- Location: South Norwood, Croydon – SE25 4QL
- Terrain: Hard path, no grass. Not too muddy given recent incessant rains
- Elevation: 20m. Flat
- Parking: Available, no charge
- Facilities: Both cafe and toilets were closed on the day. Visitor centre appears boarded up
- Attendance: Average, around 200 runners
- Last visited on: 08 Apr 2023
- Number of visits: 2
- PB: 29:34
My current fitness slump started last July and that is when I had visited South Norwood parkrun the first time. My time was kind of crap as you would expect and I have a personal aversion to seeing times above 30 as best course result when I scroll through my event list, so I was always planning to come back. It’s not far from home after all. So, combining this plan with the fact today was a Fibonacci event number today, my parkrun planner had had Norwood plan for the Easter event for a while. Short pause for my beloved exploration of new events and no new spot on the SE map conquered for once.
I live in Wimbledon, so Croydon is a very short drive away, especially early on Saturday morning. For once, my Saturday morning alarm did not have a time starting with a 6 which, for someone who definitely is not a morning person, was an event worth celebrating. 20 minutes drive and I’m there, under a wonderful bright sun and a clear blue sky.
I managed to park inside the County Park, seconds away from the start of South Norwood parkrun. The parking is free but pretty small: totally fine for an average to small event, but if you plan to come one weekend with appeal for hordes of tourists, you might want to come early or park at the alternative location at the Croydon Arena (I have not checked it out).
The starting area is ‘by the totem pole’, which must be pretty unremarkable or i was very distracted, because I did not see one. I was interested mostly by the beautiful sun over the sprawling meadows and by the special guest of the event, the Easter Bunny! I managed to finish before the Easter Bunny (just), so I will have something to tell my niece when old 🙂
Near the start, there is a children playing area with a few buildings part of the Visitors Centre, that should offer toilets and a cafe. Everything was closed and boarded up. Don’t know if it is temporary or if those services have been discontinued or if they are expected to come back, but it’s a bit of a shame: post run calories are a ritual for me and your bladder’s mileage might vary 🙂
Friendly quick briefing, acknowledging tourists (from Bromley!) and milestones and even the new tourist craze for achievements. Quickly everyone walk to the start, it might be a whole 20 metres to go 🙂
Location
Parking
Facilities
Hills (lower is easier)
Terrain (lower is easier)
The South Norwood parkrun course is as simple as it gets and fairly consistent in terms of views. All on hard path that held particularly well given the recent rains and it had no areas where you should decide if you preferred to run or swim. No grass sections either. A few potholes scattered around, all surprisingly well signposted by the many friendly volunteers (thanks!).
You start on a path under a canopy of trees until you turn right on a slightly more exposed path which wiggles around a bit more with some very mild inclines until you pass a tiny bridge that eventually brings to a large grass area you go all around (bottom left of the up).
At the end of that mini loop you back up left and climb a mini hill before backing down towards the car park and go by the start once more for the second lap.
I would not call this a fast course, but I think it has a bad rep as a muddy one (my local in Wimbledon Common can easily turn into quicksands, so who knows how objective I am).
After the end, some runners took advantage of the nearby wooden tables where the visitors centre was/is: come prepared if it is a nice day, it’s a pleasant place for a break, but it seems to be bring-your-own-cake.
A crappy PB is still a PB
As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course at South Norwood parkrun. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me :). The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.
Event 233, so Fibonacci was the draw of the day – not sure why I would care, but completing achievements can be fun and it gives an excuse to explore the many beautiful venues we have around the country (and beyond). I got the feeling there were more runners than usual and spotted a few Cow Cowls (I should order mine), but numbers were still very much under control.
Finish time just below 30, so kind of crap – but it was still a course PB, so I will take it. I think fitness wise things are getting a bit better and at this point it is just on me to keep weekly volumes to decent levels
Not many achievements today:
- Fibonacci 233, now at 21%
- Primes, apparently, now at 15%
- One more tick for Date Bingo (27%)
I will be back – my times are still 4/5 minutes from where they used to be so I have the motivation to get better and clean up my record at South Norwood parkrun, one day
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