The Course
Bedford has had a couple of parkruns for some time in Bedford Park and Great Denham that can get pretty busy. In 2025 a third started in Jubilee Park (postcode MK42 0AZ).
I made my first visit there in May 2026, although I used to run there as it was the cross country course for my school.
The course is all on hard paths, although these can be uneven in places. It should never be really muddy, but the start and finish are on grass.
The course is almost three laps of the park. You start off anti-clockwise towards the finish and then take a sharp left to cut across the middle and join the main clockwise loop. On the third time you turn off into the finish funnel.
It is pretty flat. There is a small rise on the first partial lap and a smaller one on the main loop, but these should not slow you down much and so there is potential for good times.
Transport
There are buses that stop nearby. If you are driving then you can park at the nearby Bunyan Sports Centre where marshals will guide you in. It is a short walk from there to the start across the main road and down an alley.
Facilities
There are no toilets in the park and those at the sports centre may not be open before the start. People go to the cafe there afterwards.
Conclusion
For me it was nice to revisit where I used to run many years ago and I got my best time in a long while. It was not too busy and seems to get around 150 finishers. It may be popular with tourists looking to get a J for their parkrun alphabet.
You can see my run here.
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Are they close enough to do 2 parkruns on the same Saturday? In the early days you used to be able to double up if you were fast enough to finish the first one then get to the second one and catch the tail walker. The parkrun computer stops any double dipping nowadays. It used to be possible to do it across the date line as well. I have not done it but heard stories from people that have.
It may be a ten minute drive between two of them so it's theoretically possible. I don't know of anyone doing that. They used to stagger the runs for new year, but may have stopped that as people were racing to get to the second one. You can get too obsessed with these things, but it should really be for fun.
There's a young lady who helps at Henlow and she has had some health issues, but she really wanted to get back there. It means a lot to people.
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Update: @steevc, I paid out 5.661 HIVE and 0.000 HBD to reward 3 comments in this discussion thread.
It would be great to walk or run in such a green and flat place.
We have plenty of places like that.