Royal Tunbridge Wells Park Run – Christmas Day 2019

Royal Tunbridge Wells Park Run – Christmas Day 2019

December 26, 2019 1 By Stuart

Down visiting the in-laws for Christmas and we fancied getting out for a bit of a run. They live in a pretty rural area of Kent, so the only option is out across the field. Last year that was fine as it was so cold all the mud was frozen, this year it had been warm and wet so very sloppy out

So, a park run seemed like a good idea. I mean how muddy could those be 🙄

The nearest/easiest on for us to get to was Royal Tunbridge Wells, about a 25 minute drive away with a bit of a detour to miss the flooding in Penshurst. Dunloran Park looked lovely as we turned up and warmed up. Nice bright day and lots of people out for the park run.

Beeston Runner pre Royal Tunbridge Wells Christmas Day Park Run. Dunloran park looking nice

With a lot more people than normal organising the start was a big effort, but the volunteers soon sheperded us into some form of order. A few minuntes after 9 and we were off. The usual jostling for place as we headed off on a narrow path with a few tight corners. Heading uphill thinned the crowd out a bit.

At the top we turned right and onto the grass. This was handily pre churned into shoe deep sloppy mud! Perfect cross country territory, but not for the shoes I’d brought with me. Having read the course description I’ve thought my Inov-8 TrailRocs were the beast for the job, now I was wishing for my muclaws instead. But nothing to do now and plug on.

The inevitable happened on a sharp turn as I ‘understeered’ across the course and decked out. Luckily, as another runner pointed out, it was a very soft landing.

Lap 1 done, and off for the last one! Mud now churned up by 350 runners was a bit deeper, but I stayed upright this time.

31st back, 8th in age group at 22:25. Happy with that with the course. There’s some proper fast people running this one, first home was in at 17:37, which would normally ‘win’ most of the Nottingham ones and on this terrain was damn impressive.

Only downside was that my landing hadn’t been as soft as thought, so I spent a fair while in my in-laws shower picking mud and grit out of my right knee

Post Christmas Day Royal Tunbridge Wells Park Run. Blood and mud from falling over

Going to try and do a double Park Run next week for New Years day. Current plan looks like Alvaston and Markeaton, fingers crossed it all works out,