Beckenham Place parkrun - event 374

On the 10th May 2025 I ran the Beckenham Place parkrun which was the 374th event held at the venue, my 236th parkrun and 154th different course I'd attended.

It was also an event with a fair few surprises.

Normally I'll have seen a video of some description of the parkrun course and had a fair sense of what the course might look like, at least in a 2D kind of way. But for some reason YouTube didn't seem to have much in the way of Beckenham Place parkrun videos and that suggested to me that the event doesn't have much to shout about.

What I did know however was that the event was operating a different version of their standard point-to-point course and has been for over a year. Works to the pathways in the park had meant much of the course was unavailable and so they adapted by operating a two-lap version of their course instead.

Which all in all led me to not having much in the way of expectations prior to this event.

I was joined once again by Mark, who asked me what I knew and I explained that I didn't know much, but sometimes those are the best ways of going into things. And a lesson I very much learnt today.

On a warm morning, feeling like summer as opposed to Spring we entered into Beckenham Place park and immediately I knew we were in for a good morning.

From the parking area (which was a rather steep £6.50 for 90 mins), we had visibility across the park and saw a rather large, rather beautiful grounds and parkland that undulated into woodland in the distance.

With the bright sunshine a the leaves and grass were brighter shades of green and everything about the place just looked to be top-notch.

We met outside the Beckenham Mansion. A typical building that is synonymous with this era of park. Similar buildings can be found at nearby Danson park and Mote Park for example. Buildings that still reflect the grandeur of a bygone era but are still impressive enough that people pay attention to them.

During the briefing it was explained to us that the course was reverting back today to it's original layout for the first time in over a year. So no more laps through the woods, but instead we'd stick to the one lap point-to-point course which I was quite satisfied about as I really do like single lap courses.

The route essentially starts on the path outside of the mansion and runs downhill via the main road before turning right and follows a winding tarmac path downhill into the woods.

Due to numbers the run director called people forward to the start in finishing time order to try and encourage seeding which is something that Mark and I would like to see much more of. There isn't anything worse than being bogged down at the start and being caught behind slower participants who should have started much further back than they did.

I cannot tell you where the route through the woods takes you exactly, other than the fact it is a really windy, twisty course full of corners and undulates across ita entire length. It makes for great fun running, but highly technical as you have to be careful with your pace and positioning.

Eventually the course spits you out of the woods next to a small boating lake, where you follow the pathway all the way around.

The next part of the course is a short path over a railway bridge which you return back along after completing a wide lap of two adjoining fields. This section is the first time.you really get to see other participants and as always is quite sociable as people running by one another wishing each other well.

The final lap of the two joined up areas of park was where the path works were taking place when the course was unavailable. Which meant that is running on them was running on virgin paths and very comfortable. They were quite dusty due to the materials that had been used but the worst part was the sun.

Coming out of the shade of the woods into the open expanse of playing fields was a bit of a shock to they system. With the sun directly overhead it was a hot and sweaty morning!

Once the field had been completed and the return back along the railway bridge path the final section was a short uphill burst towards to back of the mansion where the finish was located.

I had a buggy runner running alongside me towards the end and as it was a tough uphill finish I wanted to ensure that he didn't beat me so I gave it one really big push and not only managed to beat the buggy I managed to pick off a couple of other runners at the same time time 

I finished in 145th place out of a field of 351 participants in a time of 31:28.

I felt that I had run better than the final time clocked in at, but it wasn't an easy course by any means with congestion and terrain to deal with. Mark said the uphill finish was tough, so I'll need to show him what Tunbridge Wells and Bedgebury Pinetum look like as they really are tough finishes!

54 Greater London venues now done, 11 more to.go!