Firstly a confession, since parkrun took an extended break following the world coming to terms with Coronavirus I haven't felt like writing my blog. When parkrun came to a temporary end back in March I was three parkruns behind on this blog and over six months on it is now October and I am still three parkrun events behind, that is something I now intend on rectifying and fortunately I have strong memories of Gadebridge so I should have plenty to write about...
Gadebridge is a mostly off road and two lap anti-clockwise cross country course with a hill which can be quite challenging on both the up and down particularly in the winter like when we did the course. It's enjoyable in a madcap sort of way but if coming in winter please come prepared and bring full trails, with as much tread as you can bear on the small amount of tarmac you need to run on here to make it to the start finish area, I plan on coming back in summer whenever we are allowed to run parkruns again. Gadebridge park is also the site of a Roman Villa, for more information see here: http://www.dacorumheritage.org.uk/article/the-gadebridge-roman-villa/
We arrived at Gadebridge on a damp and muddy morning back in February 2020, with fresh warnings in our heads from fellow runners who had warned us that this course was a bit tricky. We first went for a bit of a warm-up trying to work out where the course went, before stopping at very handily open toilet block (can't miss it, very pretty murals), after toilet stop we headed over to the briefing, marvelling at how wet and muddy the ground was and hoping we wouldn't spend too much time on the mud (oh how naïve we all were), more on the briefing in a minute. [We first visited this parkrun on 15th February 2020]
Difficulty
Normally on a dry day this might be a 3 out of 5, but on the day we visited it was definitely a 5 out of 5. It was incredibly muddy, slippery and puddley in places with a muddy climb on the second field, which was also very difficult to negotiate going down on the far side of the second field. I resorted to making my own line in quite a few places as it was very muddy on the main trail due to the number of runners and the mud became increasingly difficult especially on the second lap after a couple hundred runners had already been round once.
Briefings
The main takeaway from the first timer briefing is the volunteer carrying out the briefing hoping that we had all brought trail shoes followed by a description of the mostly off road course including a muddy hill. We were also advised to keep right on the bridge and underpass crossing so to avoid runners who had already completed lap one of the second field and were coming back across the underpass for a second lap of field one.
The Course
The course starts on tarmac near a playground and you head off north along the path towards a field, you run around the circumference of the field until you come back onto tarmac and turn right onto a bridge and then through an underpass before taking a right to head north again, before turning off the footpath onto a trail heading uphill and North West, fairly soon you reach a sharper left turn to continue up hill and now heading south up a fairly steep grassy (muddy) bank. Keep climbing and as you reach the top of the hill it is now cross country until you reach the far side of the field. Taking a left you now need to stay upright as you slip and slide back down the grassy hill on the far side of the course (obviously this will likely be easier on a warm dry summers day). Next is another left and you need to stay on the grass until directed back onto the path by the Marshall, then it is a right turn through the underpass back over the bridge and run along the path until you are back at the start of field number one... you now complete another full lap of the course, round field number one, back under the road, round the larger second field, back under the road and over the bridge, at the end of the path the second time you turn right back toward the start to finish.
Elevation
One muddy climb and one muddy descent, both of which you do twice. With 269ft or 82m of Elevation this is a fairly challenging course.
Parking, Facilities and Coffee
Parking is free in the car park off Gadebridge Lane right next to the park. Toilets are in the park not far from the start in the block which I have included a photo of below. The after parkrun coffee, can be found at the far end of the high street in the Hive Coffee Shop, it's a fair walk, so you might want to use the postcode HP1 3AA to find it, we went and it's a nice coffee shop with some hot food options such as breakfasts and bacon rolls.
Other Points of Interest
A nice reasonably interesting and fairly big playground, suitable for a range of different ages and very convenient for the start finish area of the parkrun. The high street is also very quaint with a lot of interesting features such as timber framed buildings, and water pumps.
Summary
Definitely one for the cross country fans, pack your trail shoes and gear up for an enjoyable cross country run around some scenic fields, it's a proper challenge on a wet and muddy day, and I suspect it is a course that really varies depending on the weather and time of year you visit. It's a pretty parkrun with in an attractive park with a clear boundary (in the bridge/underpass section) between sections one and two of the route (where you get to see faster/slower runners coming past you, which is always a nice feature on this type of course layout). It's also an open course with good visibility so you can always work out where you are, and therefore how much is remaining, I generally prefer this to closed in courses where the only indication how far you have travelled is your watch. As with most parkruns it is supported by an enthusiastic and friendly core team, who are clearly prepared to come out and volunteer in all weathers and give a warm welcome to regulars, tourists and first timers alike.
Links
Link to official parkrun site for this course - https://www.parkrun.org.uk/gadebridge/
Link to a YouTube video I found on the internet covering this parkrun on event 142 back on January 13th 2018 (looks a bit less muddy than the day we visited): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiIK099Wx0s