I visited this parkrun as part of a Redway Runners road trip when the Milton Keynes parkrun was not running. It is two laps of a country park on the outskirts of Northampton and includes running through a working farm. After you've finished you also have a great view of people who are still finishing so it's a great course for cheering in all of your running buddies. A total of 29 Redway Runners attended that morning, so it was a great turnout for our little away trip. [I visited this course on 8th September 2018]
Difficulty
1 out of 5, this is a flat and fast course.
The Course
This course is run entirely almost entirely on trail footpaths, with a small section of road through the farm. You start out in the open with a straight section before turning right though a tree lined section, then a slight right, followed by a slight left and another slight right and you are fairly close to a river on your left. You'll pass a bridge on your left but you will stay generally straight for a bit and the next major right turn brings you closer to the river and you now follow the river (still on your left) until you reach a couple of gates (don't worry Marshals are on hand here. Pass another bridge on your left and you've reached the farm. Marshals will direct you slight left onto a farm road, then slight right and straight past some farm buildings. You'll then be directed back onto footpaths to your right, over a footbridge (with some football pitches ahead of you. You'll stay on the path going around the edge of the football pitches keeping them on your left (towards your right you might be able to make out the start/finish area). Almost at the end of lap one now, after you've passed the football pitches you'll take a right and then left to start lap 2. It's exactly the same route on lap two until you've taken the right turn after the football pitches for a second time, where instead of turning left away from the start finish, you'll carry straight on which will loop you back to the start/finish position. Don't forget to head up the bank to cheer on any running buddies who are passing the football pitches.
Elevation
Flattish course, really not much in the way of inclines that I can remember, according to https://jegmar.com/stats-hq/fastest-races/parkrun/ it has 44ft (or 13m) total elevation placing it at 124 out of the 519 that they have ranked. But make no mistake this is a quick course!
Parking, Facilities & Coffee
Parking is provided by Cineworld and TGI Fridays on the Sixfields leisure complex. The postcode for the nearby stadium is NN5 5QA, which gets you to the right area, but please park in the Leisure complex carpark and not at the stadium itself. Please note that the nearest toilet facilities to the parkrun are at Cineworld / Starbucks. From the Leisure complex it is a few minutes walk to the parkrun (so make sure you allow some walk time), you need to walk in a southerly direction, crossing the A5076 at the pelican crossings - DO NOT ATTEMPT to cross the dual carriageway at any other point - this is a fast and dangerous road. Follow the southerly pathway to the second roundabout, bearing right you will find the park. The start line is located directly south of the Elgar Community Centre. The post parkrun coffee venue for this event is Casa Kambistro, NN5 4DJ.
This is a nice, open, flat and fast parkrun entirely on footpaths, with some good views. A very enjoyable parkrun course!
Links
Link to Sixfields Upton parkrun page:
There is also a video (not mine) of the route on YouTube:
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