A long-awaited holiday to Russia, provided the opportunity for some serious Parkrun tourism. First up, the Yelagin Ostrov Parkrun in St. Petersburg. A city of islands and canals, this run was accessed via Metro and a river crossing. On the metro, we spotted a fellow runner in our carriage. We decided that this local would know where to go, so we would follow them to the start. As we left the Metro, we were surprised when he turned around and started speaking to us…in English! It transpired that he was from Cheltenham and an alumnus of the Cotswold Way Relay, but now worked in St Petersburg. Uncanny, given that there were only three runners from the UK in the race and we all arrived together.

When we arrived at the starting point it was clear we had arrived on a rather special day. It was the Yelagin Ostrov run’s 5th birthday. This meant there was a very festive mood. We started off with a group warm up which we were able to follow and a course briefing that we were not! Luckily, our compatriot was able to translate. He told us that there were a few puddles on the course, something that the Russian runners do their best to avoid. With my aversion to mud, I immediately felt right at home.

It was lovely to see that three traditions of parkrun ring true in Russia as much as in the UK, a sense of community, costumes (including a lady with a broom the reason for which I could not fathom out!) and of course, a LOT of cake. 

The run was a three-loop course on woodland paths, bounded by the Bolshaya Nevka river, quietly observant lion statues and glimpses of massive Gazprom tower. Taking care to avoid the infrequent puddles myself, it was generally a fast course, flat, albeit it with some loops, but finishing with a small decline and lots of encouragement from the marshals. At the end, everyone was presented not only with a token, but a shortbread parkrun medal. I very much approved of this innovation! This was followed by a variety of cakes, and huge chunks of watermelon.

All in all, it was a brilliantly friendly race run in a party atmosphere and I was pleased to run my fastest parkrun this year!

Our second parkrun took place in the second city we visited on our holiday, Moscow. There are many events in Moscow, but we selected the Gorky Park one which was closest to our hotel. 

This was another river-based route, this time along the embankment of the Moskva, Russia is certainly blessed with picturesque locations for running. On arriving, it was clear that this was going to be another flat and potentially fast course. The start was located across the river from the Druzhba (also known as ‘the spider’), the 1980 Olympic Games stadium and close to the considerably more sizeable Luzhniki. The numbers of runners looked quite small, but just before the start we were joined by a much larger group of parkrun tourists in tops we recognised…they were from St Petersburg!

As we started, I quickly realised the race was indeed very flat. It was quite an intense version of ‘bridges’, running between three large rail and road bridges. I recall thinking it might be quite tough to keep up a good pace for such a potentially fast race. As soon as I thought that, a small incline arose before us. At which I thought ‘oh no, a hill’. There is no pleasing some people!

It was indeed a fast-paced run and I was glad to see the ‘spider’ appear for the second time as we reached the end of the run. I was very glad we had made the effort to attend this race as it was an even faster parkrun than the previous week and turned out to be my best parkrun time ever, finishing as the first lady. Inconveniently, it seems that I run faster in Russia than at home!

After we finished a couple came up to us and it transpired they were from Guildford. They were getting an early run in that day before setting off to St Petersburg. There is certainly a synergy between these two famous cities. As we were talking, the race director came over to say zdravstvuyte (hello). Jokingly asking what we were doing running parkrun rather than seeing all the sites!. 

We really enjoyed both of our Russian runs. Both were characterised by the best spirit of parkrun, inclusive and friendly. They also look pretty cool on our results pages.