we were all advised to go single file with no overtaking, it is only 50m or so, but it is part of their risk assesment so we were politely asked to follow this instruction, so that they don't have to alter their course. There was then a brief explanation of the barcode system used by parkrun. The main briefing started with a shout out to someone completing their 350th parkrun as well as a birthday for one of the timers. Corby were on event 523 on the morning our visit, so this is a parkrun which has been running for a number of years now. There was a thank you to all the volunteers, as well as a plea for more volunteers to come forward as parkrun cannot go ahead without them. A welcome was then given to the first timers to parkrun advising them if they get into any issues while out on course to seek out one of the marshals out on course. The run director then moved on to the usual notices about consideration of other park users who we share the park with, as well as a reminder for us to please not spit during the event. Children under 11 were advised to stay within arms reach of their responsible adult and dogs to be kept on a short hand held lead. We were then reminded that at the finish to all take a token and then get scanned in (or just drop the token in the bucket) and to please not take the tokens home. Finally there was a recap of the course description including the advise on the narrow section along the road to keep to single file and to under no circumstances to run on the road itself, for the reasons already outlined on the visitor brief.

Course Description

Essentially a two and a half lap anti-clockwise route with the half lap being at the beginning. You start next to the skate park on a footpath which goes right through the middle of the park (you only do this middle path once), at the other side of the park you are directed left, and you now essentially are running around the circumference of the park (all on tarmac footpath at this point), coming around the park you soon come back to the skate park and pass by the start area, but are directed off to the right passing by the car park and leaving the footpath at the tennis courts. This effectively starts the first of the remaining two large laps of the course. Taking a little bark lined cut through brings you onto a set of playing fields with football pitches. Running alongside the football pitches all the way to the far side of the playing fields you soon come to a very short sharp climb with a marshal directing you up to the road, take a left turn and run on the narrow path alongside the road (please don't try and overtake or run in the road here), it's only about 50m or so until the next turn, a left right turn to bring you into a wooded section. Out of the trees you come back into the open fields, where you take a right turn and then a sweeping left, which brings you back onto the tarmac path, where you complete the lap taking the circumference path all the way back around the fields to the skate park. You then do the larger lap for a second time before finishing up on the footpath alongside the skate path back where you started.

Two and a half laps, the path through the middle you only do at the beginning.

Difficulty

In spring/summer/autumn, this is a 2 out of 5, it is mildly undulating but no major inclines, it's about 50% tarmac and 50% grass/trail, and it was certainly very runnable on the morning we visited in March. After a lot of rain or in Winter it would get muddy and probably move up to a 3 out of 5 difficultly.

Fairly typical playing fields based parkrun, 50% tarmac and 50% grass/trail, nothing much to worry about!

Elevation

Another parkrun which I would desribe and mildly undulating, the park is on a slight slope and the top end of the park is several metres higher than the bottom, across the 5k route, there is a total of 36m of climbing to do, but it's not really noticable and you couldn't really call it hilly. The grass/trails may slow you down a bit depending on the time of year, so terrain is maybe more of an issue than the elevation.

Parking, Facilities and Coffee

Plenty of free parking at the park, very close to the start. There are toilets in the pavilion but the pavilion doesn't officially open until 10am, though i think it is often available before the start, just bear that in mind it may be closed. As mentioned previously there is a childrens play area and skate park. Tea and Coffee is served at the pavilion after the parkrun as well. We decided we wanted breakfast as well so we headed over to a nearby Wetherspoons.

Other Points of Interest

On the drive into Corby I passed by a Wetherspoons 'The Saxon Crown', so we decided to check it out after the parkrun. The name refers to the crown in each of the four quarters of Corby's coat of arms, this crown dates back to Saxon times when King Edgar established the Corby Hundred. There is a large pay and display car park right next to the pub and due to the number of Scottish people living in Corby it even runs a breakfast menu with Scottish options. There were quite a few Scottish accents to be heard in the pub as well. It was a lovely way to finish off our parkrun morning, even if I was a bit subdued due to having broken my phone screen at parkrun having managed to lie on top of my phone and keys pocket straight after the finish funnel, which meant a visit to my local Apple bar for a fix when I got back to MK.

Summary

A throughly enjoyable (appart from the broken phone screen) mixed terrain parkrun around a pretty park followed up by a trip to a very Scottish Wetherspoons. With running buddies for company this was an excellent morning out and I encourage you all to take a trip to little Scotland and try another great parkrun course.