Skip to main content

Storeys Field parkrun

I wanted to continue to make progress towards the Fibonacci Sequence this week, and Storeys Field parkrun in Cambridge seemed like the ideal opportunity, providing the opportunity to tick off 34.

The area

Storeys Field parkrun takes place amongst a new residential development in eastern Cambridge. Cambridge is perhaps best known for is university, which was particularly evident today, as it happened to be graduation day today.

Storeys Field looking towards the cricket pavillion

Storeys Field itself consists of a combination of a cricket pitch, and an adjacent sports field, each with their own facilities. One local landmark to look out for is the "Quidditch hoops" - an art exhibition located near the site (not the official name of the piece).

Quidditch hoops at Storeys Field

The course

The course is three flat, tarmac laps of the greenspaces around the new housing development.

Free parking is available in the nearby park-and-ride car park for up to 18 hours, which also provides access to toilets, while toilets are also available in the cricket pavillion closer to the start/finish area.

The run

I am planning on running Brighton Marathon next Sunday, and so I very deliberately decided to limit myself to a steady pace today to begin my taper. Fortunately, the large number of participants and the relatively narrow paths this week helped keep my pace in check. If I wanted to push for a personal record however, this course would definitely be a contendor given there is only really one relatively sharp corner per lap, in the most south-east of the course, and the rest of the course is entirely flat, with a great surface!

The end of today's run was marked with a skywriter plane drawing some art for us (although probably more related to the graduations in the city centre).

A heart drawn by a skywriting plane

Thank you to the team for a great event!

After the run

As the park-and-ride carpark offers free parking, I used that as an opportunity to explore Cambridge city centre in more detail. Trinity College was perhaps the first major attraction, although with graduation ceremonies underway, I decided not to try to get too close to some of the landmarks so as not to spoil people's celebrations.

Trinity College from the back

A number of bridges connect each bank of the river, and gondellas are a common sight on the river, including river tours.

Trinity Bridge from Garrett Hostel Bridge with a gondolla

The Mathmatical Bridge is a wooden bridge, originally built in 1749, but subsequentially rebuilt several times, most recently in 1905. The bridge is constructed from entirely straight pieces of timber.

Mathmatical Bridge

The Corpus Clock is another popular tourist spot, which depicts an insect atop the clockface, which is a unique design.

Corpus Clock

While I didn't have the opportunity to visit it today due to graduation ceremonies, Newton's Apple tree is located in the grounds of Trinity College, and is an offshoot of the actual tree (located at Newton's childhood home) which inspired Newton's work on gravity.

The Round Church was founded in between 1115 and 1131, and has been in operation since.

The Round Church

Castle Hill marks the site of the original settlement dating back over 2000 years, and the initial Roman settlement was built around this area too.

Castle Hill

The top of the hill offers views over the city.

View over Cambridge from Castle Hill

Links: Run report | Results | Strava

References: Trinity College | Newton's Apple Tree | Queens College | Mathmatical Bridge | The Round Church

Labels:
Location: Eddington Ave, Cambridge CB3 1AA, UK

Popular posts from this blog

Coldham's Common parkrun

As my recovery from injury is still underway, I decided that I would attend a flat course this week to avoid any potential for reaggrevation. Unfortunately this means I will need to pause my completion of the Essex events, as the remaining courses are all somewhat lumpy. Having visited all of the other Cambridge parkruns, including Storeys Field parkrun, Fulbourn Hospital parkrun, and Cambridge parkrun knowing that they are all relatively flat, I decided that this week I would complete the Cambridge set. The area Coldham's Common has a long history, serving as both a hospital during the 17th century smallpox outbreak, and a quarry during the 19th century, as well as a rifle range also during the 19th century. The course The route follows two laps of the perimeter of the common through an hour-glass shape, connecting two fields through a five-bar-gate. The course is all on grass, and is all flat. Limited parking is available nearby, while toilets are available in
Read more

Delamere parkrun

Being the festive season, I decided to pause my exploration of the East of England in favour of visiting events closer to family in Liverpool. While there are a number of events closer to Liverpool, I decided to visit Delamere parkrun, being somewhere I hadn't explored when living in the area previously. The area Delamere forest is all that remains of a much larger forest in the area. The forest spent some time as a Royal hunting forest, before being handed to Forestry England. The course The course follows a single lap of a lollipop route, through forests, and around the Blakemere Moss lake, starting and finishing near the visitor centre. The visitor centre includes paid parking, toilets, and a cafe, while free parking is also available in some of the other forest car parks, though they are further from the start line providing a great opportunity for a warm up! The route is all on a mixture of gravel and trail, and is mostly flat except for one short but steep incl
Read more

Aldenham parkrun

Icey conditions in days leading up to parkrun day meant many events were cancelled this week. While I would have ideally been able to visit another event in Essex, I decided that I valued having options more in the event of cancellation this week, and so I instead headed to the cluster of events surrounding the Watford area. The area Aldenham Country Park is located near Watford, and centres on Aldenham reservoir, with grassland and woodland surrounding the reservoir itself. The reservoir was excavated by French prisoners of war during 1795 as part of the wider management of the Grand Union Canal's water levels, and now serves as a reserve water supply. In addition to the reservoir, the country park also supports the breeding of a number of rare species of farm animals, including cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep. The course The course follows two laps of the reservoir, with the second lap skipping the inner peninsular. The course is flat, and is run mainly on trail pat
Read more