- Location: Southwark Park, London – SE16 2PE
- Terrain: Fast tarmac, except 200m on grass at the start. Paths can get crowded for the first half lap
- Elevation: 8m. Very flat
- Parking: Available for a charge in the park, free along ring road
- Facilities: Cafe and toilets near the start
- Attendance: Average, around 300 runners
- Last visited on: 11 Mar 2023
- Number of visits: 1
- PB: 28:16
Southwark parkrun had been my NENDY for a few months, but I kept delaying the trip here and picking more rural Surrey locations for the scenery and because I was a bit concerned about the parking situation since it’s not fully clear from the official course page. I took the opportunity of the rare attendance of Miss IngoRuns this Saturday morning to go somewhere slightly closer and explore on more urban location. The drive from the IngoCave in SW19 was a bit of a pain, but I got there with 20 minutes to spare and reached the start just in time for the briefing. I usually like walking around a bit, soaking the local vibe with attendees and volunteers and take a few pics/vids, but this time that was not destined to happen.
The location was interesting. Tucked away just near Canada Water and Surrey Quays it is definitely a very urban location that seems to be in the midst of a gentrification attempt like most of the capital. The park is beautiful and well tended to, with immaculate tarmac paths, tree lined straights and a beautiful little lake with swans and boats. It must be gorgeous in spring and summer. It also offers a nice view of Canary Wharf, which, to my surprise, did not give me anxiety, even after more than 10 years I spent working in one of those towers. Yeah, Ingo is a recovering finance penguin…
The parking lot is 200 metres walk away from the start, essentially empty when I got there, probably because the roads just outside the park seem to offer free parking on Saturday morning and there seemed to be a little bit of space left there too. PayByPhone app is the local choice in the park.
Toilets and cafe are just by the Southwark parkrun start/finish location. Since I was late I did not have time to check, but the official course page says that they both open after 9am, which is annoying if you need the toilets before your run, but hey, as long as you know in advance…
Location
Parking
Facilities
Hills (lower is easier)
Terrain (lower is easier)
After the briefing, that happens where the finish funnel is, you walk through the fields mildly uphill all the way to the athletic track. There you spread out and have an open field, bushy-style, start on grass that was quite muddy when I was there. Nothing terrible, since after 200 metres you are on perfect tarmac paths and never leave them and even on the grass section my road shoes had no issues.
The Southwark parkrun course is a 3 lapper with an unusual quirk – only during the first lap you take a slightly longer detour before getting back into the final straight towards the finish line (the slight right turn and sharp left you see in the pic, top right corner).
The surface feels fast and you can run happily to your best efforts except maybe the first third of the first lap, before the congestion wears out.
About 1/3 of the way through the lap you go around a beautiful lake and the cafe, before going back north for a two-way section with faster runners facing you before you double back down and face more human folks again.
The finish line is fast, just 3/4 metres off the tarmac path with limited grass.
Canary Wharf doesn’t always need to be a place of sad all-nighters!
Southwark parkrun course highlights
As usual, I’ve take a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. Watch until the end, a fun sprint ensued – kudos to the lady who promoted it 🙂 And if you care to, please subscribe on my YouTube channel, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂
Links to my other course review and course video highlights can be found on the course review and video highlights summary post.
It was event 411 for Southwark, no weird number chasing magnetism, as far as I gathered.
Finish time just above 28, so not really something I am proud about yet, but it was my PB for 2023 and it hopefully shows some minor improvements. The road to my lost fitness levels is still very long, but at least I ended up doing better than I expected to at this event.
I ticked quite a few boxes in my fun chase of useless challenges here:
- 1 more new location, getting me to 43/93
- One S for Snakes, now at 4/10
- One more tick for Date Bingo (25%)
- One more tick for Stopwatch Bing (80%)
- 30/61 for Lon-Done
Nice park with friendly volunteers and a great crowd of runners. I suspect in summer the location will come into its full beauty and the post run cafe with tables outside in front of the lake will deserve much more time than they got today with 2 degrees
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