Morning Rain: Fog Lane park
Once you get into the habit of running outdoors two or three times a week, it can be quite confusing to move to a different city – finding suitable routes of various distances takes some time and patience, especially if you live in an area without parks, and treadmills in stuffy gyms are certainly no substitute.
As soon as I had left the red brick desert that is Rusholme (including a house that I shared with 5 people and several venturous mice, boasting special features such as mouldy walls and a kitchen ceiling that caved in one night) I began exploring south Manchester on google maps and found that little green spot called “Fog Lane Park“, just off Wilmslow Road. Apparently a bit of a “dodgy area”* due to it bordering on Burnage’s council estates, the park didn’t seem very popular with anyone I asked about it. (And I have to mention that someone actually managed to spray a graffiti onto a bush. Good work!)
At the first sight, there really isn’t much to this fairly large park – a field, trees, a football pitch and a kid’s playground. But if you set out to explore the little corners and keep your eyes open, you will find a pond, occupied by ducks and geese, next to constructed wetland, small patches of wild flowers, squirrels fighting each other, proud parents watching their kids play football on Saturday afternoons (sounds cheesy, but I’m not making this one up – I ran past a happily smiling family yesterday, absolutely heart warming!), an impressive number of different dog breeds and even some apple trees.
I know, I know – in my very first post I said that Fog Lane park wasn’t “too exciting” and now I’m praising it? Well, it may not be a lovely picnic park like Fletcher Moss, but it has a fantastic atmosphere in grey and rainy weather, with dark clouds hanging over the tall trees, heavy from the rain they are about to unleash onto the city (and, boy, they DO unleash buckets of rain with full force at the moment). Fortunately, the leaf canopy is dense enough to keep you dry before you run back home, along Old Broadway with its beautiful large houses and magnificent flowers in their front gardens.
* Dodgy area = The whole city bar Chorlton and Didsbury. Hang on, Chorlton was only just named the “nation’s burglary capital”? Ah well.
[Photo of curious duck by "Cokaigne". Thanks!]
Category: Green, Like, Manchester, Truth or Myth 4 comments »
August 11th, 2010 at 12:29
I’ve run through Fog Lane Park on a long run with some friends (in prep for my first ever marathon this year! Still recovering…) but when I visited Chorlton Water Park, I thought that would be a really lovely place to run. There are lots of ways to link it up with other cycle paths, riverbank etc. It’s also good if you don’t want to go too far/don’t want to go anywhere too wuiet if running alone, as you can do nice laps round the lake.
Reminds me, I haven’t blogged about it yet!
August 11th, 2010 at 12:40
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sam | b&n magazine and Dan Feeney, Kath Horwill. Kath Horwill said: RT @bunmagazine: Hello Manchester! I've written something about one of your parks, and I've got a fancy new logo! Look: http://bit.ly/9BNp65 [...]
August 11th, 2010 at 14:19
Hey, thanks for the pointer! I realised Chorlton Water Park was really close when I went for a bike ride a couple of months ago (after I got lost in Northenden… I’m useless ;) ). It did look very running friendly to me, I’m just a bit worried because there’s nothing else around…
Have you already done the marathon? Congratulations! :)
August 13th, 2010 at 17:24
Manchester and environs has so many lovely parks – it is a shame the yobs discover them too sometimes – i’d be very wary at night but during the day is usually OK.