Six in the East

Run time: 47:09
Distance covered: 4.86 miles (7.82 km)
Soundtrack: Smashing Pumpkins, Adore
Conditions: sunny and spring-like


Lots of disapproving pictures on social media this weekend of people sunbathing, picnicking and not observing proper social distancing in parks, so I decided this was a good day to take on six of the less-loved parks, in the east of Glasgow. These ones are far removed from the beauty spot trail, so I figured I would have them mostly to myself, and I was right.

I had to drop in to a couple of older relatives to check they were okay first, and deliver soup. My dad was out in the back garden making preparations to cut down a tree, which is classic my dad. My wife's gran was pleased to get a visit (appropriately distanced, obviously), and she talked about the only thing she could compare the current situation to being the war. She was an infant when WWII began, so she had grown up for a few years never knowing anything different. We wondered if our kids would start to feel that way after a while; that they've always been quarantined. She talked about how they would see older ladies (though she now realises they were in their twenties) crying, and it would just be another normal thing about the world. Hopefully that isn't something my kids ever have to get used to.

After that, it was time to get my daily exercise. Since we have a lot more time on our hands thanks to coronavirus, one of the activities I've kept busy with is to plot all of the parks I've identified on this Google map. It really helps to see where the various parks are in relation to one another. The blue pins mean I haven't run it yet, pink means I have, black means I'm sceptical as to whether there actually is a park where the council claims, and will need to investigate further. Like I said, lots of time on my hands.

Anyway, looking at the map, I saw that there were four smallish parks relatively close to one another: Mount Vernon, Barrachnie, Early Braes and Garrowhill. Then I noticed there were two more, right at the edge of the city council area: Crosshill and James Lindsay. Could I knock them all off in one run? Spoiler, yes, but I did have to do a little more prep than usual exploring the best route through Google maps.

It was a nice day, I encountered no picnickers or sunbathers, and the few pedestrians I did encounter, everyone was really careful to stay at least the recommended distance apart. The great thing about the vastly-reduced traffic is you can safely run down the middle of the road if someone else is using the pavement.

How were the parks? Well...

Barachnie Park

I opted to start with this one, rather than run up the hill from Mount Vernon. Not much to it, just a running track and some skate ramps. A nice woodland trail at the edge, that doesn't seem to be part of the park proper, though. If there's a sign for this park, I didn't see it.


Early Braes Park

One of those parks that's really just a strip of green space between streets, but some nice daffodils (see the first pic in this post).



Garrowhill Park

Small, nice view from the top, some trees, playpark. Basic but fine.



Crosshill Park

Barely worthy of the name, very small strip of green with a playpark, but it technically counts, so I ran it.


Even so, it's still slightly better than...

James Lindsay Memorial Park

Lame. A dull, uninspiring stretch of grass for dog walkers. They haven't even bothered with paths. Early days, but this is the worst park in Glasgow so far. 


After a quick jaunt around this one, I was grateful to be running down deserted main streets all the way to...
Mount Vernon Park

Back down Glasgow Road and Mount Vernon Avenue to the final park. Again, fairly basic, but some nice trees and a basketball court. 



All in all, a good run. I could probably turn it into a 10k if I run it again by closing the loop, but it was enough for one day.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Botanic Gardens and Bingham Pond

Image
Run time : 30:25 Distance covered : 3.29 m (5.29km) Soundtrack :   David Tennant's podcast Conditions : sunny, early autumnal  Before I moved to the suburbs and became a boring dad, I used to have a flat in the west end of Glasgow. I still miss the old neighbourhood whenever I come back, particularly when I'm in one of my favourite spots, like the Botanic Gardens. I already knocked off a big chunk of the west end parks on my run back in June. I covered Victoria a couple of weeks ago, and I'm saving Kelvingrove for the big finish, so that left just two west end parks. One I was very familiar with, and one which I had never visited before. The latter was Bingham's Pond. Another park I must have driven by a hundred times without noticing. It's nestled between Great Western Road and Gartnavel General Hospital. Having run so many parks on this project (96 as of today), I've noticed them falling into categories: e.g. Classic Victorian, Uninspiring 60s, Nature Reserve,...
Read more

The Ranking

Image
Just for fun, and because I'm probably one of the few people who has attempted to visit every park, I've decided to rank them.  It goes without saying, my ranking is entirely subjective, and I haven't spent too long agonising over the placement of each park. These are just gut reactions as I work my way through the parks, and it's simply a rough idea of how much I liked each park.  Apologies if I've graded your favourite park harshly. Maybe I just caught it on a bad day. Linn Park  - 19/03 Kelvingrove Park - 04/10 Victoria Park - 27/08 Maxwell Park - 13/04 Queens Park - 26/01 Cambuslang Park - 21/01 Newlands Park - 19/04 Botanic Gardens - 08/09 Kings Park - 19/01 Alexandra Park - 22/05 Rosshall Park - 05/06 Pollok Park  - 28/03 and 20/08 Rouken Glen Park - 03/09 Glasgow Green - 05/02 Tollcross Park - 15/03 Hogganfield Park - 04/07 Cuningar Loop  - 01/05 Ruchill Park - 22/09 Necropolis - 30/09 Maryhill Park - 27/09 Bellahouston Park - 0...
Read more

Alexandra Park

Image
Run time : 30:58 Distance covered : 3.36 miles (5.41km) Soundtrack : Red Desert , by Paddy Magrane Conditions : after the rain First large park I've run in a while. Although there are a lot more people out than a few weeks ago, the weather was pretty uninspiring today, so the park was quiet. I love running in between smaller parks and checking out the different neighbourhoods, but it was a nice change to be in a park where I could run a whole 5k without repeating my steps too much. This is probably the biggest Glasgow park I had never been in before. I've only ever driven past it when traffic has forced me off the M8 and onto Alexandra Parade. It's an interesting park. Kind of iceberg-like, in that there's a small area near the entrance that's very well-presented with flower beds and a Victorian fountain, but there's a big, rougher hinterland that a casual visitor could miss. It's Victorian, which means it's a ...
Read more