St Albans parkrun - event 704

On the 7th November 2026 I ran St Albans parkrun, which was the 704th event held at the venue, my 310th parkrun and 221st different course I'd attended.

In all of the times I've written these posts, there's not been often where I've had not much to say.

I had quite high expectations of St Alban's parkrun, being partly on the grounds of an old golf course, being two laps around quite a wide area of park and taking in different types of surface.

But there was two factors that I hadn't considered, one was the weather and two was the time of year.

Parkrun events around the country have lots to contend with. Landowners who use their land for multiple different purposes, particularly council owned spaces like public parks whose grounds are used for all types of purposes.

St Albans is partly in the grounds of Verulamium Park which was being used as for the towns firework celebration which took place on the 30th October and we're still taking down the last remnants of the festivities which meant that the course would need to operate on its alternative course.

Sometimes an alternative course can actually be a good thing. Some events have a slightly more enjoyable or an easier course when their standard course is unavailable for whatever reason.

St Alban's alternative course is a three lap variation and is taken entirely around the playing fields of the park itself.

That in itself would have been okay, had the weather not played it's part. Which fog had engulfed the park overnight and by 9am still hadn't sufficiently cleared so visibility was somewhat lacking.

Ultimately it could have been any course that the organisers of the event wanted to run on the morning as they would all have looked exactly the same.

Beneath the feet was grass, some of it was slightly muddy in places but the edges and peripheral vision of where we ran were all pretty much the same. Grey, damp and a suggestion of trees in places, but fog covered pretty.much everything else.

I'm actual fact the fog helped to make the course more memorable than perhaps it would have ordinarily have been. Three laps around a football pitch might not have been the most inspiring of courses, but I'm not sure I'll forget running in thick fog in a hurry!

I finished in 293rd place out of field of 399 participants in a time of 33:12.

The playing fields were evidently on a bit of a wonk, with a gradual uphill slog featuring three times. It did obviously mean that there were three downhill sections so I made up some time after walking part of the course. But it proved to be another event where I didn't run the full distance and continue to find frustrations with my running efforts.