Cannon Hill Parkrun takes place at 9 am on Saturday at at Cannon Hill Park, near Edgbaston, Birmingham. Note that the park is opposite Edgbaston Cricket Stadium and if, like when we visited, there is a cricket match, an alternative course at Holders Lane Playing Fields is used, leading to a last minute dash to the alternative location a mile away.

Getting There

Cannon Hill Park is 3 miles south of Birmingham (on the A441). From the M4, exit at junction 4 and take the A38. From the M5, M6 exit at junction 6 and take the A38M. Buses 1 and 35 stop in Edgbaston Road, closes to the park.

Parking

Parking is available close to the start at Russell Road Car Park and costs £2.20 an hour.

Toilets

There is a toilet block in the park, close to the start. (These are also the closest toilets to the alternative venue).

Course

The course consists of two different, rather fiddly looking, circuits of the park. Who knows? I was in a different park wading through mounds of dog poo.

Shoes

Trainers.

Difficulty

Run Britain rankings for UK parkruns places Cannon Hill as 140th fastest out of 706. It has a total elevation of 18 metres.

Fun Factor

Cannon Hill goes down as one of my least favourite parkruns. The change of course wasn’t well publicised, so we had a last minute dash to the alternative start. Then stood around for ages while we waited for the last runners to make their way from Cannon Hill. Then it wasn’t a very nice course; uninspiring, in a rather grim park with a large bottleneck at the start and did I mention the dog poo? I didn’t even take any photos, which is very unusual for me. Maybe actual Cannon Hill parkrun is quite nice…

Where We Stayed

We stayed at the Premier Inn Birmingham City Centre Broad Street. Not particularly close (3 miles) to the start, but convenient for an evening out in Birmingham, where did some sightseeing and went for a few beers and a stonkingly good curry.

Nearby Attractions

We took a wander around the city, admiring some of the architecture, like the rather unique Birmingham Library.

There are ample opportunities for shopping, with the Bullring and the mind boggling Grand Central.

And of course you can’t visit Birmingham without going for a curry. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from. We opted for Tamatanga.