Y Promenad parkrun

This parkrunday I went further away from home and visited Y Promenad in Brecon, Wales. Or Y Promenâd, if using the correct spelling. This is a relatively new event that started in spring 2024 and it was holding its event number 7 on the day of my visit, so it also helped for my (pathetic) Wilson Index progress.

If we stick to parkrun challenges, beautiful Y Promenad parkrun offers a great opportunity to catch a rare Y for the parkrun alphabet challenge. This was the main excuse for my trip there: Y events used to be rare in the UK (or in Europe), but Welsh events seem to be catching on the opportunity and Brecon was first.

That said, when I saw the location, its landscape and its route, I knew I had to visit. This is a perfect example of what parkrun challenges and parkrun tourism mean for me: a fairly pointless excuse to get on the road and visit new beautiful, interesting, unusual places where I have not been yet. Brecon is gorgeous and I am glad I went. I now know I will be back to the area again for a longer visit.

I think I will start straying further away from home every now and then going forward. One of the great things about living in London is that there is so much to explore within 1 hour that sometimes we forget what a beautiful country we have if we travel a bit more. I would love to keep doing this.

Back to Y Promenad parkrun, the moment you approach Brecon you realise this is a special place. And when you enter the car park, you are immediately stunned by the beauty of the riverside location. It is definitely worth a visit!

Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Y Promenad parkrun!

Trip to Y Promenad parkrun and parking

I won’t fall into a geography lesson, but for people considering a trip from further out, Y Promenad parkrun is in Brecon, South Wales. This is probably 40/50 minutes drive from the Welsh-English border, roughly in the middle of South Wales. Road connections are good, but the last 20 miles or so are on local roads, so don’t expect to fly through.

What this means is that if you are coming from the South East or any other area not close to South Wales, you should consider your travel options when coming here. You could get on a car in the middle of the night or try making more out of your trip and book one (or more) night in an hotel to break the trip and enjoy your parkrunday more as a fresh human being.

When I first thought about visiting, I found The Castle Hotel, which seems to be relatively nice and very very close to Y Promenad parkrun’s meeting place. Probably both because it is prime holiday season and because I only decided to book a few days in advance, there were no rooms available for the night I needed. There are other options available in Brecon, mainly guest houses or small establishments. However, I opted for the Premier Inn Abergavenny, about 20 minutes drive from Brecon and on the way if driving from England. It is not a nice hotel and it is not in a scenic location, but it is functional, clean and convenient. And early on parkrunday morning, the drive to Y Promenad parkrun is fast and pleasant.

When you get into town, follow your satnav app to the provided postcode, LD3 9LL and you will reach the event car park. It is not huge, but it is perfectly fine given current numbers at this location. When I got there at about 8:20am, it was probably about 70% empty. You could also consider using one of the town centre car parks if you want to explore Brecon a bit more afterwards. While small, I later used the Brecon Cathedral car park and it seems to be a decent base for some exploration. It also accepts RingGo, while the main event car park does not.

The main event car park requires payment and there is one machine available for it. On the day I visited, its contactless scanner did not work, but inserting a physical card worked. Or cash, if anyone still carries that around.

Once you live your car, you will immediately know you are in the right place. Why? Because you will be surrounded by other parkrun tourists, all here to explore this wonderful new venue.

Y Promenad parkrun: start and briefings

The meeting point is not signposted from the car park, but it is only 3/4 minutes walk away. Or probably more, if you walk to the riverside and stop to enjoy the wonderful views. You should have more than enough people around to follow, but if not just head left from the river and climb up the small hill behind the boathouse. Or use the always great 5K parkrunner app and tap on the navigation link.

If you need the toilets, bear in mind they are in the opposite direction, about 5 mins walk away. So go there before and allowing enough time for some queue and the walk back. I started going there, but then saw other parkrunners coming back saying the queue was long, so I did not check them out myself and cannot provide first hand views.

The meeting point is about 10m above the riverside level. This provides a nice vantage point for pictures, but it also means you will need to run those 10m up and down twice during the event. This is the only real elevation here, short but steep.

