Osterley parkrun

Please note: This is an old post and some details have changed including the course. I revisited in November 2024 so please refer to that post for a more up-to-date write-up:

Link: Osterley parkrun 2024 write-up

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Upon arrival at the grounds of Osterley Park and House you know you have just entered somewhere special. This is one of the last surviving country estates in London and is managed by the National Trust. The centre-piece of the estate is the Georgian House and is surrounded by gardens, park and farmland.

On 31 August 2013, the estate became home to Osterley parkrun and I was there for the inaugural running of the event. I travelled by bicycle and used one of the bespoke National Trust bicycle racks to secure my bike. If this happened to be full, there is a fence right the way along the path around the finish area that you could use as an alternative.

For those who prefer to drive, there is a car park. The arrangement is that if you show your parkrun barcode to the car park attendant you will be allowed to park free of charge for the duration of the event - if you don't have it you'll have to cough up £3.50 to cover the car parking fee.

Public transport links are good - Osterley tube station is less than a mile away so it doesn't take long to walk or jog to the venue. Isleworth train station is a little further away at 1.5 miles but should still be a viable option for most.

You'll be pleased to hear that there are toilets and they are located right next to the finishing line - on the day I went to the venue they were opened at about 8.20am, that should be early enough for even the keenest parkrunner.

The course is flat, is run over three-and-a-bit laps and starts right next to 'Garden Lake', which is adjacent to the house. The first 150 metres covers the 'and-a-bit' section. You are then required to run three clockwise laps of the course.

The first part of the lap is on a loose gravel surface and continues for about 500 metres before you turn right at the far end of the park and run about 300 metres along a compacted dirt path - this path is definitely not even and contains many large holes which were still full of water even though the last rainfall was almost a week earlier. In the wetter months this is going to be quite a difficult section to run as runners may not be able to judge how deep each hole is.

At the end of this path there is a hard right turn through a narrow gate - this point of the course had a marshal and hopefully always will because it is so easy to run straight past it - I did just that during my recce lap and bumped into a fisherman and a few dog walkers before realising my error.

The next section is a forest trail which takes you along the edge of 'Middle Lake' where you must be extremely careful of the protruding tree roots - I heard of a number of runners tripping as they ran through this section. The first lap is where risk of tripping is at its highest as this is when runners are bunched up and not so able to see the ground clearly.

As you emerge from the foresty bit, the terrain changes to grass for about 600 metres or so (watch out for the odd pot-hole). On the last part of the grass you run directly towards the house, which really is quite stunning. At the end of the lap you turn right back onto to gravel path to start the next lap.

At the end of the third lap you will stay on the grass and follow the cones into the finish funnel.

On the National Trust webpage it says that dogs must be kept on a lead, so I was hopeful that this would be a good course for those nervous around dogs. However the grass section of the run goes straight through the area that has been set aside as an off-lead dog area. Not a major point and I didn't have any issues but still worth noting.

Buggy runners will get around easily in the dry and will have a slightly tougher time in the wet but in my opinion will still be fine. An off-road-style running buggy would be my preference.

This is a really nice course to run and, providing you stay upright, certainly has pb potential during dry conditions where standard road shoes are fine, but I suspect that in the wetter months trail shoes might come in handy.

Put it on your to-do list!

Riddlesdown parkrun event 118

If this entry looks odd it is because I'm writing it using the blogger android app on my phone instead of on a real computer.

Anyway....

Up until the Thursday, I was set on finally making it to Bromley parkrun. But then Riddlesdown's event director tweeted a teasing photo of the label of a package she had just recieved and was extremely similar to this..

Yes! My 100 club kit had arrived.

So on the drizzly August bank holiday weekend I drove down to Riddlesdown for the special presentation. 

Paul Groves also recieved his 100 kit on the same day. An interesting fact - I was the first person to run 50 runs at Riddlesdown and Paul is getting very close to being the first to run 100.

So after the excitement it was time to run. I was going to go for a proper time trial effort, but I ended up chatting to a few other runners during the first lap (as I always do at Riddlesdown) so I scrapped that idea.

Time trial or not, it's always great to be amongst the familiar faces at my parkrun home and I do miss not being there every week. However, goals have been set and the tour must continue!

