Flight-free Parkrun

A Parkrun Alphabet without a car or a plane

A very muddy finish at Itchen Valley Country Park

One of the things I love about running is how simple it is. Just head out of the door and go where your legs take you. There’s very little kit needed, and importantly for a sustainability professional like me, there’s very little impact on the planet. I’ve tried to keep to that ethos as I’ve got more into Parkrun, usually running or riding my bike to get there. 

When I got wind of the Parkrun Alphabet, I decided this would be my next challenge – I’d already ‘collected’ three letters: C for Cardiff, my first ever Parkrun, where my eldest sister lives; W for Westmill, near where my twin sister lives (hold tight, I’ve got three sisters); and H for Hackney, my ‘home’ Parkrun, where my narrowboat is moored. 

But the alphabet would require much more travelling than usual, further afield than I could run or cycle. Could I complete the full alphabet with the lowest impact possible?

Shortly after I decided on the challenge I was in Manchester for a work event, and took the opportunity to get started. As far as possible I wanted to do it in alphabetical order, so out of the three Parkruns that were nearby, it was A for Alexandra that won. Flat, fun and regal. I loved how the leaves on the trees in the wide avenue rustled in the wind, as though hundreds of tiny hands were clapping us along.

'A' for Alexandra Park (I hadn't perfected the art of taking a selfie with the sign...)

A week later I was with family in Hertfordshire, near enough to B for Barclay Park in Hoddesdon. Another park, another pond, but a particularly cruel uphill finish on this one. C was already in the bag, then the next few came thick and fast – it’s easy if you live in London, with a wide variety to choose from, all of which I could ride or run to. D for Dulwich, F for Finsbury, G for Grosvenor, and when I reached H I took my turn to volunteer, given that I’d already run Hackney Marshes parkrun many times. 

Some of the letters are a bit harder to find, so I carried on with the easy ones while I planned the journeys further afield. K for Kingston, L for Lordship, M for Mile End, R for Richmond, S for Southwark, V for Victoria Dock … Some of these took a bit of travelling but I loved the early-morning bike rides through London, where the streets were quiet for a change. 

I’d committed to O for Old Deer Park (in Richmond), but the morning brought torrential rain. Should I still go? Yes – you never regret doing a Parkrun. Even if you have to cycle for over an hour in the pouring rain. There were understandably very few people there – I was one of only 60 people who lined up on the starting line! ’Quagmire’ just about covers it – I spent most of the time giggling as we slipped and slid all over the place, adding almost two minutes to our regular run times. A very muddy me and a very wet bike very sensibly got on the train to go home. 

For E (East Brighton) and I (Itchen Valley) I used the chance to catch up with old friends – a great excuse to sit on the sofa with a glass of wine (though that didn’t exactly help with the run the following morning). N was an early train to Northampton to help a friend to move his boat up the Grand Union Canal; P another Hertford trip for Panshanger, and U a weekend in Windsor where from Upton Court you can see the castle as you complete your laps. 

A misty morning in Northampton

Then came those I couldn’t easily reach by bike or train alone. The gap of J had been blinking at me for months: just a handful of Parkruns begin with J in the UK: Jersey Farm near St Albans, Jesmond Dene in Newcastle, Jubilee in County Durham, and Jersey. As it happens, my third sister lives in Jersey. But how do you get to Jersey without a high-carbon flight? By ferry, that’s how. So early one Friday morning I was on the first train of the day to Poole, from where I would catch a ferry to the Channel Islands. After 4hrs 30mins at sea I was a little green around the gills, but honestly, there is no better way to arrive somewhere than by boat. The run was on a pine-lined disused railway track, and I spotted red squirrels on the way back to my sister’s house.

A work event in Malmesbury gave me the opportunity to tick off T (Tetbury Goods Shed). But there’s no station in Tetbury – well, there was, but now it’s a disused railway line, which is where the Parkrun takes place. So I cycled the five miles from Malmesbury, through the rolling Wiltshire hills.

Q also took a bit of planning; like J, there aren’t many to choose from. But Quakers Walk in Devizes, Wiltshire was a must for me: as a narrowboat dweller, the Caen Hill lock flight is a thing of legend: 29 locks in 2.5 miles. There’s no train station here anymore either, since the 60s, when the railways were deemed unprofitable and many lines were shut in favour of a new machine, the motorcar. Choosing to do it without a car these days means a 9-mile ride from the nearest station. Luckily I like cycling. 

The run itself was a cute little parkland tucked away behind the canal, and I was not alone as a tourist: “Do we have any tourists in today?” asked the Run Director. Almost everyone’s hand went up. “Do we have anyone actually from Devizes here today?!” 

Nearly there: Y for York, which doesn’t need much of an excuse to visit, with its preserved walls, breathtaking Minster and charming Shambles, and a fun Parkrun at York Racecourse where you run two laps of the perimeter, surrounded by the white plastic race railings. I was almost disappointed that no one had dressed as a horse. 

York racecourse: no one dressed as a horse

There’s no X so with all those gaps plugged it was time to complete the alphabet, and I had left the best til last: Z. But here came the biggest part of the challenge: there’s no Z in the UK so I would have to head abroad. With flights off the menu, this would be the most fun to plan and execute.

I decided on the Netherlands: really easy to get to without flying, and ‘Zuiderparks’ (South Park) aplenty. There’s one in The Hague, which is a short bus ride from the ferry port, so I booked a Friday ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland, and planned a couple of nights in the Netherlands before catching the Eurostar home on the Sunday. An easy round trip and plenty cheap enough with a Rail and Sail ticket. 

It was the perfect conclusion to my adventure. I felt very welcomed, with briefings in both English and Dutch, and enjoyed the fun course of two huge circles around the park. I pushed extra hard this time and it paid off: 21:12, an alphabet PB, and not only the A-Z ticked off but also my palindrome time. 

There are so many things to love about Parkrun, and many adventures to be had. I’m so glad I could do it without flying, or even driving, and hope that others are reassured that there’s no need for a plane to come between you and your next run. 

All done at Zuiderpark in Den Haag, Netherlands