Whitecliffe Lake parkrun - event 26

On the 2nd May 2026 I ran the Whitecliffe Lake parkrun which was the 26th event held at the venue, my 286th parkrun and 199th different course I'd attended.

My routine right now is a fairly simple one when it comes to choosing a venue on Saturday mornings. Is it the closest one to me that I've not done yet and does it coincide with an event number that I've net yet completed.

When things come along that upset my routine I get more precious about it than I should and have to remind myself just what the hell it is that I'm getting anxious over - absolutely nothing at all!

6 months ago a new parkrun popped up on my radar, a brand new parkrun in Kent, bringing the number of venues in my home county up to 26. It also meant that I had a new NENDY, and even more was that I didn't have far to travel to get there. A mere 4.7km as the crow flies in fact.

I had therefore planned to visit the new Whitecliffe Lake parkrun in Ebbsfleet at the soonest opportunity, providing that it fits within my self made rules. Realistically this meant around event 80 something, so it would be my NENDY for over a year before I was able to visit.

But Hayden and his football team changed the rules.

Riverview Football Club challenge their teams across all age groups to raise money each year. This money goes towards their presentation evening and other such costs associated with each team such as new kits, equipment and other team building days if finances allow.

Last season each boy brought home some football scratch cards which is parents sold spaces to friends and family in a lottery style fashion with prizes going to the winners and the rest of the money donated towards the cause.

This year the coaches decided to do something different and suggested a sponsored parkrun to give the boys a chance to test themselves and to really earn the sponsorship that they were seeking.

Originally the team had planned to visit Shorne Country park, but I had a work with Aimee and persuaded her to move the venue to Whitecliffe Lakes instead. There was a benefit to being best friends with the coach after all!

I did suggest that Whitecliffe Lake would be easier for the boys to run around, but my main motivation was purely selfish. I wanted to keep my tourist streak going and had we visited Shorne Country park I would have reduced it by almost a third. I could have not ran a week, which would have been fine. But the boys being an under 11s football team needed sufficient number of adults to run alongside them as not all are 11 and the age of being allowed to run unattended.

There was also the option I suppose of not going at all and carrying on my usual plans, but that would have been a bit harsh.

Instead, I played part organiser and volunteered to write the run report and had actually one of my finest parkrun mornings of all time.

Whitecliffe Lake parkrun is a two lap course right on the edge of the new garden city of Ebbsfleet. Beneath the White Cliffe, for which I assume the park gets its name is a man made lake, designed to store the run-off water and excess from the water table now that quarrying days of the past are behind us. The park has been well integrated with the new housing estate with newly constructed bridges and pathways making it an enjoyable place to have a walk, run or jog on Saturday morning or even any other time if you are a local resident.

The start is on the other side of the bridge closest to the meeting point and heads west towards Bluewater on a fine gravel path.

200 people running along it creates a fine grey dust to start with, but aside from sounding like running on cornflakes the material here was firm and would work well in winter. Some of the parents afterwards weren't too keen on the surface but there are plenty worse.

Running along this part at the start was an exercise in evaluating the relative positions of each of the boys and to see if I had any meaningful competition. In short, the answer was no. Everyone was long ahead of me, but to start off with I managed to sneak ahead of Stuart who was running with two of the boys. Coming up to the turnaround point I thought I'd show off a little bit and took the U-turn Japanese style, and Stuart laughwd about this afterwards as he's never seen or heard of it before. Google it if you need to!

From the first turnaround point the course reverses itself back to the start where it crosses over the bridge and back towards the housing estate.

It may well have been an early May morning, but it was a glorious one with sun shining strongly and feeling very much like summer. On the southern side of the bridge where it starts the paths had plenty of tree cover, but on the northern end next to the housing it was much more open to the elements and the hot sun.

On this side of the lake the path had a finer gravel surface for the most part, undulated slightly and incorporated some of the boardwalk that juts out into the river before u-turning again back the way we came. Before heading over the bridge the course takes a left hand turn and rises steeply upwards.

There is a communal grass bank leading from the waters edge to the shops and other facilities at the top. Whilst the route does not take in the full slope, it takes in enough for you to feel it. In the summer months local residents get together and put on outdoor cinema screenings here and use the natural geology to create a stadium/cinema style amphitheatre seating arrangement with picnics and whatnot for a real community vibe.

Once around the other side and back down the hill the course is repeated again for a second lap, or after the second the finish lies in waiting to the left.

So whilst the course was varied and interesting and the glorious weather played a huge part it was running and supporting the twelve boys who joined in from Riverview Football Club, the six other parents and my Mum, niece River, Uncle Matthew, Auntie Mara and friend Bartek who also come along to take part and support the boys what made the day. I even bumped into a former work colleague who was also in attendance and had chosen the venue randomly for his own tourism exploits. That was the second time in less than a year out paths had crossed by accident and random chance.

Everyone who I ran by along the course was given a high-five or encouraging words of support. The young lads from Riverview Football Club all represented themselves and their teammates with aplomb. One lad finished 9th overall in his first ever 5k distance. All of them tried their best and gave their all. Boys found themselves in groups and were able to push each other on and give eachcother support and confidence which was brilliant to see.

Hayden as you well know hasn't really gotten the hang of this running lark at all, his last few parkruns have all been done against his will and the times are getting increasingly slower. So I was interested to see how he'd tackle this one with peer pressure in the mix.

He was still slow and unenthusiastic, but he did run and walk most of it. As he was coming around to the grass bank section of the course at the end of the second lap, the rest of his teammates who had all finished all spotted him and ran over to encourage him across the final and hardest part of the course. All his teammates, coaches and some of the other parents running around with Hayden who was giving his everything to get over the line..

It really was a sight to see and fortunately for us the event photographer saw events unfold and got a load of absolutely brilliant photos of the boys which help retain the memory.

I finished in 103rd place out of a field of 207 participants in a time of 30:53.

Saturday morning embodied everything good about parkrun and I hope that all of the boys who did it for the first time on Saturday come back for more.