Lastly I'd like to add a huge thank you to Nicki and the rest of the Riddlesdown crew for making the last two-and-a-bit years worth of parkrunning such an amazing experience.

Crane parkrun

Please note: I understand the course has been changed since my visit.

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Deep in west London there is a river called the river Crane, and at a certain section around its banks is a park which is named after this narrow channel of water. The river cuts this park in two and acts as a boundary between two different London boroughs. On the Northern side of the river you have Richmond and on the Southern side, Hounslow.

A former use of the land was as a Gunpowder mill and you can still see the remains of this as you run the course. There is also a nature reserve which is on an island between two channels of the river. They say that the reserve is home to a thriving colony of Marsh Frogs and the rare Water Vole but despite looking I didn't manage to spot either when I was having my pre-run wander along the banks of the river.

In the days leading up to my visit, I was desperately trying to find some information on bicycle parking but none seemed to be available (Richmond and Hounslow both have web pages on the park but didn't cover this subject). Anyway, now I've been there I can tell you that there is a set of cycle racks - to find them you need to go into the Northern half of the park and find the shot tower (a relic from the park's gunpowder producing days) and you'll see the racks right next to it.

By train the nearest stations are Whitton (London) and Fulwell, but they'll both involve an extra bit of walking or jogging to reach the park.

There is no car park here. Looking at google maps you could probably probably park on one of the side streets. If you follow the advice on the Crane parkrun webpage and park on Meadway you'll have to leave yourself enough time for a nice stroll along the river to reach the start line. The advantage here is that you'll apparently have access to toilet facilities.

If you look at the map above you might be able to make out the Dragonfly Trail - The run follows this route and the toilets are right over on the eastern edge of the park (I didn't go that far over so am unsure of opening times etc). There are no other toilets in the park, so if you head straight to the run and find that you are desperate, your only option looks like going 'back to nature'. I may or may not have taken this option.

So, the run. It's a one-and-a-half-ish lap course which starts at the playground in the southern half of the park and is run in a clockwise direction. While in the southern half the course is run on a dusty, mildly gravely surface (similar to Bedfont Lakes parkrun) which meanders through the trees and along the river until you reach the exit. At this point you turn right and run along Hounslow Road, which crosses the river.

A few metres later the route enters the northern half of the park, here you run on tarmac paths. Again the route meanders through the trees and passes the shot tower, where I have a glance towards the bike racks to check that bike is ok - it is, but is the only one there - it seems that most runners have used the fence at the Great Chertsey Road entrance.

After running 2 kilometres you will pass the finish area (it probably won't be set up at this point, but don't worry - it will be when you come back around!). This time you just keep running until you reach the opposite end of the park, where again you leave the park, turn right and run along the Great Chertsey Road, again crossing the river as you do so.

Shortly after turning back into the southern part of the park you'll pass the start line, this is the 3 kilometre point so is a good place to glance at the watch to see how things are going. If you're anything like me you'll divide your total time by three to find out your kilometre pace and then try to work out your approx finish time. Then again if you have a fancy pants GPS watch that tells you all of this you'll miss out on the fun of on-the-go maths!

From here you'll follow the previously run route until you come back around to the finish line, which will be glaringly obvious as you'll see a number of markers (are these things cones?) along the ground to direct you towards the timekeeper and the finish token giver-outerer.

It's a lovely, tranquil place for an early morning run, the course is fast and flat, the locals are very friendly and the volunteers, as always, are brilliant!

Dartford Sweatshop Running Community and Strava Segments

My home Sweatshop Running Community venue is Dartford. The route here is 5 kilometres and has its fair share of undulations.

Below is a map of the standard route. I thought it would be fun to some weeks use it for a spot of interval training so as I am using the Strava app to log my runs I thought I would set up a few segments. Not all of the segments below were set up by me (1,2,3,4,5 and 8 are the ones I set up) but here are the ones that are currently active on the route that I'd use for running the interval or fartlek style training. There are two others, the first half and the second half, but they are not relevent to the training in this post.

