Crystal Palace parkrun - event 619

On the 4th May 2024 I ran the Crystal Palace parkrun which was the 619th event held at the venue, my 181st parkrun and 104th different course I'd attended.

My 2024 parkrun goal was to complete all of the parkruns inside the M25, but having Foordy home and enjoying touristing with me I've had to change plans slightly to accommodate venues he wishes to visit alongside those of my own. Previous week's visits to Seaford Beach and The Leas were Foordys picks in an attempt to break his PB record which he managed to do both times. But45 this week was listed as Crystal Palace in the diary and so that's where we headed for event number 46 out of the listed 76 that I've got written down as located inside the M25.

There is a slightly shorter list of 62 events, which are allocated in Greater London and will officially give you a LonDone status, but all of the events inside the M25 feels more complete and aesthetically pleasing when viewed on a map. It's also worth a reminder at this point that all parkrun 'challenges' are non-official, completely arbitrary and can be designed by anyone to be completed in any way that they see fit 

In the car on the way up to South East London I said to Foordy that I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this event. I knew that it was unlikely to be flat, but hadn't heard much in the way of online commentary complaining about the hills, and hadn't seen anyone bringing it to the table when talking about London's most difficult events. But by project manager at work, who lives fairly local said that the park was located on a hill and that the hill would be challenging.

We arrived to beautiful sunshine and a warm spring morning. Overnight rains had left quite large puddles behind and we could see for ourselves the elevation of the park ahead of us. We parked on the southern edge of the park and entered via the south eastern entrance which brought us directly into the park and the start line.

As we were slightly early, we took a short walk up through the main tree-lined thoroughfare and took the steps up to the leisure centre. The elevated walkway takes you through the middle of the sports complex where on the left was the famous Crystal Palace athletic stadium and to the right was the aquatic centre. The athletic stadium has obviously seen better days and felt a bit of a shame that the parkrun event couldn't take in a lap of the track as part of the course. There are a couple of parkrun events elsewhere that do this and they look great fun from what I've seen on YouTube.

After our little walk and sightseeing we head back to the start and readied ourselves for the parkrun. Starting at the bottom of the tree-lined thoroughfare we'd walked up earlier, participants head uphill to the end of the path before turning right and making our way uphill via a mixture of tarmac and gravel based paths.

The course is two laps, taken in a clockwise direction with the first lap being ever so slightly longer than the second. The course winds it's way up hill, with ever changing elevation levels including a slightly steeper part with a tight bend at the top marshalled by two guys wearing storm trooper helmets (Star Wars, May the 4th anyone?). On the right hand side just before reaching the top of the hill a 'muddy dog' competition was being prepared and some early participants were arriving to get themselves prepared for whatever that entailed. I'd never heard of such a thing, but the imagination ran into overdrive as we made our way around the little loop at the top which makes up the extra distance between the two laps.

Once the little loop was completed, the course starts to make its way back downhill via further wide paths and shares some of the route in which we'd made our way up. As always, the downhill provided me with much fun and gave me an opportunity to catch up on some of the time I'd lost running up hill. On the second lap this was even more so as the hill beat me and I slowed to walk, frustratingly.

At the bottom.of the hill the course turns right and participants find themselves at the start line on the bottom of the tree-lined thoroughfare. The finish line is closer to the top than it is the bottom.and so there's a little bit of an upward climb to get to the finish. But it's not an evil finish like Royal Tunbridge Wells or Bedgebury Pinetum, those two courses feel like they've been designed by a masochist!

I finished in 236th place out of a field of 427 participants in a time of 28.59. Foordy, despite breaking PB records each week and wanting to visit flat parkrun course in order to do so was just 30 seconds off his PB time set last week at Seaford Beach. 30 seconds on a much tougher course with more corners and repeated elevation changes is some going!