By Lou Trainor
I have been doing parkrun since 2008 but not until I started attending the Quakers Parkrun Tourism events organised by Diane Lockhart and John Yeomans, was I introduced to a whole new parkrun language. Probably the most widely used is an Alphabeteer or alphabetourists, as they are sometimes known. Their target is to run 25 of the 26 letters in the alphabet (apparently no parkrun in the world begins with the letter ‘X’, yet!).
Whilst 24 letters can be found in the UK, you have to travel further afield to seek out a ‘Z’.
I was yet to embrace the idea of being an Alphabeteer, as getting up on a Saturday morning for Darlington parkrun is sufficient a challenge for me as it is, but I knew Diane was, and she was very close to completing the 25-letter challenge. I did a bit of research and found out there are very few Z parkruns around the world. Our nearest would be the Netherlands and earlier in the year I remembered reading a great write up from Lisa and Michelle who travelled to Teesside to Amsterdam to do the Zuiderpark parkrun.
I thought surely Poland will have a ‘Z’, and indeed it does. To my surprise Poland has five Z’s, although not all of them are easy to reach for a weekend. Some that looked easier to reach were parkrun Zielony Jar near Krakow, parkrun Żyrardowski Lagoon located between Warsaw and Lodz, and parkrun Zamek w Malborku near Gdansk. It was the idea of doing a parkrun beside the huge Malbork Castle in the Pomerania Region of Poland that seemed an interesting choice.
I checked flights and when I muted to Diane that there was a Z parkrun just outside Gdansk and that I had found flights less than £70 return, before you could say you’re A-Z, we had booked our flights, albeit with Ryanair, so by the time we added luggage they were a tad more expensive. However still very reasonable and the transport within Poland is very cheap. So, the first week of October we found ourselves en route to our first Z parkrun located in the vicinity of Malbork Castle.
Malbork Castle has a very long history. Built by the Teutonic Order after the conquest of Old Prussia. Its main purpose was to strengthen their own control of the area following the Order’s 1274 suppression of the Great Prussian Uprising of the Baltic tribes. In fact, Gdansk and the surrounds have a fascinating long history and is worth at least a weekend visit, parkrun or not.
An early train from Gdansk to Malbork takes approx. 50 – 60 minutes. Also depending on what type of train you get; the fares can vary considerably, but there is not that much difference in service or time therefore some pre-planning is recommended. Buying a ticket the day before is advisable as you may also find yourself waiting in line at the ticket office on the day of travel, (as we did, and nearly missing the train). However, this was something to do with the amount of local Goldwasser liqueur (‘gold water’) we had drunk the night before and not the lack of forward planning.
You also need to factor in your arrival into Malbork as ideally you want to arrive a good 45 minutes to have a very casual walk to the start as it is not so easy to find as the castle grounds are so big… we ended up jumping into a taxi. However, when we arrived at the Castle entrance they had never heard of the parkrun and to our surprise, there were no runners to be seen.
We knew we were not that far away, but with the castle in the middle and it being so big we couldn’t see!. With around 12 minutes to spare we needed to make a quick decision, do we go left, right or straight through. We kind of did a bit of haphazard zig-zag running for a minute in all 3 directions before we took the plunge to bypass the ticket office and run straight through the grounds (we don’t actually think this is what we were supposed to do). However, now through and on the other side we were very relieved to finally see some local runners whom instantly seemed to know what we were looking for as they waved us to the direction of the start as we followed in line.
At the start area, we met with other runners including a large group of 40 from Newmarket Joggers (who we had already introduced ourselves to on Friday evening as they were staying in the same hotel). They were akin to the Quakers social running club, and enjoying some laughter and chat in the bar – it was the decision we all made to have that one final drink in the hotel before we went to bed that myself and Diane were now regretting, as it was clear we were feeling a tad worse for wear. But nothing beats a parkrun for clearing the head.
Luckily, there was no hurry by the parkrun director to start at 9.00am prompt, which was to our favour. There was lots of preamble goings on and the usual parkrun first timers and milestones seemed to have been acknowledged as there was plenty of hands in the air followed by clapping. Some of the volunteers were dressed as pirates and the wearing of moustaches by volunteers and runners alike, which I believe was in support of man health week.
As for the course itself, it is an out and back course that follows the river Nogut and below Malbork Castle wall. KM markers were put in place and they also had music as we passed the start and finish area and a table with cakes and even mini beef burgers for when we finished.
We stayed about for photos and cake and chatted with the volunteers and other runners then walked into town with our new friends from Newmarket Joggers to find a café for more cakes and much needed coffee.
As for Malbork town, unless you wanted to visit the castle afterwards there is not a lot in the town itself and the cafes are nothing to shout about. However, if you were not bothered about getting the Z and you were visiting Gdansk for the weekend then there are other parkruns closer by. However, having travelled that far and mixing with other alphabeteers who were at the parkrun for one reason only, I would say it certainly was worth the ½ day trip.
In all, parkrun Zamek w Malborku was great fun and the parkrun director and volunteers were brilliant. Incidentally, I did see steps going into the river as a swimmer emerged as we passed by on the run. Perhaps a visit in the summer months could combine a swim in the river afterwards? Talking of swimming, whilst we were in Gdansk for 5 days, Diane did one better than the river and went for a swim in the Baltic Sea at the seaside town of Sopot (and yes, the Baltic lived up to its name). I could only bring myself to have a paddle before I thought my toes would drop off. So Brawo Diane!!).
Not one to miss out on a running event, I did find out that there was a half marathon happening the same weekend so I signed up for that too, as had some of our Newmarket Jogger friends. The start and finish were inside the Polsat Plus Arena Gdańsk home to Lechia Gdańsk which was fab. As most half marathons I have ran in Poland, it was very well organised and offered hot soup and refreshments afterwards.
If you find yourself visiting Gdansk, we would highly recommend amongst many other fascinating things to do:
- A Bike Tour which also gives a full history tour and very interesting and fun (all start at 10am}
- A visit to the World War 2 Museum (allow at least 3 hours), or the Solidarity Museum
- Sampling local beer and also Goldwasser – a popular Gdansk tradition since 1598.
- Trying Pierogi (savoury and sweet)
- Climbing the steps of St Catherines Church for the views