A guide to touristing the Aberdeenshire parkruns

I have managed to get up to all the Aberdenshire parkruns this year and enjoyed them all. Whatever you look for in a parkrun I think there is something for everyone in this area.  If you want to find out about the parkruns themselves I have done blogs on them throughout the year and also I would recommend searching for Douglas Mason's videos on You tube if you want an even better idea of what they're like.  But this blog is mainly aimed at how to get to these parkruns if you can't drive or just would prefer to get public transport.  To make it easier I have split it up into different sections. I realise if you don't live in Glasgow or Edinburgh the first bit might be mute. But once you get to Aberdeen I think everyone who can't get there in the morning faces the same dilema. So here is what I have learned and what I did.

1) Getting to Aberdeen from Glasgow or Edinburgh

2) Where to Stay

3) Aberdeen parkrun

4)  Hazlehead parkrun

5)  Crathes Castle parkrun

6)  Stonehaven parkrun

7)  Ellon parkrun

8) Going home

9) Reasons I ended up staying central

1) Getting to Aberdeen from Glasgow or Edinburgh

For all my journeys to Aberdeen I got exactly the same train from Edinburgh each time. The 1736 from Edinburgh Waverly which gets into Aberdeen at 2005.  Its ideal if you can just go straight from work and you can also go up from Glasgow Queen street.  The trains to Aberdeen from both are generally once an hour.  If you live in Stirling, Perth, Dundee or surrounding areas you are on the way too.  I would say if you are going from Edinburgh, you are as well going from Waverley if you can rather than Haymarket as the trains do tend to be busy and by getting on at Waverley its a lot easier to get a seat.  And if you have a seat reservation which you get with cheap singles, I wouldnt bank on it because every time I have been on that train there have been no seat reservations. So it is just a free for all.  

In terms of cost I made the mistake the first time I did it of getting an open return.  Yes I could come back anytime I wanted but at £70 it was expensive.  Getting cheap singles by booking in advance (earlier the better!) is the way to go in my opinion unless you want that flexibility. Because getting the cheap singles does mean you are commiting yourself to certain trains. I realise not many people will live exactly in Glasgow or exactly in Edinburgh. So will probably have to get another train to get to Queen street or Waverly.  If you are doing this you are as well seeing if buying each part of the journey seperatley is cheaper and it is quite often the case.  To give you an idea on how much cheaper it can be. On my last trip to Aberdeen I got cheap singles and it ended up costing £24 return.

I know a lot of people choose to drive, but I would recommend the train even just once for the amazing views you get going up the coast both in Fife and in the North east. Some of these views you can only see by train.

2) Where to Stay

With every parkrun in Aberdeenshire you have a choice as none of them are right in the city centre.  You can either stay in the centre, then get a bus or run to the parkrun in the morning or alternatively you could get a hotel closer to the parkrun and travel to it on the Friday night.  I did a bit of both.  Its basically a choice between B & B's and independent hotels nearer to the parkruns or chain hotels in the city centre.  

3) Aberdeen parkrun  - 10 minutes by bus north of city centre

For Aberdeen parkrun I took the bus from the bus station in union square which is right next to the railway station on the Friday night.  I stayed at the Brig Inn which is litrally just 10 minutes on the bus.  There are quite a few buses which go out that way so no issues on getting a bus at that time.  From the Brig Inn it is about 400 metres to the start. So its an ideal location if you want a lie in. I used booking.com to book it and it was only about £35 for the night.  

In saying that now I know how easy this parkrun is to get to, I would probably have stayed in the city centre next time. As from the bus stop its about a 5 minute walk to the start.

