Battersea parkrun - event 33

On the 5th July 2025 I ran the Battersea parkrun which was the 33rd event held at the venue, my 243rd parkrun and 161st different course I'd attended.

When Battersea parkrun was announced I was grateful, a new parkrun event in easy commutable distance for me to visit and to tick off one of my lower event numbers i'd not yet visited. So for 32 weeks I had to wait patiently for my turn to visit was an immediately popular event.

I remember reading about Battersea on Facebook groups, firstly why there wasn't a parkrun in Battersea park and then eventually the campaign and public consultation in order to organise one. Battersea is home to a multitude of running and other events so to not be home to a parkrun event for a long time seemed to be unusual. But where there is a well there is evidently always a way.

My challenge this week, rather rarely in recent times was how to get there. Aside from a few events in London I've tended to drive in rather than use public transport. I drove not too far from Battersea on my way to Clapham Common earlier in the year and so I knew that driving wouldn't be too challenging. It is, as always with the car where to park it.

Looking up parking spaces on a drive sharing app proved to be too expensive, even for just a few solitary hours on Saturday morning so I made the decision to go by train. With the high speed from Ebbsfleet to St Pancras getting into the city wasn't ever going to be a problem I just wasn't too sure how long it would take me by tube travelling down the Northern line to the new Battersea station on the recently opened extension.

Arriving at 8:25, I was in plenty of time and there were quite a few people evidently taking the same journey as I was. Wearing parkrun milestone t-shirts is always a telltale sign!  The walk to the park, passing Battersea Dogs home wasn't too tricky either, but there was a fair way around the park to the start once you arrived at the park though which I hadn't quite anticipated.

After all my travels, I needed a wee and couldn't see any toilets as I walked around to the start. I eventually came across some of the marshalls who were making.their way to a marshall post and I asked them where the facilities were, but according to them they were in the opposite way to where I was heading. I considered it for a couple of seconds and decided I'd not have time and I didn't need to go that badly.

Come 8:50 there were a lot of people killing around and the first timers briefing was very well attended. I didn't manage to catch much of it before we were turned around and escorted to the start.

There is a wide tarmac route around Battersea park which is pan flat. it reminded me very much of Dulwich which is also another London venue popular with athletes of who like to take the activity a little more seriously. The course takes in two laps of the route, but the start is set a few hundred meters further back,

To get to the start, to avoid overcrowding participants are lead via a side path that loops around and rejoins the main route but further back. This exercise works really well, not just for improved crowd control.purposes, but as a visual feast to see a line of eager parkrunners weaving it's way, conga like to the start

Despite the numbers and the distance I started back from the start the event.got off well and congestion was fairly minimal. The wide avenues of the park definitely lend themselves to the event and handle the large numbers.really well.

Around quarter distance of the first lap we passed a toilet block. Had I gone clockwise when I arrived at the park instead of anti-clockwise I would.have come across them on my way to the start, but instead a caused an argument with myself questioning whether I should stop for a pee or carry on going.

I elected to carry on and enjoyed the flat surface, the buzz of the big event and felt good running which I hadn't felt for a while. Dare I say it, I event felt faster than I'd been.running for some time.

Despite feeling no real discomfort, unlike Wimbledon Common when the call.of nature was very, very real. I wasn't able to resist quite so easily on the second lap. Without really thinking about it and with no debate, I took a wide swerve right and enjoyed taking a pee and as a result losing a couple of minutes off my eventual time.

With feeling like I had time.to catch up on, and the competitive nature of running alongside a long line of people I was able to make up a few places over the last hundred meters or so. There's a good feeling about running last someone who is also fiercely determined to finish on a high and despite all the truisms about it being a run and not a race try stopping me.when the adrenaline kicks in!

I came home in 675th place out of a field of 928 particpants in a time of 30:20. Had I not needed to take pee, which even now I still don't think I'm did - I could have gotten my quickest time.of.the year.

I was actually quite surprised by the final number of participants when I eventually got my result through via email. I thought there was a much bigger crowd than.thay, well into the early 1,000's. Either way, there is something good fun running a well attended event. The atmosphere is different and the competitive nature rises a little with it. But that's the beauty of parkrun tourism, taking in all the different events that parkrun has to offer, sampling them all one at a time.