How to view a parkrun route and elevation profile

I absolutely love parkruns and try to do lots of different locations and also when a new one comes out in the area I need to run it as soon as possible.

However, I'm always quite keen to know the route and also see what the elevation profile is.

The parkrun event website's are good - but not that good. No elevation and the route map is very hard to follow.

So this blog post shows how to do a bit of research before you turn up (and it works for any race to be fair - not just parkruns).

Both tips below use Strava Segments as the source of info - the first is when there is a full strava segment of the course and the second when there is not.

1. Option 1 - Full Course Strava Segment

If you are lucky then the Strava Segment Explore will show the full parkrun as a segment. This particular feature of Strava seems to only bring up a limited amount of segments in the area - but fingers crossed there will be one for the course. The screenshots below show my research into Meadowmill parkrun which is a run I am doing tomorrow.

I then click on the date when one of the leaders set one of the best times...

Strava will then show that person's run, this works even if you don't follow the person as they have to have a run public to be on the leaderboard. By hovering the mouse over the chart it is possible to see the exact direction of the route and the elevation profile. Seeing the splits is also quite interesting.

2. Option 2 - Partial Strava Segment

This second example is for Morpeth's Carlisle Park parkrun. This time the full parkrun segment cannot be seen on Segment Explore. The trick then is to pick the longest segment that can be found that you believe is on the route. 

Then from this point it is a case of clicking through some of the leaderboard times until you find an effort at that parkrun. In the example below, there had been other races on the route and some great training efforts, so I had to click through 4 or 5 to find a parkrun effort - but you should get there in the end. Filtering by 'this year' will help too.
...and as in the first example, eventually, you'll see a parkrun effort which will give you a more detailed version of the route and also show the elevation.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The day before the marathon

Image
Manchester Marathon tomorrow. My fourth marathon and have trained harder than ever before. Back in January I blogged what my plan was for the marathon training block . I've pretty much followed it. Only difference being instead of two runs on a Tuesday I just started the day with a double session. But in summary: Go into the training block doing 90km (55mi) a week. Take it up to 120km (75mi) a week. 12 weeks of increasing efforts, with a three week taper at the end. At the maximum do four weeks in a row with 36km (22mi) long runs on the Sunday. Long runs to be at decent pace with at least an 8km (5mi) mara pace section on tired legs. Run every day - alternating between efforts and recovery Tue - hard session (Typically 4x1mile efforts followed by 5k tempo) Thu - hard session (Typically three sets of 5km at mara pace with floats inbetween)  Weekly distances Not sure how much to read into the Strava Fitness and Freshness chart. But fitness went from +59 to +103 to +86. Form went from
Read more

Running goals for the year

Image
2023 was a good year. PBs in parkrun, 5k, 10k and Marathon. With the right conditions I feel I could have got 10mi and HM too - but cannot grumble. Particularly happy with parkrun as that is now eight years of incremental improvement through improved training and focus. Power of ten score card So what are the 2024 goals? It's a big year as I am 50 in July. Entering the V50 category gives me a real chance to pick some goals that weren't possible in recent years at the top end of the V45 category. So I'm intending on training harder than ever - and putting down some stretched goals that may not be possible - but are worth going for. Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon Goal 2  - Top 50 in the UK runbritain ranking for V50 at 5k distance Goal 3  - England masters vest for V50 Goal 1 - 2hr55 marathon With hindsight I think I should have done around 2hr55 at London last year but a few things didn't go to plan and I ended up with a 2hr58. This year I'll try and put things right and
Read more

Bamburgh - Half Marathon Route

Image
Check out the route on Strava: https://www.strava.com/segments/26248649 This route was actually part of a RunNation organised race. That means that the route below is a lap that needs to be done twice to get to the half marathon distances. The main carpark in Bamburgh is at the post code  NE69 7BJ  - but if you look around the side streets you can get parked for free somewhere. The run starts just before the castle, it then goes up through the beautiful village of Bamburgh before turning left onto some narrow back roads. The day of the race I did it was very windy, but the hedgerow gave some great cover from the cross wind. The road eventually winds around the coast with views of the Farne Islands. Then back to the village again. Keep looping around a second time until you hit the 21.1km mark! Selected photos... Bamburgh Castle Each lap started and finished near the historic castle The Farne Islands Strava Segment of note : Bamburgh HM - One lap - A great little 10k route Useful links
Read more