1. Darenth Road From the un-named Side Road up to Dene Road (0.2km flat-ish)
2. Is the length of the bus-only section of Darenth Road (0.4km slightly uphill)
3. Princes Road, from Darenth Road to Lowfield Street. (0.6km downhill)
4. Heath Lane from the roundabout to Sycamore Road (0.3km uphill)
5. Sycamore Road - Halfords Car Park Road (0.3km uphill)
6. Princes Road, Heath Lane to the Highfield Road South junction (0.9km downhill)
7. Princes Road, from Lowfield Street to Darenth Road (0.6km uphill)
8. Darenth Road - The Final Sprint (0.1km flat)

Of course these segments are too close to each other to run all of them at a hard pace all on the same run without going for an all-out 5k effort (which is of course another training option), but by mixing them up from week to week it should keep things interesting. For example, last week I ran hard on segments 2, 4 and 7 but ran an easier pace (approx 10k pace) for the rest of the run.

All of the segments avoid sections where I have to cross a road, so I can concentrate on running them at my chosen pace and not be tempted to take risks crossing a road at speed or without looking. I'm finding this segment thing quite addictive at the moment so I'm also setting up others around Dartford - The library to the bandstand (and bandstand to library) are two others that I set up - so far I've only run them while being out with the toddler in the running buggy, but that just adds to the challenge!

Update: As of the end of 2013, the Dartford Sweatshop store closed down and despite some initial hope that the run would be able to continue, Sweatshop HQ have decided that it cannot do so under the SRC name. Runners that would like to continue getting their stamps to earn their rewards will probably end up running with the Bluewater branch of Sweatshop, but as it does not run on the same evening it may not be convenient for all. Other options, which do not include Sweatshop, are being considered for the Tuesday night running group. I will update this post when things settle.

Sweatshop Running Community

A few months ago I registered with the Sweatshop Running Community and recently I finally got around to running my first session with them. I ran my first and second sessions with the Dartford branch as this is going to be my SRC home, my third run was at Rathbone Place, in London.

The process for signing up is simple, you just fill in the online form and they send you a welcome email containing your unique registration number.

When you arrive for your first ever run the store will issue you with your 'run record' card, which lasts for exactly 52 weeks, and a SRC wallet to hold it. Each week you can have your card stamped to record that you have run that week (you can run at as many sessions at as many different branches as you like but you can only have one stamp per week).

In order to encourage you to keep running, Sweatshop offer rewards for each milestone you hit within your 52 week period.

5 Weeks - Free Adidas Sweatshop Running Community technical t-shirt

Sweatshop Running Community technical t-shirt

25 Weeks - Free Lucozade nutrition pack (isotonic drink / 2 x dual fuel gels / jelly beans / yoghurt coated cereal bar / protein and carbohydrate bar - although it is possible that contents may vary)

the nutrition pack

30 Weeks - Free foam roller (worth £25)

new best friend?

50 Weeks - Free Garmin Forerunner 610 (worth £329.99)

garmin 610

Please note: The rewards above were current when I registered. I believe the current rewards system offers a foam roller at 30 weeks and a pair of running shoes at 50 weeks. Always double check with Sweatshop for the latest information.

You don't have to go to the same branch every week, but in order to qualify for the rewards you do need to have the card stamped each week - so it's a bit like parkrun's barcode system in the sense that you have to remember to bring it with you each week in order to have the run recorded.

The runs vary from branch to branch - you can see the full list here. Some branches have one all-ability run per week, some have a few different types of session and one branch (Trump Street, London) has three two runs per day from Monday to Friday - that's fifteen ten opportunities per week. With so many options it's tempting to start touring around the different Sweatshop branches, but I'll hold back on that for now.

For example, my former home run at Dartford which has closed (Bluewater is now my home store) did the same 5k route every Tuesday and I had set up a few strava segments to use for a spot of interval training. Rathbone Place do a Monday 5k (or even 6.9k if you take a wrong turn - whoops) for beginners and intermediate runners which always heads over to Regents Park, but doesn't always follow exactly the same route plus a few other sessions throughout the week.

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For the record, I ran the 50 runs without missing a week and was presented with my Garmin 610 at the Sweatshop store in July 2014.

