WARNER LAKES PARKRUN REVIEW
GETTING THERE
Warner Lakes Parkrun starts in Dragonfly Park slightly southwest of Swan Parade although the Warner Lakes Parkrun page suggests one go to Pallas Parade which is a bit confusing. The instructions however are fairly simple and once again my faithful GPS found the right spot. I was running late so I screeched in with a few minutes to spare and parked outside one of the houses on Swan Parade and realized that I was the only car parked there, literally meters from the start. Bonus!
PARKING
Parking at some venues can be quite difficult but I can say that this is not the case at Warner Lakes.
TOILETS
The toilets are modern and very clean. The park is relatively new so everything is quite modern which is really lovely.
THE COURSE
This course was very confusing. My word! I felt like I was on a merry-go-round. I must say in their defense, I did arrive after the course briefing but it felt like I was running past the same points multiple times and lost sense of distance run.
There is a small loop which I ran around two and a half times and there is an out and back which I ran twice. On the upside, I saw my friend Jenny who was marshaling at the turnaround point so it was good to catch up with her, albeit ever so briefly.
Even though this is a public park, there were no members of the public out on the paths at that time so limiting the possibilities of accidental bumping but this was offset by the number of times I was running in the opposite direction to other runners which made it difficult to overtake.
The course had a slight gradual uphill to the turnaround point as well as a couple of small gradual inclines along the route which made for slightly slower times.
There were only 91 finishers that day so my final position was slightly exaggerated and belied my actual ability haha. But that being said, I'll take it.
VOLUNTEERS
Warner's volunteers were lovely. Because of the repeated loops, there was very little need for many volunteers. In fact, other that the crucial person at the busy intersection and Jenny at the turnaround point, they only needed a timekeeper, table operators, sweeper and director. The Facebook page encourages volunteers and there was a really obvious sense community which was awesome.
The intersection lady had a really busy job. They had stuck some signs up explaining where to run next but when you run as fast as I do, (lol) you can blink and miss it.
PHOTOS
Warner Lakes Parkrun has a Facebook page even though the official Parkrun page points to the Flickr page. I am guessing that this must be true for all the Parkruns.
THE ALL IMPORTANT COFFEE AFTERWARDS
Well, after a confusing run around, I looked at the Parkrun page and saw that they advertised a number of coffee shops which are fairly close to the run. Tastebuds Deli & Café is five minutes drive from Dragonfly park and it looked really good.
OVERALL
The Gary rating for this event is 6/10. I really didn't like running in circles. Sorry team.
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