4) Hazlehead parkrun - 2-3 miles west of city centre

For Hazlehead parkrun there does seem to be buses which go past the park entrance and it is about 10 minutes to get from the park entrance to the start. But I stayed in what I thought was the nearest hotel to the start which was the Double tree hotel.  It didnt seem like it was that handy for the buses and when I arrived in Aberdeen on the Friday night my thinking was I just want to get to the hotel. So I ended up getting a taxi which was about 7 quid.  It was only about 2-3 miles out from the city centre.  From the hotel in the morning it was about a 20 minute walk to the start.  Again this was booked on booking.com for about £40.  To get back, it was a nice day so I ended up walking and it took around 50 minutes.

As nice as the hotel was, I think if I was to do it again I would stay in the city centre.

5) Crathes Castle - 40 minutes by bus west of city centre

For Crathes Castle there was 2 options.  Either stay in Banchory on the Friday night which is just beyond Crathes Castle or stay in the city centre.  For this one I stayed in the city centre.  The reason being if you stay in Banchory you still have another 3 miles back to Crathes castle in the morning. If you can manage a 9 mile run round trip including the parkrun fair enough. There is also the option of getting the bus from Banchory back to Crathes Castle. But there is the 202 bus which goes from Union street in Aberdeen about 815 in the morning and is due in at Crathes Castle entrance at just after 9am.  It is still a 3/4 mile walk to the entrance which is probably about a 10-15 minute walk. But to give you an idea of how much time you have. My bus broke down and they had to get a replacement bus.  I got to the entrance at 926 and I still made the start of the parkrun - Just!

If I did it again I would stay in the city centre too.

6) Stonehaven - 15 minutes by train south of city centre

For Stonehaven I also stayed in the city centre and got the 827 train out from Aberdeen in the morning.  This train gets to Stonehaven about 845. Its a 10 minute walk from there to where the parkrun is, so I got there in plenty of time at 855.

If I did it again though I would probably stay in Stonehaven. There are hotels and B&Bs which are very handy for the parkrun. Also you stop at Stonehaven on the train on the way up and it did feel a bit pointless going all the way into Aberdeen and then coming back out again.  If there was a problem with cancelations I think it would be quick enough to get into Aberdeen then out to either Hazlehead or Aberdeen beach.

7) Ellon - 45 minutes by bus north of city centre

Ellon was my last trip up to Aberdeen and again I stayed in the city centre.  In the morning the 67 bus goes from Union square bus station beside the station about 815 and takes about 45 minutes. I use my phone to track where I am so I know where to get off.  The bus is a bit slow getting out of Aberdeen but once it gets out onto the dual carriage way its very quick.  The bus is every half hour for the way back. 

8) Going home

Depending on whether you like to go to cafes after parkrun or not will decide as to what train you choose for the way home.  All the parkruns I have done I have got back to the city centre well before 12 as I don't bother with cafes and prefer to get a shower in the hotel before I leave.  So the 1248 train to Glasgow has suited me well and there is also a 1312 train to Edinburgh which I have taken once as it worked out cheaper that time to get home to Glasgow via Edinburgh.   There are also plenty of lunch options both in Union square and Union street before getting the train back.

9) Reasons I ended up staying central

So apart from Stonehaven where I would probably stay in Stonehaven next time. Here are the reasons why I would stay central for the others.

 - When you get off the train on Friday night in Aberdeen you don't have to worry about connections to your bus. Aberdeen is your destination for the night.  Especially if your train gets delayed as you could end up missing the bus

- Being in the centre means there is greater flexibility in terms of which parkrun you do.  Where as if you stay beside a parkrun you are commiting to that parkrun. Moreover, when you are booking a month or 2 in advance can be risky in terms of bad weather, as it may lead to cancellations .  But on the otherhand you get more of a lie in!

- And finally I stayed in Holiday inn to get points and make use of their extended checkout which is 2pm.

March parkruns

02/03 - Back at Pollok for the first time in 3 weeks. Did something a bit different today and started my watch when I crossed the start line rather than when they shout go and their timers started.  I wanted to see how long it took to cross the start line which was 30 seconds today.  As usual the first k was a bit slow as pace is very much dictated. But I got into my running after that and ended up just under 30 minutes watch time and 30.22 official parkrun time.  The official time was actually my second fastest time on the new route at Pollok.  I'm slowly getting used to it!

