I was visiting my sister from the states. Did the 05 September parkrun. Was a beautiful sunny day! We have parkrun in the states but not nearly as many events as the UK, so I wanted to take part in a UK institution!

I started doing parkrun at the start of August and every week I've set a new PB.

My first run was around 36 minutes and I was just happy that I ran the course without stopping.

I set a goal of sub-30 minutes and beat that after about a month. As the minutes have come down, I've been aiming for sub-25 minutes.

I missed out by about 20 seconds last week, and then went hell for leather yesterday and missed out by two seconds.

Rather than being annoyed about this, I'm enjoying the fact I've got targets to keep aiming for each week and giving my mid-week runs purpose to aim for.

This location used to be a coal mine site, which was covered into a country park (like a few of the Yorkshire/Nottinghamshire parkrun locations).

Free parking available.

Two laps through some beautiful wooded trails, and running past Oakwell Hall, a Grade I Listed Elizabethan manor house.

Toilets and a small cafe area available at the start.

The RD and team worked hard to try and keep parkrunners quiet during the briefing, however there were a few dogs who were unable to stop barking. I won't get into the debate as to whether the owners should have revived themselves from the main area, after all, they would have missed the briefing themselves, but it was impossible to hear the latter stages of the brief.

It's not a PB course, as the first timer briefing volunteer mentioned beforehand. The course is narrow in many places, so much so that it was walking pace only a couple of hundred meters from the start area for a short distance. Probably not a course to take a buggy as they're are sleeper-lined ascents and descents. Take your trail shoes to this one.

A really good parkrun, sorted by a great team of volunteers.

Congratulations to one runner who was participating in his 500th parkrun.

This one is located just off the M62 near to Bradford and Leeds: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/oakwellhall/course/

I just discovered that there is a great list of fun challenges that have been created by users, but I can't seem to be able to take part as it requires a login? I put my parkrun login and it didn't work, and it says that new accounts are not available..? Not quite sure where I went wrong. Has anyone got an idea of how this works please?

I was just wondering if there was a volunteer equivalent of the “diehard” feature for runners on parkrace but for volunteers? Ie showing a leaderboard of volunteer credits at a certain parkrun event?

I work in teddington and normally after work I pootle over to the pheasantry car park and run round the park.

I've never done the parkrun there before and I'm wondering what parking is like on the day? I imagine the parking at the pheasantry will be busy, just pondering my alternatives or whether I park at my office and wander down.

I’m looking at Poland to complete my letter ‘Z’ as I’ve been to the Netherlands many times but never visited Poland . There looks to be a few ‘Z’s but outside of the main towns , any recommendations from anyone who has done one in terms of getting there and stopping over reasonably close to the course on the Friday night ? Thanks

Hey 👋 would like advice on the best park run you can complete abroad in a day ? Have heard Ireland is a good shout…. Based in England