- Location: Purley Croydon – CR0 4RQ (Colonnades parking)
- Terrain: All trail, can get very muddy
- Elevation: 54m. Hilly
- Parking: Limited near start. Plenty 5 mins walk away. Free
- Facilities: None at the park, both toilets and Costa at Colonnades retail centre
- Attendance: Smallish, <150 runners normally
- Last visited on: 29 Apr 2023
- Number of visits: 2
- PB: 32:25
Roundshaw Downs parkrun was an odd choice for this week. 6 days ago I spent a wonderful day dragging myself around East and Central London completing the 2023 TCS London Marathon; it was awesome as you can read in my post, but as most marathons it was a huge effort, so I did not, nor planned to, run until Thursday. I was planning to run on Friday, but the little lazy guy in my head won, so Parkraturday was the first leg test after my 26.1.
Since we all know you should take it is for the first run back after a recovery period, I picked Roundshaw Downs, arguable one of the hardest events within the M25. Possibly THE hardest if the course is wet and muddy.
Like all runners, there must be a tiny little masochistic instinct in me, but that was not the only reason. I had planned this location months ago, when I picked my plans for the first half of the year. Why? It was event 666, one of the remaining pieces of the Nelson puzzle I am missing. Devils and demons flocked to the course, which found itself hosting 550 runners vs the usual run-rate of 100-120
Bonus content: This is a map from the Running Challenges Chrome browser plug-in. It shows a ‘bulls-eye’ graphic with the parkrun events you have run around the ‘geographical centre’ of your events. No need to understand, suffice to say at the moment it looks like a demon with Roundshaw Downs parkrun as the eye. Not kidding: apt for event 666!
Trip to Roundshaw Downs parkrun and parking
This event is just 25 minutes from where I live, so a quick early morning drive or, potentially, public transport could also have been an option. I am lazy, so I chose to drive there. The event team was concerned about tourists this time, so they recommended the parking lot at the Colonnades retail park (postcode above).
The first time I went there, I had found parking in one of the small streets in the industrial park bordering the start, this time I took the advice and left my car at the retail park. At 8.20am it was already nearly full and there is room for a lot of cars there. I doubt there were many Saturday morning customers for this eminently uninspiring out of town big box retail location, so parkrunners had decided to descend on Purley early. There is a Costa Coffee here with toilets, added bonus. No charge for parking, with a 4 hours limit on your allowed stay.
The retail centre is probably 5/6 minutes walk from the start, just get out, cross the road and walk straight, probably with the additional help of plenty of runners to follow. Turn right when you reach a War Memorial monument. The area is very industrial/logistic with only the old Croydon Airport terminal building providing some limited character to it, so reaching the beautiful park will be a nice change. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and bright light, so the open space in the park was extremely scenic.
Finding the suggested parking location 5 mins walk from the start of Roundshaw Downs parkrun is not difficult and, while it is not huge, I had no problems finding a spot for my car even arriving at 8:40. Plenty of people clearly going where I was going were parking at the same time, so follow the herd and you easily reach the start.
Start and briefings
Volunteers were a mix of nervous and hyped up from the huge influx of tourists, but they embraced it and made the best of it giving everyone the gift of a great event. There is a lot of controversy about the ‘touring’ and challenge chasing phenomenon: I think it is innocuous fun, as long as runners understand that if you at one of the events that suddenly swell up, there might be choke points, walking sections and a bit of congestion at the start and finish lines.
In this specific instance, there were no issues at the end and only one, quick choke point 2/3 metres after the start where we all had to stop and walk for maybe 30 seconds. It was because of the death combo: a massive puddle straight after the path became a small trail 🙂
Besides this, the start was unusual, with runners expected to finish in less than 29 mins asked to go up the little bump hiding the real start line and the rest asked to wait and queue patiently until they could get to the start line themselves. Losing probably 1 or 2 minutes in the process, but it is parkrun, so who cares after all.
Roundshaw Downs parkrun course review – star ratings
Location
Parking
Facilities
Hills (lower is easier)
Terrain (lower is easier)
Roundshaw Downs parkrun course review – route highlights
Roundshaw Downs parkrun is a real cross country, hilly course. If it has been raining, it can get very very muddy, so trail shoes would be recommended. 2 nearly perfect laps, with two hills to conquer each time: not terribly steep, but fairly long. Then you can enjoy going back down.
The first lap starts just after a little bump and it allows a wide start outside of the trail and on grass if the weather has been (relatively) dry. Today it was not too muddy, but the grass was still very wet, so must people stuck to the trail. Pretty soon the wide space tightens to a small trail sided by trees that allows 2 people at most until you turn left and are again fully in the open. Here the ascent starts.
First you go up very gently up to the top of the first hill with sprawling views of the park and over to the high rise monstrosities in central Croydon. Once you get up, you take a breath and turn left for a relatively flat straight until you are in the ‘forest’ again for a short down and back up double back section. This is the steepest part and it is half under trees and half out. The part under the trees was extremely muddy even during the ‘dry’ event that I attended.
Once you reach the top, you have made it: the last 6/700 metres are all downhill, fast and enjoyable. When gravity has done its job and you are back at the start, you are ready to do it all again, but this time you know how much fun those hills are going to be 🙂
Facilities at Roundshaw Downs parkrun
There are no facilities straight at Roundshaw Downs parkrun.
The Colonnades retail area does offer cafes, toilets and even a Nando’s or a Pizza Hut if you want to swap the post run cake for some greedy pizza or grilled chicken with macho peas.
Sometimes, even the Devil is a Gentleman
Video highlights
As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during my run at Roundshaw Downs parkrun to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂
Achievements and performance
Event 666 as said, so Nelson was the draw of the day. A lot of tourists joined the event, with plenty of Cow Cowls in sight. Attendance was 5x the usual numbers, but the home team did fantastically well. I hope they have had fun themselves and it was not too stressful.
I finished in 32 minutes and the last time I had been here I had finished in 34 minutes so I will take it. I won’t tell you that last time I was here on the 1st of January after a long night and the course was essentially a long set of quicksands, otherwise I might fish taking glitter away from my PB. 🙂
Small pickings in terms of achievements today:
- Nelson 666, now 6/8
- Date Bingo, now at 27%
Conclusions
Roundshaw Downs parkrun is a hard one for London standards, but I enjoy how unusual it is. A real cross country bumpy and dirty course with glorious open views when at the top and long fast descents.
I will be back, but not in winter or late Autumn. I want to try myself here on a dry day with no congestion.
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