Venue number 51 found me heading down to Oxford to complete the set of four Oxford parkruns, and actually it is quite similar to one of the other Oxford parkruns I have already reviewed: Harcourt Hill. Both of these parkruns are hosted at a Sports Centre and involve running around Sports Fields. Horspath parkrun is located at Horspath Athletics and Sports Ground (which is home to Oxford Harlequins RFC). This parkrun is pretty much flat, and is two clockwise laps of a mostly cross country course mostly on grass, with a couple of small sections of path/trail. Similar to all the other Oxford parkruns, it has a competitive field, with lots of young and very fit students, so bear this in mind if you like to start near the front.
[I first visited this parkrun on 8th October 2022]
Bit of History
Horspath parkrun gets it's name from the nearby Village of Horspath, which is a settlement dating back to at least Roman times and is mentioned in the Doomsday book, it's Old English name was Horsepadan. Horspath parish was once part of the medieval Royal Forest of Shotover, with dense woodland cover extending from Islip to Cuddesdon until "disafforestation" in 1660. The current day Horspath Athletics and Sports Ground is also right next door to Plant Oxford, where they currently make New Minis and the factory dates back to 1926 when William Morris founded the Pressed Steel car body manufacturing plant here. The factory used to produce the classic Morris Minis and other cars such as the Morris Minor. I have an Electric Mini so I took it round the corner to the plant after the parkrun, in case it was feeling homesick.
Briefings
First Timer/Visitor Briefing and the Main Briefing both take place outside the Sports Centre, the First Timer Visitor briefing in a little huddle and the Main Briefing on a PA system. The volunteer giving the visitor briefing gave an excellent description of the course, which was also covered in the Main Briefing, there were visitors this morning from Bristol and Cambridge. The Main briefing also covered the usual Milestones and parkrun rules. (I have included recordings of both briefings in my YouTube Video review which can be found further down this page).
The Course
You start in the corner of the Rugby grounds and head out West, keeping to the parameter of the Rugby fields and following the hedge line all the way round, until you eventually cross a road at the top of the course. Keeping to the parameter, you now run around the football pitches, until doing a sharp 180 turn and you then follow the hedge line east, passing the athletics track on your right, until you reach and turn right onto rocky trail path heading south through a short wooded section. You then turn right up a short incline and then down onto the grass and head north you then turn left and head past the rest of the field going in the opposite direction (keep left, but a good opportunity for high fives with or shouting out to people you know). You will pass the athletics track again on your left this time and will soon come to the white fence surrounding the Astroturf Rugby pitch, keeping tight to the fence go around the Rugby pitch, and then head south until a left turn taking you back towards the start and Lap 2. Lap 2 is pretty much identical to Lap 1 but finishing ever so slightly North East of the start.
Difficulty
So with no hills to speak of, I'm going to give this a 2 out of 5 purely for the grass terrain, nothing particularly troubling on this course.
Elevation
Garmin says there is 18m of total elevation, but it doesn't seem like this out on course, there is one very short climb, but other than that it seems very flat. The inclines that are out there must be very gentle.
Parking, Facilities and Coffee
Horsham Athletics and Sports Centre has it's own car park at OX4 2RR. Parking is free, and toilets can be found in the Sports Centre, and post parkrun coffee is also available in the Sports Centre, unfortunately we couldn't hang about to check it out and had to head back home.
Other Points of Interest
There is a very well maintained running track here, operated by Oxford City Athletic Club, and I've already mentioned that Mini Plant Oxford is just around the corner.
Summary
A very enjoyable and flat two lap cross country course around the sports grounds, great core team and free parking and toilets on site, lap 2 seems to take less time than lap 1 probably because you know your way round on the second lap. Very open course also, you can see large parts of the course most of the way round, and a sociable crossing point with slower/faster runners which is always good fun.
Links
Link to official parkrun site for this course: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/horspath/
My YouTube Video Review of this parkrun:
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