50 week reward presentation

Wanstead Flats parkrun

Please note: This is an old blog. If you are looking for the up-to-date Wanstead Flats parkrun write-up, please see this one from 2023: Wanstead Flats parkrun (2023). However, if you are here to read the original 2013 post, please continue...

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Wanstead Flats is in Redbridge, Eastern London, and actually forms the Southern portion of Epping Forest. As usual, I arrived at stupid o'clock (7.45am), which was actually way too early as the car park was still locked. Anyway, I was eager to get out and explore the course before the parkrun so I parked on the road opposite. For the record the gate to the car park was opened at about 8.15.

Next to the car park is Harrow Road Pavilion, which is the meeting point for the parkrun. Here you'll find the registration desk, the bicycle racks, the toilets and the cafe. So after a recce of the course, I returned to the pavilion to listen to the pre-run briefing, after which we were all walked across to the start line.

Something that really impressed me was how intergrated the parkrun is in the fabric of the park. As you can see in the photo above, the start line has a proper permanent wooden start post. Plus the course is fully way-marked with directional arrows on wooden posts. For the purpose of the parkrun, the volunteer team had also attached the standard parkrun direction arrows to the posts.

The run starts on open grass and follows the perimeter of the sports pitches, which are overlooked by two extremely imposing run-down tower blocks. After a few hundred metres the course takes you away from the open area and into 'The Avenues', which is fairly wide and the surface changes to be more trail-like.

After 400 metres or so there is another change of direction when the course turns left for a loop around a pond (but I didn't see any water on the day I ran here) which is within the forest and I felt like I was running through trails in the countryside. Here the trail narrows and it's single file for a few hundred metres. According to Google maps there is also burial ground here, but I didn't spot anything.

Once the loop of the pond has been completed the course goes back along part of the 'The Avenues' before turning left along a short stretch of tarmac path. 20 metres or so later the surface returns to trail as you pick up a path that runs along the back of what seems like some nice houses - be careful here because this path is also used as an access road to the garages at the rear of the houses.

At the end of the path the course does a little shimy and delivers you back onto the grass playing fields. You then follow the perimeter until you arrive back at the start area. That's 2.5km done, just one more identical lap and you can cross the finish line (again, it's marked by a proper wooden post).

As the name suggests, the course is completely flat. You could get round with a buggy but there are some points around the pond where the path is exremely narrow and uneven so I would proceed with caution at this point. It's worth looking out for obstacles as I witnessed a runner in front of me tumble head over heals when his foot caught a branch that had fallen onto the path and was obscured from view by some longer grass.

It's also worth pointing out that at the time of writing the official course map is not 100% correct as it does not show the turn onto the tarmac path and route along the access road - instead it suggests that you come back out onto the open grass area much earlier than you actually do.

Wanstead Flats parkrun is definitely a place of extremes - the poverty stricken tower blocks on one side and the rather nice looking houses on the other, and also the London location with countryside feel to the course.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and would defintely put this on the list of parkruns to return to. I'd also add that this course will be a huge amount of fun when the weather turns and it gets muddy!

Bushy juniors parkrun freedom run

As you may know, I volunteer at Bushy juniors parkrun. But something I had never done before is run the course to see what the runners have just experienced by the time they reach me to have their barcodes scanned.

It's a 2 kilometre course and this run is only open to junior age category runners (please remember to register and print your personal barcode beforehand - your barcode works at any parkrun worldwide). Parents that run with their children are asked to peel off at the very end to ensure that they do not cross the finish line as doing so may mess up the results!

So about 20 minutes before the runners arrived, I positioned myself on the start line, put my finger on my stopwatch start button, gave myself a 'ready..... go', hit the start button and off I went!

The first kilometre is run along the avenue of trees between Teddington gate and the fountain. This avenue is nice and wide, allowing the hundreds of runners to spread out and jostle for a comfortable position.

The run is entirely on grass apart from the times where you must cross the four tarmac paths that cross the course - people are usually kind enough to wait for runners to pass but remember they have as much right to use the park as we do. So keep an eye out and remember to say thank you to anyone that does stop.

As you near the 1 kilometre point at the far end of the avenue you will see some cones on the ground and a marshal with a big smile on their face! When you reach them you will do a 180 degree turn to your left around the very last tree.

