Huddinge parkrun (#105)

Writing about parkrun special events a few days might have given it away: I had planned to attend at least one leg of the Scandi double and that ended up being Huddinge parkrun, just south of Stockholm. And it turned out to be a great choice: it really is a lovely course with a welcoming team of local runners and volunteers. More on that later.

A few months ago, a business meeting was set for June 7th in Stockholm: not sure why, I checked my 5K app planner and saw it was one day after Swedish National day! For a while I was really tempted to fly out to Copenhagen to take in the whole double, but then I gave up and succumbed to my laziness… and the fear of Miss Ingo’s rage had I flown out on Sunday. I kind of regret not doing it seeing what a flood of people fell on CPH and Vaxjo, but it only means I still have Denmark on my future to-do list! 🙂

So, a couple of weeks ago I gave up on the Danish leg and committed to my trip, excited to walk out of my hotel and walk to Haga for a nice morning run on Tuesday… until I checked facebook and saw that Haga was not going to be. Always check peeps!

Fortunately Huddinge parkrun was going to be on and it turned out to be an awesome opportunity to see a Stockholm venue that is not usually the first one people turn to. And also to see a bit of National Day celebrations outside of the touristic city centre. Two birds, there.

Sweden is parkrun country number 4 for me, after the UK, Italy and the Netherlands: it seems I now qualify as a baby parkrun World Tourist.

Trip to Huddinge parkrun and parking

Well, it’s in Sweden, so, assuming you don’t live in Sweden, travel involves a plane. Or a boat. Or a very long and definitely not environmentally friendly car drive via the Oresund bridge. That’s kind of cool, I did that a few times (only up to Malmo and not for parkrun).

I came over on an extended business trip, so the flight to Arlanda was taken care of, I’m a spoilt brat, sorry. One public service announcement for anyone landing at Arlanda for the first time though: taxis in Sweden are fully de-regulated. Which doesn’t mean they are great and efficient. It means that they have turned into a far-west style criminal organisation… unless you catch the couple of ‘honest’ taxi companies, they can charge you multiple times over market… I think once on another business trip I got distracted and I got charged nearly 5000 SEK for an airport trip. The mean monsters hide well among the moderately dishonest ones. Thank me later… if you are going central, the Arlanda Express is actually pretty good.

But really, I have not seen anything as bad when it comes to taxis in any other countries… and I’ve been in pretty exotic places. Digression closed.

As far as getting to the venue in the morning, public transport seems to be pretty convenient from the centre. Either a commuter train and a bus or a trip on the metro and the same bus. It would have taken about 1h from the very centre of Stockholm. Or else, you can call an Uber which got me there in 20 minutes and prices were actually pretty honest.

When you reach the parking of the sports centre, you might have a short moment of confusion, since the real start and meeting point is about 100 metres uphill along a dirt path. Eventually, signs came up so people not showing up 40 minutes early like me and a few others would have avoided that moment of confusion. On top of that, directions were pretty clear from the ‘get me there’ link on the 5K app.

Huddinge parkrun: start and briefings

As said, the meeting point for Huddinge parkrun is about 100 metres up a dirt path you access from the end of the parking lot, to the right. It’s a nice path on the edge of the forest, so you get a first hand experience of what’s to come: a lush green forest, a good hard path… and a gruelling climb. Have fun 🙂

Once you get up on top, you are by the entrance of the athletics track, with toilets and tables available. Even a short section of paved road and a wind breaker that is used as bag drop in summer and, I have to assume, safe corner against penguins and famished polar bears in January.

The team of volunteers welcomed the horde of foreign invaders in a very warm and friendly way and seemed to be happy to make the most of this unusual event. Apparently today marked the attendance record for Huddinge parkrun: about 100 people versus the usual 25/30. I think it was the perfect lucky compromise: much bigger to still make it special for the local team and runners, but not breaking-point bigger to risk problems and disappointments. Hopefully this special event helps putting Huddinge parkrun firmly on the map for travelling park runners and tourists: it is a truly special venue.

The brilliant Run Director was on a roll during the briefing and you can catch a glimpse of the funny diversions before the run in the YouTube Video Highlights also embedded in the post below. And he managed to mix educational moments with the jokes: it is important, as he said, that we remember that also fast runners are people and we force ourselves to smile at them sometimes, even if they are fit, fast and disgustingly awesome.

At the end of the briefing, a couple of steps and you are ready to run. Or crawl. Or ask yourself why on earth you are doing this to yourself. Your pick.

