Course Name: Highbury Fields
Date: 23/08/2025
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Description: I have been away with a mild ankle sprain, a bit wary of running again and since I do other sports I thought I could just avoid until the sprained ankle looks the same as the non-sprained one. It seems that’s not happening any time soon, right is still a little inflated all around. Anyways, no pain while running or after so all good for now.
The race course is not great, Highbury Fields is a busy parkrun in central residential and mildly posh Islington, ran mostly on tarmac park paths and includes 5! laps of the same half moon shape. That’s way too many laps, unfortunately they are necessary because it is a small park. Any parkrun is better than no parkrun, but it is still not very good and that’s why it only gets 2 stars from me. It is also not scenic and does not have any cool distinguishing features.
Notes: In the end funnel, right after the finish line, the guy in front of me (LR) kept going on his momentum and overtook the guy in front of him (DM). DM grabbed LR by the arm so he wouldn’t be overtaken and I had to restrain myself from commenting. I cannot understand some people’s behaviour, I checked and the DM (the grabber) has over 250 parkruns!, how do you not understand that 1) it was you who decelerated first after the finish line going into the funnel* 2) no-one** is looking to cheat at parkrun.
*parkrun finishing etiquette: 1-cross finish line 2-timer volunteer clocks you out 3-walk through a funnel in finishing order 4-collect a token at funnel’s end. The key thing at play here is that you need to remain in the exact order you finished so the token you get matches your time. If you overtake the runner in front of you in the funnel, the token you’ll get will match their time, not yours. All this very very complicated stuff drives some people to be funnel-nazis and not understand that if someone overtakes you right at the beginning of the funnel they are very likely aware of what they are doing and are not trying to cheat you out of a single second of time in this free and friendly event. DM did calm down almost immediately and fist-bumped LR and myself after he saw me behind LR staring at him.
** I suppose there are people who are looking to cheat at parkrun but they are not really worth discussing.