09/03 - Out for another adventure today as I was up to Dunfermline for their parkrun in Pittencrief park.  I stayed in Holiday Inn Express the night before near Dunfermline Queen Margaret station.  It was about 2 and half miles from the start so decided that was a bit too long a warm up so took the train from queen margaret to Dunfermline town and had a 0.7 mile jog warm up from the station to the start via the abbey to arrive with 10 minutes to spare to the start of the run.  At the first timers briefing the guy made it clear it was a hilly course and it was 3 laps so it was good to be mentally prepared in that respect.

At the start, I posistioned myself about half way down the pack. And got into my running straight away, absoultely no problems during in the entire run of getting stuck behind people or anything like that. The paths are nice and wide and there was 138 runners today.  There is one main hill you go up on each lap which I adjusted my pace for and made it up pretty comfortably each time.  To be honest I couldn't tell you how bad it was as I make a habit of looking at the ground when going up hills rather than looking up as I tend to find it mentally easier not seeing how far I have to go up it.  But to give you an idea of difficulty there were people around me that were walking up it on the first lap.  There are many undulations dotted around the loop but apart from the main loop the rest does feel quite flat and downhill.

I was delighted with my time as I dipped below 29 minutes with a 28.51.  Its my best time on a hilly course for quite sometime and as my Dad says considering I didn't know the course before hand its harder to know what pace to set out at so a good run.

16/03 - I wasn't sure what parkrun I was going to do today. The weather was dodgy so it was a case of waiting till 8.30am and seeing who was going to cancel and who was going to be on.  Drumchapel, Pollok, Ruchill and Linwood all cancelled but noone else had declared they were actually on so I gambled on the least likely to be off and headed for Tollcross. I thought it might be the alt course due to ice but it turned out the grass was actually slippier than the paths. So it was normal course. Although the run director in the briefing did say to take care as it was a bit slipply in places.

I took this on board and set off pretty conservatively.  The weather was pretty wild with sleety rain pouring for the majority.  But after the first lap I realised the underfoot conditions weren't really that bad and I could pick things up in the second lap.  I finished just over 30 minutes which I'll take on that course but I know if I was I bit more free flowing on the downhills on the first lap I would have been under 30.

23/03 - Today's adventure was back up to Aberdeen for Hazlehead parkrun. My hotel was about a mile and half away from the start but I decided just to walk rather than have a jog warm up to save myself for the actual run. It was a glorius day.  Its an out and back course up a wide trail path which runs along beside a golf course.  The first mile is a gradual uphill and I was a bit surprised when I looked at my watch to see I had done it in 10 minutes.  I know I wasn't going all out but I did think I was going a wee bit quicker than that. At the same time I was running well within myself but I did think it might be a slow one today.  The next mile which included the turn around I picked up the pace a bit and ran 8.50.  Then I really got into my stride when running down the hill to the finish and ended up finishing in 27 minutes and 11 seconds.  30 seconds quicker than my time up in Aberdeen the previous month and my fastest time in any parkrun since June 2017. My last mile was 8 minutes.  Delighted with it.

30/03 - Today was a last minute decision to do Linwood parkrun as I hadn't done it for a while and its one of my favourites. Met Finola from junior parkrun at the start and after half a mile we realised we were going the same pace so chatted for a bit. After the first mile I started to pull away. She could have gone a lot faster I think but she was saving herself for Tom Scott 10 miler the next day.  I felt pretty good all the way round and gradually increased the pace in the second and third miles. I ended up with a time of 26.41. 30 seconds quicker than the previous week. A great way to end what has been my best month of running in some time.

In my challenge to get my parkruns below 30 minutes on average this year. Overall I am now 29.49, thanks to some quick times this month.