Hampstead Heath parkrun - event 622

On the 14th December 2024 I ran the Hampstead Heath parkrun which was the 622nd event held at the venue, my 215th parkrun and 135th different course I'd attended.

After two weeks of weather related conversation, it was nice to have something else to talk about for a change. Instead of wind and rain the question was; what is the toughest parkrun in London?

There are candidates: Sunny Hill, Hilly Fields and Lloyd which all crop up frequently I'm these debates and I can make a case for all of those one way or another as I've unfortunately ran them all.

However, there is definitely now a new contender, one that I believe takes the crown and possibly by some distance. Hello Hampstead Heath!

Our morning started off potentially ruining our parkrun day before it had even started. I awple early in the morning before my alarm was due to go off and a tossed and turned waiting for it to finally ring. Eventually I noted the crack in the bedroom curtains was brighter than it should have been for the time I wanted to get up and so looking at my phone realising it was 7:23, three minutes late for meeting Foordy!

But I'd also received a message from him a short time earlier warning me of the same thing. He'd overslept! Nevermind, time to get busy and to get busy fast. Getting dressed and brushing my teeth and out the door arriving at Foordys ten minutes late our arrival time at Hampstead Heath was estimated at 8:50. This put the fear of dread into me as I had planned to arrive no later than 8:30 to give us time to find the start and factor in any contingency.

For the second week running we had planned to meet Foordys mate Connor who lives in North London and Foordy hadn't brought his phone so a plan B was out of the question. We decided that worst case scenario would be starting the event late and trying to overtake the tail walker.

As it was we made good time and arrived at the Hampstead Heath carpark at 8:45, with more than ample time to get to the start line.

The park itself is vast and from the carpark we could tell that the course was going to be 'undulating'! From the carpark we had to head up hill on the road that leads around the edge of the western end of the park. This allowed us to walk on the pavement away from the muddy, pathless route through the park.

At the top of the hill is the meeting point, which underfoot was fairly wet, muddy and although on firm paths I'd suggest trail shoes were the better option. I'd worn road shoes based on advice I'd read online, but if challenge that slightly although the rest of the course was perfectly adequate for road shoes.

The start begins on a long path that heads downhill and is surrounded by trees. As it was the middle of December the trees were leafless and I'd imagine in other seasons the route being quite spectacular. 

A long downhill start turns into a long uphill slog, although the gradient isn't particularly steep at this point. The first segment of the course is also done in reverse on the way back, so that nice downhill start turns into an evil uphill torture device on the way back. 

In between the out and back section are two laps around a section of Hampstead Heath parkland. Once the uphill of the start segment has been successfully conquered the road comes out of the woods and grassland appears on the right hand side. The path begins to drop again and there's a nice long downhill section which at the bottom turns right into a smaller path and wiggles around the side of a lake.

Knowing that you'd come downhill a fair way and knowing that there were two laps to navigate the question was where was the hill the took you back up?

Weaving around the path that takes you around the lake you turn a corner and the question is answered. Ahead is steep hill which provides a good challenge without being too long that I wasn't able to complete it. There is a little sting in the tail slightly as reaching the top where it flattens out only to discover that there is another rise to navigate adding to the pain

The rest of the lap is an undulating, winding sequence of paths that brings you eventually back to the start/finish straight half way up the long slog hill. The first time you arrive at this junction you turn right and repeat the lap again. The second time you reach it you turn left and follow the road back to the start.

I managed to successfully navigate my way all the way around the course right up until the end where I was disappointingly beaten by the final hill. I thought I'd built up some mental strengthness in my parkrun journey but evidently there is still some work to be done!

I finished in 222nd place out of a field of 345 participants in a time of 31:11. 

It certainly did feel like the toughest course in London, but then I had run Lloyd on a dry summer's day. The same course was the winter would be just horrific I'd imagine with the mud, and Bethlehem Royal Hospital being not much better.

But hills are my nemesis and this one had beaten me, albeit just! I'll have to pay another visit one day and have another crack at it - this time beating it!