Thames Path, Woolwich parkrun - event 4

On the 27th May 2023 I ran the Thames Path, Woolwich parkrun which was the 4th event held at the venue, my 132nd parkrun and 61st different course I'd attended.

Last week I gave an explanation of the Wilson index and how visiting event number 30 went some way towards making progress with this 'achievement'. This week, I visited an event that was hosting a it's fourth parkrun which filled that missing gap raising my Wilson Index from a 3 to a 19.

Geeky, arbitrary achievements aside it was nice to have a newly arranged parkrun fairly close by to explore. Particularly as the photograph's and reviews that had been shared online since its inception have painted a picture of the event that makes it a must see visit for any parkrun tourist.

As the event was only in Woolwich I was able to get the train from Gravesend which was a nice change from the car and some of the longer distance drives I've done on a Saturday morning. From Woolwich Arsenal train station the meeting point for the parkrun was just a short 5 minutes north towards the River Thames.

Participants gather at the meeting point which is next to an art installation called 'assembly'. This sculpture is made up of several steel human shaped statues which were adorned with parkrun volunteer bibs to suit the occasion.

The first timer briefing takes place here, but the start of the run doesn't. Instead everyone is walked further east along the river to where the start takes place and so it is recommended you get to the venue in good time as you'll need at least five minutes to get to start line.

The start is fairly congested and begins on a corner. Once the initial excitement of a new event has died down and the visitor numbers drop it may get a little easier. However, that said the initial pathway is wide and so does spread the pack out quite quickly. However, if you are a serious runner and seriously interested in speed and timing you'll have likely seeded yourself accordingly.

As the event is an out-and-back affair along the river you'd have thought that's enough of an explanation for the course. But it isn't as the course is a lot more interesting than that.

After running two kilometres east, where the path changes from hard concrete to gravel the route turns right and into Galleons Reach Park. After a short, meandering path through the park you reach the courses peice de resistance - the hill.

The hill is a man-made feature of the park, in fact the park has several of these features, but the parkrun course takes in the biggest one of them all. They are all perfectly round like bowlers hats and have paths that circle around and around the hill all the way from the bottom to the top in a spiral shaped fashion.

This makes for a wonderful parkrun experience as the turnaround point for the course is at the very top of the hill. Meaning that you have a visual treat of runners running around the spiral paths in both directions making for a hugely interactive and fun experience. As an added benefit you get a great route recording from within Strava!

All in, from the information I've read online runners spend approximately a kilometre on the hill, 500m going up and 500m going back down again.

Once the hill has been successfully circumnavigated and you've reached the bottom it's a case of retracing your steps back through the park and back along the river towards the finish which is back at the meeting point where the steel based sculpture is. 

It's worth noting that the route back is slightly different to the route out as there is a higher and lower path. The higher route is taken on the way back, but it's basically the same minus the short gravel stretch.

After a couple of challenging courses in recent weeks on trail based routes it was nice to run on hard paths and be back running in road shoes. It meant for a faster time which showed in the end result. I finished in 150th place out of a field of 366 participants in a time of 26.59.