Tilgate parkrun, Crawley | Lakes, Hills & Woodland Trails on the way to Paris!

WTilgate parkrun in Crawley is one of the UK’s most scenic parkruns — here’s how we fit it into our cycle to Paris!

We’re cycling to Paris — but that doesn’t mean skipping our weekly parkrun fix! After our first day’s ride, we camped near Gatwick, so Tilgate parkrun in Crawley was the perfect choice for our Saturday morning.

Woken by the roar of jet engines, we packed up the tent, loaded the panniers, and wove our way through the backstreets of Crawley to Tilgate Park. At the start, we were warmly welcomed by Jim and George, and Iona even got a shout-out from the Run Director about her big cycling adventure.

Tilgate Park is a real gem — a large, leafy green space with a beautiful lake at its heart, peaceful woodland trails, and the colourful Walled Garden. The parkrun course takes in stunning views, gentle inclines, and winding paths that make for an enjoyable (and occasionally challenging!) route.

We took it steady — a relaxed run-walk — as we still had 48 miles to ride that day. Afterwards, we refuelled at the Walled Garden Café, which served up a fantastic breakfast and some much-needed coffee (or two!) before hitting the road again.

Hope you enjoy the film of our adventure, please like and subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/alittleadventuretime?sub_confirmation=1

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Useful Links
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Tilgate parkrun
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/tilgate/

Walled Garden Cafe for Breakfast
https://www.facebook.com/WalledGardenCafe

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About Ian, Iona and Family
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Each week on this channel Ian (Dad) and Iona share our little adventure experiences, often joined by Ewan (Iona’s older brother) and Ruth (Mum) too.

Our weekends often start with parkrun. Iona is on a non-repeat parkrun tourism streak having now visited over 100 different places since she started parkrunning. But we don’t just do parkun and dash home, we love exploring the area and often use bikes and trains for our travels to keep our carbon footprint low and because it adds to the adventure too. When school holidays arrive, longer adventures are possible with Ewan and Iona both being keen cycle tourists and mountain climbers!

So if you like heading outdoors and your idea of a perfect weekend includes parkrun, climbing a mountain or exploring new places on two wheels then we would love to have you join us on our adventures.

We’d love it if you subscribed so you can follow our journey and hopefully be inspired to get out the door and have your own little adventures. Do like and leave comments on our videos too on questions you might have or ideas for places to explore or adventures to go on.

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Standard Filming Kit
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Music from Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/o3mkb1

Good morning. We are on our way early with a sound of jet planes in the background that seminated us to sleep last night or something like that. Anyway, how are you feeling this morning, Aya? Eh, still feeling the miles from yesterday and your legs and bottom, are you? Maybe just my bottom. Maybe just your bottom. Legs. But first thing this morning, we’re off to park run cuz it’s a Saturday morning. What else would you do? Relax. Not for a strange setup there. It looks like tracks for buses. Very unusual. We’ve arrived at Tilgate Park. Go swimming after the park run. Open water swimming here in the lake. I can see a crowd of runners gathered over there for our park run fix on our cycle tour. Good morning. My name is Claire and I’ll be your run director of today’s event. I’d firstly like to welcome my Iona who is 12 years old and is continuing her cycling to London from London. 3 2 1 go. My old is that noise? Yeah. Army some. And guess what? We’re on the lookout for a mascot. A mascot. We are off on Tillgate Park Run. Two new things for a park run here that I’ve never seen before. So, one was a pre-record of all the safety announcements. So, rather than somebody able to read it out or try and remember it, it was just done as a pre-record played out on the speakers. And secondly, they have a split start. So faster run started one area, slow started another area. And as you go past the lake, you merge up together for the rest of the park run. But it saves it being too congested right at the very start. Just running past the lake now as we start. And the swimmer is out there as well enjoying a refreshing morning. Like if um Natalie had a mascot, it would be a um a go. Yes. We’re out on Tw. You’re running rather than cycling. How the legs feeling? Yeah. Can they feel the miles from yesterday in them? Yes. But is it enough for people from your bottom not sitting on the saddle for a bit? Had enough of myself. How can I track it out the window right now? It’d be even more uncomfortable to sitting on the seat post. just that whole take out the window. Be a long walk to Paris. But how do you think of what do you think of the park run? And do you say going to say hi to Natalie cuz this was a wishly her home park run, wasn’t it? Hi, Natalie. We wish you were here, but we’re loving your park run. Right. Whenever we go to our cafe like a shock le of shock le Well done. Well, one mile has just beeped on my watch and we have remembered the Haribo to bring on our tour. Partly because we need them when we’re cycling as well. So, I think I definitely deserves a Haribo today. What you going for? A red blob. A red blob. I don’t know what it is, but it’s sweet. Mhm. So, it hits the spot. What do you reckon is the playground, Diana? That’s good. Things you don’t expect to see in a park run in crawling. A cattle shack in the western. It’s certainly an beautiful park with some interesting quirky bits including a go ape here and I only spotted a pretty good looking playground as well and a zoo. Thank you. And now some forestry running again. Lovely. We’re just passing by the zoo behind the fence here. Hell. Yeah. Ia and I are slightly confused. We seem to have been merged with faster who just come from over there. Don’t wea? But um we still got M to do So, I’m assuming we demerge again at some point soon. We have just done our first lap, but we’ve done two miles. So, second lap is much smaller. Basically, just a lap of the lake, which is why we saw those faster runners merging in with us as we were coming towards the finish. And I’ve just seen a sign here saying that the bluebird was tested on this lake here when they were going for the water speed record. So, a bit of interesting history of the lake. I’d say though today a nice little shower would be nice cuz I am a bit warm. But like when it’s like absolutely soaking, it’s not the nicest. We’re just on the little section now back towards the finish. The watch has just ticked over to 3 miles. So should be just.1 of a mile to go. I know. It’s quite cool, isn’t it? Yeah. So, as we come to the finish line, what have we made of tailgate part one? Yeah. Enjoying it. Nice break from the bike. Now, it’s time for breakfast, is it? What have we finished? Refuel the batteries. Ready for some cycling. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Before we head to breakfast, Diana, what’s your rating of the playground? So, the bit down there is a three slash two because it’s just a lot younger. Yeah. But the bit up here, I’d say is probably actually 4.5. Oh, what does it not loose? Cuz it could probably be a bit better. Completely five. Completely five for a George. I’d say it could be slightly better. Could you? Ah, as you know. How about this? I’d say 4.8. All I need to add is an accent. Almost perfect, but not quite. Yeah. All I’m after is some breakfast. And everybody recommends the wall garden. So, let’s get head there. That is needed. First coffee of the day after park. Normally there’s at least one before. Has 1% sugar. Definitely needed this. It has. Well, we’ve enjoyed breakfast, haven’t we, Anna? How was your breakfast? Nice. Nice. What do you reckon? This is a rating. Five. Five out of five breakfast. We were less convinced about the wasps. So, we migrated inside, didn’t we? After you’d been stung, unfortunately, haven’t you? But we’re okay. So, that’s the end of today’s little part one adventure. Hope you’ve enjoyed it and make sure you keep an eye out for the rest of our London to Paris adventure.