Clapham Common parkrun - event 269

On the 22nd March 2025 I ran the Clapham Common parkrun which was the 269th event held at the venue, my 229th parkrun and 147th different course I'd attended.

In the last few months or so I'd driven into London and passed Clapham Common in order to get to someplace else. On each occasion, whatever time of day the area around Clapham Common has been teeming with people out on the streets running or jogging along their way. It didn't take make perception or research for me to confirm my suspicions that when I eventually got around to running Clapham Common parkrun that it was going to be a well attended event. Well attended events tend to mean parking problems and London isn't short of that in the first place.

As with Wimbledon Common a few weeks previously I had done a fair amount of investigation. Driving was by far the quickest option, but it carried a risk of being unable to park. Public transport would have dropped me right outside the door, but would have been more expensive and because of the location in London, rather long-winded.

Instead I played the safe bet and hired a private parking space from a.mobile app for the slightly extortionate price of £15. This gave me two hours of convenience, a guaranteed parking spot just a short 8 minute walk to the meeting point. The cost of achieving peace of mind does go a long way.

So from my parking spot at the rear of a fairly modern block of flats that I wouldn't be able to afford to rent or buy a property from, even selling my four bedroom house with a garden. I walked to the start line, and as expected was passed by a hundred people all running or jogging as if that was the only mode of transport in this corner of south east London.

The common itself is a triangular expanse of land surrounded by roads on all three sides with large and luxurious properties overlooking the space. It is predominantly what it's labelled as, a common. An expanse of open space, mostly grassland, albeit with a sprinkle of formal paving and a bandstand in the middle. There are a number of football pitches and other recreational areas but because the area is so accessible from all directions it was crawling with activity.

From footballers, non parkrun runners and joggers, rollerblades and dog walkers it really felt like an energetic and lovely place to be.

That liveliness was epitomised by the warmup activity that took place at the meeting point after the first timers meeting. Junior parkrun events are well known for their warm up activities before the events start, but this was my first experience of one taking place on a Saturday morning. I did experience a slight awkward embarrassment at first but soon realised I was one of a couple of hundred people there all doing the same thing, so I gave into my inner child child and started jumped with joyful abandonment alongside everyone else.

Suitably warmed up and a slightly sweaty mess, I made my way towards the back of the huge group of people who had also elected to make this venue their Saturday morning 5k. Still suffering from my undiagnosed Ieg problem I knew I wanted to start slowly and so I did jogging into it as we made our way around the first of two clockwise laps.

Each lap is a mixture of trail, grass and tarmac paths around the northern part of the common. The course starts with a run up the western side of the perimeter path, before dipping through the trees, around the back of the football pitches and turning right along the northern edge.

The northern edge is a long straight slog along almost the full length of the common. The surface here would ordinarily be grass, but the amount of foot traffic has eroded the grass away to bare soil. Various paths have been made along this way and so running along here you can make your own choices taking whichever fork of path you want.

I'd imagine the first part of the course up to this point because Ng quite muddy and splashy in winter, but it was bone dry and rock hard on the day I visited.

Once the far corner has been reached the route cuts across the grass and makes it's way back around the course via the more formal areas of the park, all on tarmac paths taking in the bandstand as it goes. The bandstand acts as a nice focal point on the course and when you get there towards the end of each lap there are plenty of spectators standing on it in an elevated position cheering participants on as they go.

Overall the course would be described generally as being flat, although it is on a slight slant from south to north. But nothing you'd struggle with.

After two laps, I finished in 552nd place out of a field of 871 participants in a time of 29:51. It's been a while since I got a sib-30, so genuinely pleased with that one. Across the board I achieved negative splits, so starting off slowly was the right strategy. 

Only 14 more Pond n venues to go!