Huddinge parkrun course review – star ratings

Huddinge parkrun course review – route highlights

A few weeks ago I ran Sunny Hill parkrun and left it thinking it was the hardest parkrun I had ever run, but at the same time a beautiful one. What I did not necessarily wish when saying that was to soon find one that was at least as beautiful (probably more), but orders of magnitude more painful.

Note to self: never think you have ran the ‘hardest’ course. One truth in life: you can always find harder. Huddinge parkrun: anyone called for me?

If you look at the Strava screenshots below, the course plot looks like a gun and the elevation profile looks like three witch hats, which seems appropriate.

Jokes aside, the path is really good with very few brittle areas and hard under foot. It works fine for road shoes when dry – not sure how wet it can get, but I assume it can get pretty slippery in winter. But my local is Wimbledon Common, which turns into quicksands, so all is relative.

In terms of route, you first run a short loop of approximately 1K and then after passing by the start and seeing all the volunteers smiling at you (or is it smirking because they know what’s to come?), you then start a longer loop that you will run twice. Showing typical efficiency, our Swedish friends showed enough sadism to make sure that Evil Hill, which from now on will be the name of the witch’s hat tip, is included in both the long laps and the short lap. For good measure, because you never have enough of a good thing.

The start is well organised and fast. This course is deceiving, they make you start on a descending gradient, then you soon turn left into the forest and it is still going down. As a runner you never think that what goes down eventually needs to go back up, so the manipulative endorphins that start flowing through you make you smile and pick the pace up. Then a few climbs come, but they are short and fairly gentle… yeah, a couple of slightly longer ones, but what was all that about, this is not a hard course. And then you eventually get to the end of a long fine gentle descent and turn sharp right. And there it is: Evil Hill.

The RD had said it: the first time you’ll feel it is ok. Well, he was lying clearly, it is not ok, but at least during mini lap I managed to run it all get on top, bask in the views and keep going on the fun up and down. Until you meet the next feature that I will name Steep Ravine: a very steep descent long probably around 20 metres on fairly brittle soil. Nothing to be concerned about, just mind your step and let gravity be your friend for a little while. Steep Ravine is also going to wait for you two more times, so at least you get her compensating for Evil Hill.

After you run (or roll) down Steep Ravine, you cross the paved road and are quickly back into the forest where you will have a few 100 metres of pleasant ondulation before you meet the RD and other volunteers at the point where you will turn left to reach the finish funnel at the end of lap 3. The team here is incredibly friendly and supportive, truly fantastic. Not joking.

I guess that’s volunteering Darwinism at play: you need a team of volunteers that has evolved in perfect hosts to get people leaving with a smile after facing Evil Hill 3 times. Makes sense.

The long laps are pretty similar, but instead of turning left into the forest immediately, here at the crossing point you go on on an open path for a while and then get back into the wooded rollercoaster. It felt a bit more wiggly and it mixed a few short steep(ish) climbs with longer gentle fun descents where you could make some time up. It is fun, until you see her: Evil Hill is back. The second time I run half, walked a bit, run the rest. The third time I walked most of it. There, I admitted it – not ashamed.

Soon you will get to the crossing point once more and off to the final lap, which will end once you turn left instead of going straight at the same point. The finish funnel will be visible and cheers will get you through to it even showing you there is still energy for a sprint hidden somewhere inside you.

This is not a fast PB course, but I did not expect it to be. This was painful, and I expected it to be. And even if I write about it with a tiny little bit of humour, it was a truly fun and beautiful course to run and the atmosphere was incredibly cheery and happy. Fantastic job Huddinge parkrun team!

Facilities at Huddinge parkrun

There are toilets at the start inside the athletics track complex. Today only one seemed to be open, so a bit of a queue formed, but I am sure in less busy days there will be no problem.

The toilets are open before 9am, so no panic there if you need to go.

The cafe is down by the parking lot. It is small but with a lot of character, in a countryside cabin style that feels very Scandinavian indeed. Maybe for National Day, they had a table outside selling delicious pastries and inviting sandwiches, so the unavoidable cake part of the parkrun ritual definitely did not disappoint: delicious!

As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I have continue collecting data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location? One lovely chocolate ball (Chokladbollar?), and a Diet Coke were SEK74, so roughly comparable to the London examples I’ve been collecting so far.

Huddinge Park parkrun: Video Highlights

As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. 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.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

It is a fantastic venue with a fantastic team: if you are in town and need to pick, give it serious consideration and don’t immediately default to the city centre option (which I will visit too eventually).

Huge thanks to everyone involved and a warm invitation to non Swedish readers: Stockholm is a great city, I’ve been here dozens of times. Unquestionably worth a trip and Huddinge parkrun is worth a diversion from the centre. No doubt. TACK!