Race Report: Bushy Park 1000

Reports
Hi All
 
I know we dont usually do “race reports” for parkrun but Bushy Park yesterday was like something we’d never experienced before!  Eliott, Catherine and I headed over to Bushy Park yesterday for their 1000 event.  We arrived at 8am and the car park was already full – and there were hundreds of runners milling around.  We found parking at the station which I’d  recommend for a future visit.  We also found toilets at the station!!!  And a nice coffee shop post run.
 
You may have seen reports on the event in the media and I have to say it was an insane number of runners there.  However the atmosphere was amazing and everyone was just enjoying being there – and accepting that it was not going to be a PB day.  Standing at the start we estimated there were about 4000 runners – and the rest!!
 
For those who have done Bushy Park parkrun, the start was immense – and congested but we all just went with the flow and after a couple of km it thinned out and you could run as you wanted.  There were loads of  marshalls and so much support – the event was crazy but brilliant.
 
I finished with a group of other runners and we were herded into one of the several finish funnels – and it took us over 20 mins to get to the end of the funnel to be given our tokens.  But we all just chatted and waited our turn.  Once we had our tokens, scanning was surprisingly quick with no additional queue.   I finished in about 25 mins and my token was no 1042 – although I have to say I’ll be taking the results with a pinch of salt when they are issued.
 
Turns out they had about 6000 finishers – and ran out of tokens so ended up with temporary tokens and writing numbers on hands in ink for the last runners – who also waited over 90 mins to get through the finish – and had to walk the last 1k as the queue to finish was so far back.
 
Still no results but that doesnt really matter – it was just such fun to be part of such an epic insane event.
 
I guess this was just the dress rehearsal for the 20th anniversary event in a few weeks time….. 😉
 
Nicola