Once you reach the meeting point, everyone is spread along a 50 metre stretch of the path. There are benches for spectators and nice views over the river, but that’s it. No other facilities up here. Not a problem though, because you are less then 5 minutes walk from the boathouse and the car park.

The First Timers happens 20m on from what will be revealed as the start line. The volunteer who gave it was extremely friendly and welcoming. It is funny how they didn’t even try to ask where tourists came from, since I had the feeling about half of the fields were tourists. I think at event 7 they have been swamped by novelty and letter chasers so far, but I would not be surprised if this venue were to remain a parkrun tourism hotspot. Why? Because it is in a truly beautiful location and the team are incredibly nice.

Everyone then lines up where some tape has been laid out to split the path in the middle. This will be important later, but when starting people can position on either side of it. An enthusiastic briefing is given quickly and everyone will be already lined up and ready to start.

The countdown soon comes, loud and clear. 3,2,1.

Go!

Y Promenad parkrun course review – star ratings

Y Promenad parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 179 parkrunners on the day I visited. Since this is only event number 7, it is very early to draw conclusions about long term attendance level. I got the feeling that about 40/50% of the field were tourists, so I will dare guess a local core of 60/70 should be available, purely based on my sole visit. This is a solid core for a good, successful and functional event. And then we have tourists. I truly believe this event will remain popular with tourists, so there will always be more visiting than at other events. But I suspect numbers might decrease over time, as they often do. Also, since there is a long stretch on grass I suspect numbers will peak during dry months and decrease during wet months, but we will have to see. Due to the way the course is laid out, I don’t there there are any problems dealing with numbers around 200 and, maybe, even 300, but many more could become problematic.

The paths Y Promenad parkrun is run on can be fairly narrow, out of the open section around the fields. I think there are three points where large groups can get stuck. First, the 360 degrees turnaround point. That said, as switchbacks of this kind go, this is fairly comfortable, with grass available to accomodate larger groups. Second, the inclines leading down from and up to the start/finish area. They are narrow and steep, so big groups will have to slow down here. Finally, a tight corner at the end of the open grass section: not dangerous, but I think if you approach it in a large group, some people might have to slow down/stop. Does this mean congestion was ever a problem or detracted from enjoying this great event? Not at all: it all flowed extremely well and I truly enjoyed it. But this course will never be able to accomodate huge numbers, so bear that in mind and don’t come here for ‘special event numbers’.

Surface-wise, it’s a tale of two sections. 2/3 of the course are made up of an out and back section along the river. This is all on good, well laid, flat tarmac. Then 1/3 is along the perimeter of an open fields area and this is all on grass. On the day I visited, the grass was short, dry and a pleasure to run on. But it was July, so no idea how bad it can get in winter. I run in road shoes and it was absolutely fine when I was there. Maybe consider trail shoes if it has been raining non-stop for a week.

Elevation-wise, at 28m elevation gain, over 2 laps, this is fairly flat. I classed it as ‘mildly undulating’ on my summary above, because it is never perfectly pancake flat (or Welsh cake flat?), but this is not a hilly course. Maybe it is still some mild trauma from Lullingstone parkrun skewing my judgement, who knows. Where is that elevation coming from on a riverside course? From the start/finish point being elevated. So the only real elevation are the ramps leading up and down from it.

In terms of course design, it is simple and similar to several other riverside events. The twist to the elevated hub point makes it a bit different and adds different looping paths around it, which is cool and fun. Simplifying, it is an out and back along the river with an additional loop around an open fields area. And you do it twice. It reminded me the layout of events like Thames Path or Kingston, but the surroundings here are on another level.

A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.

As said, everyone is already lined up and ready to start when 9am come. The start is fairly wide and comfortable and it comes with one issue for people who need to conserve energy. The surface is great and course designers deceptively decided to gift us a downhill start. So people tend to go off faster than they should. I know I did.

