XC parkrun - Cofton Park
August 2026 saw the start of the long awaited Cofton Park parkrun and one of the few true "cross country" parkruns in the UK. There are parkruns on beaches, on forest trails, prison yards and other idyllic locations but few which could pass for a real cross country race (at 9am and not a race).
Cofton Park, next door to the former car plant at Longbridge (Rover, British Leyland), has played host to the Inter Counties XC on several occasions. When Ian Stewart was Head of Endurance at UK Athletics and the World XC was an annual event, he wanted somewhere flat for the World Trials to mimic the sort of courses you'd get at the Worlds. There wasn't enough parking at Perry Hall Park (opposite the Alexander Stadium on the other side of the city) so the Trials came to Cofton.
Nobody had Strava in 2013 so I can't find a course map, but from memory it was something like this (below) with the senior men doing 4 laps. Very wet, very muddy, and when I arrived the team manager had scarpered with the county's entire supply of vests and his phone was off. Classic English cross country in every sense.
Evolution not revolution, or vice versa
There was another course used in 2015 which was much hillier, going towards the bottom left of the map above (the long straight path goes across the top of a long straight hill).
The 2026 parkrun course is nothing like either Inter Counties course though. It starts in the opposite direction although from roughly the same place in the park. It's still a tough loop which goes up into the woods behind the nursery and up to Lowhill Lane. I'm not totally convinced it's a full 5km, but really by the time I get to 4.8km these days I'm grateful for the early finish.
When winter sets in it'll be bleak and muddy, so from November onwards I recommend trail shoes or spikes. This is one of the few parkruns where proper xc spikes would be perfectly okay as there are no road/trail/path sections, just honest grass and mud.
Practical notes: parking is limited so you're probably on the street not in the little car park (capacity 20). Lowhill Lane is the best bet, and the housing estate to the west is already narrow so best avoided if possible. Last time I ran the parkrun there was a coffee van in the car park, or there's a teacakes and bacon rolls sort of cafe to the left of the map near where the care home is marked.
