Oak Hill parkrun - event 633

On the 18th January 2025 I ran the Oak Hill parkrun which was the 633rd event held at the venue, my 221st parkrun and 139th different course I'd attended.

During the week I try to get another run in, which is normally Wednesday afternoon as work give us a wellness hour in which to do something related to wellbeing. For me this has been useful and helps with keeping a regular habit of running going outside of parkrun.

This week I was at Shorne Country Park where I was running the parkrun route to complete my mandatory 5k. However, towards the end I felt a niggle ok my calf and thought best to stop as I didn't want another repeat of the injury that sidelined me a couple of years ago, albeit on the other leg.

I thought I'd done the right thing, spotted it early, stopped and rested ahead of Saturday morning. I even sat with some ice whilst watching the television but it all proved ultimately in vain.

Oak Hill parkrun is based in North London near Enfield. We arrived nice and early in an attempt to get into the small onsite carpark which worked a treat. The weather had warmed up considerably in comparison to previous weeks so the ground was fairly soft and squishy underfoot.

The course is a two and a half laps of the park, and despite it's name fairly flat. There is an alternative course for when the park floods, which is fairly often due to the stream that runs through the middle of the park overflowing. The alternative course is three laps and includes a fairly notorious hill which the standard course bypasses and I was thankful for not having to tackle it.

The meeting point is next to the tennis courts at the south east end of the park. The finish is also here, and so there is a little walk from the meeting point to the start.

With over 400 participants and a fairly narrow path self-seeding is encouraged but not quite followed. Meaning that the start was fairly congested and took a while to filter itself out. I wasn't too concerned however, as I knew I'd be taking it slowly this week and aiming to get around in one piece.

The course follows the pathways through and around the outside of the park perimeter all the way to the northern end before coming back in an anticlockwise direction. The route back does take you slightly uphill, but follows the path halfway up the hill that crosses the park. 

This part of the course is fairly narrow and the.path has a bit of a camber which means people try and stick to the more comfortable middle part of the course, but this can be quite claustrophobic and cause an obstruction. 

The last part of the lap is a wider path and a nice downhill segment to where the finish line is. 

After I'd made it around the first lap, and all the back around to the start I felt something give way in my calf and the inevitable disappointment that came with it.

I managed to walk around the second lap, but was determined to at least try and jog the final part, which I did without too much discomfort.

All the while I was walking I was making a plan for the next week and trying to paint a brave face on not being able to run. I vowed to add myself to a volunteer roster somewhere and contribute to parkrun in a more positive way.

Out of 405 participants, I came 380th in a time of 40:15. It certainly wasn't what I was hoping for, but these things come to test you and I've been lucky not to have too many injuries. Such is old age I suppose!