On a warmish sunny day, in between a couple of storms, Felixstowe was a lovely place to be. Around a third of the UK’s parkruns were cancelled for stormy conditions or the after effects of same, so as soon as Felixstowe said their course was fine, I headed down to the seaside.

The webpage suggests gathering on the grass in front of the Leisure Centre, but I chose to stand on the beach, and many others were clustered on the promenade, catching up and counting our good luck in finding a run that was definitely going ahead, and without too much wind compared to the night before, though it was still there.

The route is very straightforward. I missed the first part of the briefing, blown away on the wind, but he may have announced that we were doing it in reverse, as the official site says the opposite, but we lined up facing the pier and headed NE past it and on to a turnaround, then back past the start and to a turnaround over a km from the finish. It’s not a course you can go wrong on, unless you try and run on the beach and get carried away, but the regular groynes would make that a hurdle course rather than a lovely run on the sand.

We had the wind behind us for the first section, which gave genuine assistance, but meant that we then had it in our faces for twice as far as we went back on our tracks, past the start/finish and on to the second 180 degree turn. I managed to catch a group ahead of me, with the intention of drafting for a bit, but ended up going past and allowing them a brief respite from the wind. Reaching the last section is always good, but on this windy day there was the extra incentive of knowing the wind would be behind us again.

Aside from the wind, the only other things to cope with were a slightly narrower section near the start, with beach huts taking up some of the promenade, but given that no one was yet coming back on the other side, there was plenty of room. Stones had blown over the course at the second turnaround, which slowed us down, but otherwise this is a flat and fast course, depending on conditions, on a good surface.

It looks pretty good in the sun, too. There are plenty of attractions for afterwards, and parking is easy. There’s a paid car park right by the start, or the roads behind the front are free to park in. They are immediately up a hill, but it’s a short but hilly walk to the start.

Results from Felixstowe parkrun, event 131, 19/2/22 – 165 finishers.