Oxford parkrun takes place on Saturday at 9 am at Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park around 3 miles north of Oxford.

Getting There

By car, the park is just off the A40, Banbury Road Junction. If you’re coming by public transport, unless you’re coming from Oxford or London, good luck (from my house 88 miles away, I would need to leave at 12.09 am!) The nearest station is Oxford Parkway, 1.5 miles away. Buses no. 2, 2A and S7 run between the city centre and Oxford parkway and stop at Five Mile Drive, about a 10 minute walk from the start.

Parking

There are car parks at either end of the park. The closest is probably Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park (Harbord Road) at the northern end, although there’s not much in it. Both are Pay & Display from 10 am, so as long as you don’t dawdle, paying shouldn’t be necessary. If you do dawdle, an additional hour will cost 90 p.

Toilets

There are also two sets of toilets; one on the side of the Top Pavilion and the other by the San Remo Café.

Course

The course consists of three laps of the park. There are a couple of narrow paths where things can get a bit congested.

Terrain

Mainly flat, starting and finishing on a playing field. In between are some trails and some tarmac.

Shoes

I wore trail shoes because there’s some trail and the field was rather muddy.

Difficulty

Run Britain rankings for UK parkruns places Oxford as 132nd fastest out of 706. It has a total elevation of 20 metres.

Fun Factor

Neither the most nor the least exciting course. Nothing memorable really, which probably explains why I only have two photos of the morning and one of those is brunch!

Where we Stayed

We stayed at the Travelodge Oxford Peartree, which is conveniently located for parkrun as it’s only just over a mile away. The hotel is attached to a service station on the A34/A44 Junction and perfectly adequate. There is a Holiday Inn next door, which is nicer but considerably more expensive.

Nearby Attractions

Obviously, there is plenty to do in the historic university city of Oxford. I’ll be honest, it’s not one of my favourite places. Home to a student population of 30,000 and spawning ground for conservative MPs (Oxford University is alma mater to the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg) it seems to ooze a sense of smug entitlement. We just found a nice pub and went for brunch…