Ian Runs

After a few weeks of not making any progress on my Fibonacci Index, this week, I decided that ticking off 21 was reason enough to attend Harleston Magpies parkrun this week with new milestone tshirt in hand! The area Situated on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, Harleston Magpies Hockey Club plays host to Harleston Magpies parkrun every week. Interestingly, while the residential area of Harleston itself is in Norfolk, the hockey club actually lies across the border in Suffolk. The course The Harleston Magpies parkrun course is run on two joining fields, following the perimeters of each field, while each field also includes an inner triangle from the half-way point, to each opposing corner and back. Each lap is repeated a total of 3 times, and the course is entirely on grass, including only some minor elevation. Parking is available on site, with the primary parking located across the road from the main entrance (overflow parking in the hockey club car park), and is only available...

With storms Dudley and Eunice making themselves known in the days leading up to parkrunday, and the resulting cancellations, my plans for this week's event were very last minute! London and most of the south of England (particularly the south-west) had been hit with a red weather warning for wind, which meant over 275 cancellations in the UK, and so I decided to head to the north east of the East of England to attend one of the Norwich events to celebrate my 50th run, and 50th different event! I wasn't completely confident which event I would attend as I set out, as you can never rule out late cancellations after storms, but with shoes ready for any eventuality, I finally ended up at Brundall, very close to Lingwood, which I attended last week! The area Brundall Countryside Park itself is a small area consisting of roughly half newly planted woodland, with the other half being allotments. The field which is now young woodland was previously agricultural land, and park...

This week, like last week, I found myself in the position of not really having any obvious targets for events to attend. As I was looking at the parkrun events page to help me narrow down my search, my mind kept drifting towards the Norwich area, as there are a number of events in relatively close proximity to each other. The area Lingwood is a village near Norwich. The built-up area is primarily residential, with the village featuring its own pub, and village hall. The surrounding area is primarily farmland, with nature reserves forming a major part of the area along the River Yare, which runs to the south of the village. Aside from the village, the wider area is very popular with bird watchers, with a number of RSPB sites within close proximity, including Strumpshaw Fen located between Lingwood and Brundell, and Buckenham and Cantley Marshes located due south of Lingwood. The course The course is run entirely on grass and gravel paths, and squiggles around the village h...

As I was considering options for this week, one obvious box I could tick was Great Yarmouth North Beach, which would have both given me a 34 for the Fibonacci sequence, as well as a third and final "Gee" for the Stayin' Alive challenge. While this was tempting, after running Clacton Seafront parkrun a few weeks ago, I decided that although I really enjoyed the day, the cold weather did mean that I couldn't make as much of a day trip as I could, and so I want to try to save seaside events for warmer weather. Looking at the events map, I have been conscious that there are a lot of events clustered together in south-east Essex. I'm hoping to run South Woodham Ferrers in a few weeks to pick off event 144 in the Fibonacci sequence, and so Hockley Woods was to be the destination for today's parkrun! The area Hockley Woods is a self-sufficient coppiced ancient woodland in Rochford, Essex. Through coppicing, the woodland has provided a source of wood to the lo...