Canons Park parkrun - event 283

On the 17th June 2023 I ran the Canons Park parkrun which was the 283rd event held at the venue, my 135th parkrun and 64th different course I'd attended.

At the time of writing there are 76 parkruns inside the London Orbital motorway, the M25. Before Saturday I had attended 26 of them. It is my hope and ambition to tick them all off and in order to do so I needed to complete my 27th venue, Canons park - chosen because it was also one of the few events this weekend in the area that was also hosting an event that was a prime number.

I enjoy visiting events in London, because so far all the events I've completed have been at venues I'd never dream of visiting and are little green spots of calming open space in what is otherwise a concrete jungle.

The other benefit of visiting different parkrun events in London is getting off and visiting other tube stations that I'd otherwise invariably miss out in normal touristing situations. Saturdays event allowed me to visit Canons Park, which is on the Jubilee line a few stoped past Wembley where I've alighted on a number of previous times but that's as far North as I've ever gone.

From Canons Park tube station the park itself is just a short distance around the corner. Walking down the platform to the exit I could see four floodlight pylons just over the road and wondered who's ground it might be. Outside the tube station itself there was a sign advertising Barnet Football Club and so the peices of the puzzle slotted together. The ground was the New Hive, a ground I've not yet obviously visited. But I've been to Underhill, the previous ground Barnet used to play at before they moved. I made a mental note of how easy the ground would be to get to if ever our paths crossed again as a Gillingham supporter.

I'd arranged to meet my work colleague Roshni who was running her first parkrun event. She lives fairly local and I've been working on the people in my team to convince them to sign up for some Saturday morning fun. My persistence paid off, but I was early which gave me some time to scout out the park and see where the route took us.

The start and finish are at the northern end of Canons Park by the walled gardens. They are in slightly different locations, but within the same vicinity of one another. Heading south the path runs anti-clockwise to the very southern tip of the park before circling back around the perimeter where the path surface changes.

The first half of the lap is run on tarmac, which turns into loose gravel for a short transitional stretch which leads into the woodland section of the lap and compacted gravel paths. The path through the wood runs all the back up to the northern end of the park before turning left, back to the walled gardens across a short stretch of grass which is way marked by a line of cones. The short grass section leads back to the tarmac path which in turn leads back to the start and the completion of the lap.

After three laps, the finish is a short right hand turn past the start line and finishes on a grass field outside the meeting point where the usual funnel and timekeepers are waiting.

Roshni joined me half way through the first timers meeting which was given by a wonderful chap named Roger. As well as providing visitors with the factual information about the route and the run, Roger gave a short introduction about the history of the park and some of the origins, including the walled gardens which was lovely touch and something I think should feature as a mandatory element of any first timers briefing!

Once the formalities were over, we headed towards the start and our parkrun began.

After last week's beast of Bevendean and the grass based hills it was lovely to run on tarmac again and better still, no elevation! And although it was hot, the section of each lap in the woods was cooling and relieved us from the heat of the sun being undercover.

I finished in 44th place out of a field of 152 participants in a time of 27:10. After I'd completed the run I traced my steps back around the course and met Roshni who was making her last trip around the park through the woods. With a bit of gentle encouragement from me, who ran around the last part of the lap with ger she crossed the finish line and celebrated the completion of her first parkrun event - well done Rosh!

At the end of the event, the volunteers had hot drinks and cakes available and lots of people milled around chatting. Stephanie commented once about parkrun feeling like a community and that was exactly what Canons Park parkrun felt like - a real community asset. One of the volunteers was even cleaning the park of rubbish that had been left strewn across the park by wind or some other means. It just demonstrates someone having a real sense of pride in their community asset.

People are quick to moan and judge and downplay local communities, but you don't need to look hard to find some real heroes. Especially if you are a parkrunner as every week we see plenty of them.