The initial downhill segment is fun. It starts under tree cover, then you reach the riverside path and trees start fading away. A short flat bit before you have to turn sharp right and start a long, gentle left-leaning turn. The bit starting here has two-way flow. On the first lap you want see other runners for a while, but since it is not a long stretch to the turnaround, it will soon become because, for a fun visual effect. After the gentle turn, it will be time to transition to a straight one. It starts open, then you transition into a nice tree covered ‘avenue style’ bit and then open air again. Shortly after leaving the tree-covered section, it is time to turn-around 360 degrees and re-trace our steps.

On the way back, we run exactly the same path, in the opposite direction, meeting many runners catching up with us. I have said it already, but if done well two-way flow sections are a lot of fun. And here it is made well. Half way back, say hi to the otter wooden statue. It is watching all these weird humans running back and forth and it is puzzled.

When it is time to turn sharp left, we have now reached the bottom of the fun downhill section we had run straight after the start. But you know, physics are evil and now we need to go up. It is not steep, so running up should be fun, at least the first time. When we have reached the top, we do not go to the meeting point this time. Just before it, a volunteer points us down a small path that skirts left and starts going down again. This is narrow and fairly steep, but if you are not in a good crowd it can actually be a lot of fun. Mature trees, short glimpses of the river, easy downhill running, what else could we ask for?

When we reach the river level, we run past the boathouse, bask in the views, then run past the car park and onwards. Here we lose the river views, but gain beautiful views on rolling hills in front of us and on our right. We keep running straight for a short while, then turn right and left to enter the fields and start a fairly long segment on grass. We cross the field, turn left and get to its ends and then turn right to keep running back to the side we came from on grass. This last crossing is broken up twice by mature tree copses, providing welcome variety.

When we have nearly reached the side of the fields by the car park, we are met by a tarmac path again. But when it starts, we first need to negotiate a quick and tight left-right snakey corner. After it, keep running to the edge of the fields, turn right then to run the short side of the fields towards the river again. Here we turn left and enter another counterflow segment, in front of the car park.

We run again in front of the car park, bask in the views a bit more and then turn left just before the boathouse. Another short narrow segment on the side of the boathouse leads us to a sharp right turn and another short but steep climb. This is a narrow path, but it won’t be long before we reach the top and are cheered by volunteers and spectators. At the top, head towards the start area and run by it on the right side of the tape that was laid out before. We are done with lap one and off to lap two, to do it all again!

When we reach the end of the second lap, it is time to brave the short incline again and then let it all go for a short sprint finish. It wasn’t 100% clear to me where the finish line actually was so I ended up sprinting nearly all the way to the volunteer who was distributing the tokens, but I managed to stop just at the right time. 🙂

Plenty of volunteers and a nice organised flow make scanning very efficient and pleasant.

Congratulations on completing Y Promenad parkrun!

Facilities at Y Promenad parkrun

Y Promenad parkrun takes place along a riverside path. A boathouse cafe acts as focal point and offers refreshments and watersport facilities. There is a children playground by the car park and toilets on the other side of the fields. However, if you want more, then you need to walk into town. And it is worth it, because Brecon is definitely worth a visit.

The boathouse cafe is open after the event. It is small but it offers a few seats indoor and some nice seating outdoor. Surprisingly, it also has a small old style arcade area inside.

Cold and hot drinks are available, alongside what looked to be decent bacon baps. In terms of sweet pastries, there are no fresh options, but a few decent pre-packaged ones.

As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location?

At Y Promenad parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a diet Coke and two Welsh cakes (had to, right?). This cost £6.5, which is ok given the location.

Y Promenâd parkrun: Video Highlights

As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂

The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

I really enjoyed Y Promenade parkrun. It is a gorgeous location, hosting a quirky course that works very well. A great volunteer team tops everything off to make a wonderful destination parkrun that I am sure will remain popular with tourists well beyond the novelty factor.

And this short trip convinced me I need to spend more time in Wales in the future. A lovely country that deserves to be explored.

Finally, obviously, diolch, Y Promenâd parkrun team for your hospitality!