Another Saturday another parkrun

I've calculated that I need to try and do two tourist runs each month if I am going to achieve my 'all of Essex' goal for 2018.

Today I headed to Hockley Woods.

The only 'research' I'd done was how to get there and whether there was a toilet.  I found it without any problem at all and arrived in plenty of time.  I could see the park run banner from the parking area and having found out it was free to park at the weekend and used the facilities, I headed over to join the handful of people already there.

I was quickly identified by one of the core team as a newbie and enjoyed a chat with him about his various volunteering activities (he does a lot!) and about the woods before joining a handful of first timers for the briefing by the board in my picture.

It was quite handy for showing us the two lap route and soon after we walked in a group to the start.  I chatted with a couple of other people on route and then we were off.

The course is all on trails through really beautiful , old woodland.  There were anemones starting to flower and lots of chopped logs,  Beautiful.

The ground was muddy in places but surprisingly dry, given recent weather.  What I hadn't expected was the long and sometimes quite steep inclines.  There is a particularly steep (for Essex, at least) slope at the end of each lap.

It was, for that reason, surprisingly challenging for me.  Definitely starting to enjoy the trail courses and definitely want to revisit this one..

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