Richmond Park parkrun - event 827

On the 14th September 2024 I ran the Richmond Park parkrun which was the 827th event held at the venue, my 201st parkrun and 123rd different course I'd attended.

For some reason I wasn't expecting much of Richmond parkrun, and I'm not quite sure why. I was expecting to just take my usual drive in the morning, run around the park and come back home again ticking off my 43rd Greater London parkrun, and leaving with working out when and where I'd be doing my final 20 to complete the LonDone set.

But it ended up being so much more than that.

Having ran at nearby Kingston and Bushy I was in familiar territory on my drive around the M25 and following the route to Chessington World of Adventures. Carrying on past the white knuckle and family adventures deeper into South West London via the A3 until Google took me off route and into areas unknown.

After following obligingly for a few miles through housing estates, main roads, left turns and navigating roundabouts I was told to turn right. The route was leafy, with semi-detached houses set back from the road, but the road itself was a strange layout that pinched into a single lane and widened out again with signs displaying who had right of way. I turned a corner past a 1960s block of flats and the road turned from suburban to rural almost in an instant with tree cover either side as I drove onwards.

At the end of the road I took another right and drove through a gateway and was, it would seem now in Richmond Park. The transition from the two contrasts was quick and sudden and almost quite bizarre and unexpected which made the whole morning feel almost surreal and other worldy. It is of course a figment of my overactive imagination. But I'm sure that had i came any other route the day would have panned out differently. But I didn't and so it hadn't and the rest of its for me to tell.

I was following the instructions from the Richmond Park parkrun website page which advised of a parking spot at Pembroke Lodge, which is where I was heading for. But the drive through the park to reach the parking space allowed me to drive slowly and take in my new surroundings.

Richmond park is a large, large space and driving along one of the link roads there were plenty of people making use of the space as I was. Peloton's of cyclists raced through in either direction alongside runners and dog walkers enjoying the bright September sunshine and warm early autumn weather.

The park undulated gently and offered far reaching views between groups and clusters of trees which to the east were framed by the early rising sun. First impressions were pretty impressive and I asked myself just why it was that I'd never been to Richmond Park before?

From Pembroke Lodge the start of the parkrun event is a short 10 minute walk deeper into the park. This offered me further opportunities to take in the space and enjoy the abundance of other people going about their morning whether it be cycling, walking, running or other leisure pursuits.

The meeting point for the run was on a corner next to a roundabout near to another gated entrance on the north west side of the park. Shortly after I arrived the first timers briefing took place and almost straight after another briefing began which was a preclude to the main briefing itself.

It transpires that this was an impromptu speech given by one of the race directors of the event who was speaking of a member of the event community who had sadly passed away quite suddenly. The man spoke eloquently and warmly of the deceased with several members of the on watching crowd visibly upset. It was a.moving tribute to someone who I'd never met, but felt appreciative that I was there to learn about their exploits at Richmond park parkrun and their valued role within the community.

After further formalities were complete all the participants are then herded back deeper into the park to the north where the start line awaits a short way in.

There was clearly a decent number of people taking part in the event and it was clear that the start wasn't especially wide. It was by no means narrow, but ultimately people need to use their initiative and experience and self seed themselves at the start in order to give everyone the best possible chance to get away in order.

It's by no means unique to Richmond as I see it regularly. People who should know better too, wearing 100 milestone t-shirts and starting five rows from the start. You can see quite clearly that they aren't going to be finishing anywhere near the front runners and that they'll be overtaken by a vast majority of the participants taking part that day. 

I know that I roughly finish half way between the person who finishes first and the person who finishing last, so try as much as I can to start towards the middle. It can be tricky to work.oiy how big the crowd is at bigger events, or where you've gotten yourself in the wrong place and can't get to where you want to be. Or when I run with Hayden.we always start at the back. It's just using common sense.

Anyways, rant over...

Richmond Park parkrun is a single lap event taking in just a short 5k of the much wider and larger park. 

From the start, you head back towards the corner via a fairly narrow and bumpy trail path before turning left and following one of the arterial roads through the park. The paths here are tarmac and whilst it does gently creep uphill the surface is good, but fairly narrow so many people chose to run on the grass verges in order to overtake.

The route is fairly straight for a while and does undulate nicely allowing you to see a steady line of people running two/three abreast long into the distance in both directions.

Running anti-clockwise the route eventually turns left again onto another road, but this is a pedestrianised road so the snake of people spreads out and those who have the energy to can overtake more easily.

Being a popular event and people running in fairly close proximity to one another it becomes a very social event with people running together and lots of conversations taking place.

I was trying to take in the surrounding and appreciate being able to run in such a beautiful park. I've been really fortunate in having been able to run in some amazing places and Richmond Park was certainly up there with the very best of them.

In fact, I couldn't help as I made my way around. Off the pedestrianised road and onto the trail section on the way back that skirted the edge of the park through the trees and the edge of the fields in comparing the run with that of Bushy Park.

Bushy Park is the original OG where parkrun took place for the very first time and takes place a stones throw away from Richmond Park. It's also a one lap course, also has dear sharing the space with parkrunners (although I sadly never saw any on this occasion) and is also a Royal park so all of the signage and path surfaces felt familiar.

It becomes an impossible discussion when comparing parkruns with one another, but the very fact that I started to compare the course with Bushy tells you everything you need to know about the course at Richmond Park. It felt like Bushy, but was definitely more undulating than Bushy is.

As we made our way through the trail section and approached the final kilometre the route takes a circular loop around the top of a hill before dipping downwards and back up again which provides the final last challenge of the course. The route eventually leads back around to the start where the end of the lap is reached. The finish is just further along on the grass space where we'd gathered shortly earlier to hear the briefings.

I finished in 327th place out of a field of 533 participants in a time of 29:55.

Even having done all my usual pre-event research watching a course video on YouTube is absolutely no substitute for the real thing. I still haven't quite worked out why I enjoyed Richmond Park parkrun so much, and maybe the why doesn't really matter. It only matters that I enjoyed it, want to go back to do it all over again and hope anyone who does it enjoys it as much as I did.