Morning Everyone,

Well what do you know, we are cancelled this weekend! 

The course has dried up, the daffodils are out and the weather feels as though it has now turned, dare I say it it feels like spring??

Following the heavy rain on Thursday and further flooding overnight we are unfortunately going to have to cancel tomorrow's parkrun.

Perhaps not surprisingly we have had to cancel this weeks parkrun.

We did a recce walk this afternoon and whilst the majority of the course is safe to run there are 3 stretches on the return leg of the lake that are covered in water. The water in these areas is not only quite deep but also affords no definition between the edge of the path and the lake. With no alternative route possible and on safety grounds we have therefore taken to cancel this weekends parkrun.

We are hopeful that the lake will have an opportunity to drain over the next week and with agreement from TMBC we will be back on the 29th February, of course we will let you know as soon as possible.

Enjoy your touring this weekend and hopefully see you next.

As most of you will have seen on Wednesday, Tonbridge parkrun is back on this weekend – Hooray!

I mentioned that we will be using an alternative start/finish area and a new route so it is important that you please read this post and if you know anyone who is coming who is not not likely to see it please share.

The first and most important message is that large parts of the park are still saturated, any foot fall on these areas will cause damage so please stick to the tarmac or trail paths. This includes before, during and after the run, as you make your way to the start area and back from the finish, if you find yourself standing on grass please move to a path as quickly as possible.

The Start and Finish are located in the corner of the rugby club pitches, the start line is the bridge. As you make your way to the start area either via the rugby club or the racecourse island please stay on the paths, if you are warming up stay on the paths.

The start line (the rugby club bridge) is narrow, which is different to our normal wide start, this has been done on purpose, it may take a bit longer to get going than normal but hopefully this will regulate flow at the railway bridge. Please only stand near the front if you are a faster runner.

The course goes straight out to Barden Lake, over Lucifer bridge; there are no switch backs or ‘D’ tours. When you get to the lake you will run around it TWICE. That’s right TWICE; once you have completed the lap of the lake for the first time you need to go around again and not turn left as you would normally, go straight on, keeping to the right of the ground cones and then filter in carefully. There will be a marshal there but you need to remember how many laps you have done!

On your first lap we are asking you to keep to the left of the path, if you want to overtake someone please be aware of faster runners coming past you on your right and then overtake on the right. On your second lap please be careful of slower participants and keep to the right. At the end of your second lap turn left as you would normally.

The finish line is over the start bridge and along the path a little way. The course is longer than 5km, this has been done intentionally to avoid any unachievable PB’s. Please cross the finish line as normal and move along the funnel. The funnel will run the length of the path and will be taped of on the right hand side and there will be ground cones on the path to the left, please stay in order and don’t duck out. As the funnel is long it will be difficult for our funnel managers to keep an eye on the entire length if you see anyone not go the length of the funnel please let one of the managers know.

Once you have received your position token please continue along the footpath (not on the grass) towards the vehicle access ramp close to the rugby club. Our scanners will be located there. We will position the kit buckets along the path to allow you to pick up kit and barcodes before reaching the scanners.

After scanning you will be in the over flow carpark, the council have kindly given us 4 parking spaces in this area for our gazebo and finish tokens support, there will also be an area that has been cordoned off, but please remember whilst there will be no through traffic that the car park is still live. On this point can we ask that if at all possible, you do not park in the overflow carpark.

All of these measures have been taken in order to protect the park from potential further damage whilst it is still saturated, it is not ideal and may not be as convenient as normal but please  consider this whilst you are in the park, if the park is damaged we will need to cancel future runs.

Thanks for sticking with it until the end, all we want to do is run and so think that these compromises are worthwhile. See you in the morning.

Unfortunately we have been asked to cancel this weeks parkrun (25/01/20), we of course are as disappointed as you are. Whilst large parts of the course are absolutely fine and some of you will have noticed a shiny new bridge, there are key ares that remain either under water or the ground is saturated. Last week the Medway burst it's banks again leaving areas that had dried out flooded again.

We will continue talking with the council and park managers to see if there is anyway of 'speeding up' our return through the use of alternative start/finish areas and/or routes.

Unfortunately, following advice from the council we are going to have to cancel this weekends parkrun (11/01/20). This is a due to a combination of contributing factors stemming from the recent flooding. Whilst we have for the last couple of events been able to use alternative courses and finish configurations, this in itself has put additional pressures on other areas of the park.

We hate to cancel and will do anything that we can to run the event but we will not risk participant safety or permanent damage to the environment in which we run.

Works are ongoing by both KCC and TMBC around the park and we will continue investigate alternative course/finish area combinations and we are hopeful that our run on the 18th January will go ahead as normal.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Anthony

We have GREAT NEWS....

We have been down to the course today and we are happy to announce that we will be able to run tomorrow. 10:30am from our normal Start/Finish area.

We must thank TMBC and KCC for getting Lucifer bridge mended and to a state where we can have 500+ participants cross it safely. There is still a bit of movement but it doesn't present the same trip hazard that it did yesterday morning.

 We have been to assess the course this morning and whilst we believe if we were to use our alternative start/finish area in the rugby club field the entire course would be runnable, we have unfortunately had to cancel tomorrows run.

Lucifer Bridge was damaged in last weekend’s flooding and as such has become too dangerous to pass. Loose slats on the bridge present a serious trip hazard; whilst we were assessing the bridge a pedestrian fell flat on their face, with potentially 500+ participants passing over the bridge on two occasions the risk for serious injury is too high.