The second kilometre heads back towards Teddington gate under the adjacent avenue of trees and is slightly narrower than the first, but as the runners would have spread out by this point there won't be any congestion.

After a while you'll soon be longing for that first glimpse of the finish line, but it takes ages to appear and by the time it does it still looks so far away!

The course is flat but you will find a few uneven bits where the ground dips down suddenly, so look out for them to avoid twisting your ankle. Also try to keep an eye out for stinging nettles - they tend to grow under the trees so if you keep to the centre of the grass path you should avoid them.

Finally you'll hear the encouragement, cheers and clapping from the parents and volunteers as you reach the last few metres.

Then you'll cross the line, the timer will log your time and another volunteer will give you your finishing token. After this you will take your finishing token and your own barcode (you did remember it, didn't you?) to one of the volunteers at the tables behind the finish line.

Your result will appear on the bushy juniors parkrun website a few hours later. If you forgot your barcode you won't get an official time in the results but please remember to give your finishing token back!

Once all of the runners had left, I ran it again (and was a tiny bit slower) and thanks to the wonder that is the 'freedom parkrun', I was able to log both efforts on my profile even though I ceased being a junior runner many years ago.

Wimbledon Common parkrun

Please note: This post is from my 2013 visit. I revisited and produced an updated write-up on this venue in 2023 - Wimbledon Common parkrun 2023

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On the 6th of January 2007 Wimbledon Common parkrun held its inaugural event and became the second parkrun venue (with the other being Bushy of course). Just six months after this I moved to a flat just around the corner from Wimbledon Common, sadly I was only a very occasional runner (and exclusively on the treadmill in the gym) at that time and had no idea of parkrun's existence - even if I had known I might not have gone back then.

The focal point for anyone new to this run is the windmill in the centre of the common. Here is where you'll find the toilets, cafe and car park and are all adjacent to the meeting point and finish area for the run. I cycled over to the venue and secured my bike to the bike racks in the car park - by the start of the run the racks were heaving!

If I had taken the tube I would have used the Wimbledon branch of the District line alighted at Southfields and walked the rest of the way. The main line rail stations are nowhere near the venue so using this option requires a bit more post-train travelling - a warm up run, a bus, or just a very long walk are the obvious options.

I arrived, as usual, about an hour before parkrun o'clock and the first person I bumped into was Ian, the event director who has been here since day one - He welcomed me to the venue and proceeded to get things set up while I took some photos and wandered around.

About fifteen minutes later I bumped into him again while he was marking out the start line (see photo above) and parts of the course, usually you'd find direction arrows but here at Wimbledon you'll find flour. Today he was using Asda's everyday variety, but he has been known to use Waitrose organic flour (I think that's just for special accasions!).

The run briefing takes place on the grass next to the car park and afterwards runners are lead a few hundred metres down the path to the start line. The whole course is run on a trail surface, so you encounter stones, tree roots, some softer dirt and when it's been raining, puddles and mud. In dry conditions you'll get away with road shoes but when it rains trail shoes are the way to go.

The course is flat and consists of two-and-a-bit laps through the north part of Wimbledon and Putney Commons (Putney Heath) and unless you are familiar with the area there is no point in trying to work out the exact course beforehand as there are paths that go off in all directions, but after one lap you'll see that the course is simple enough to negotiate.

What I didn't notice at first was that Ian had also marked out a half-way point line with his bag of flour. It's easy to identify as instead of being a solid line it is dashed and there was a marshal calling out half-way splits. Anyway, it's a brilliant idea, causes no damage to the common and has completely disappeared by the end of the run.

This venue attracts a fair amount of runners (it's approching the 400 mark) so expect to have congestion for pretty much the whole of the first lap. If you're going for a time you'll need to position yourself appropriately when you line up at the start line. Also while the course seemed fine for a spot of buggy running you would have to be very careful to avoid clipping other runners' heels especially during the first lap.

It's a beautiful location for a parkrun, I just can't believe I left it so long before visiting it!

Last week I tried my new barcode ID card over at Highbury Fields parkrun so this week it was the key tag's turn - and just as you'd expect, it scanned perfectly!