Charlton parkrun (#108)

After running one of the most Western parkrun events in London last week, this week I found myself at Charlton parkrun, definitely from to the East from where I live. Similarly to last week, the main driver in pick my location were the London NENDY list and my Voronoi map: that gave me a shortlist of 5/6 events I have not visited yet and I really want to go to. Then I also noticed that Charlton parkrun would have an event qualifying for the Fibonacci parkrun achievement, so the choice became easy.

But really, it was about the map. I’m a bit of a completionist and the empty area between Southwark/Catford (both done) and Thames Path irritates me: clearly, Sutcliffe, Charlton, Greenwich and Victoria Docks were on my priority list. One down, three to go. I’m trying to keep the fast one for better weather and better fitness levels.

I had a reserve option: a return to Clapham Common if I could not wake up early enough, since I have just had an horrendous week of international travel on business and I am just coming out of an annoying cold. But it all worked out and I woke up bright and early with more than enough time for a leisurely coffee before heading off to Charlton parkrun.

Trip to Charlton parkrun and parking

South West to South East London is not exactly convenient by public transport, so I was back on my car for one of the few London venues I have left where I do not need to cross zone 1. In this case, clearly public transport will be needed.

Less than 20Km in London can take 2 hours by car at the wrong time of the day, but on Saturday morning things are usually pretty lucky. I did not encounter major blockages while I traversed South London going through Balham, Clapham, Southwark and then finally made it into South Greenwich and started to make my way up to Charlton park.

When I reached Blackheath, I started feeling emotional and I was didn’t immediately understand why, but then it quickly dawned on me. I was driving exactly through the start and first 3/4km of the London Marathon, which I have completed last April. It was a magical experience and I loved seeing some of the landmarks I plodded past during those early miles.

The official event page mentions that there is no parking within the actual park, which is true. That said, while I was approaching the area I realised that there is one tucked away just by the walls of the park off Torrance Close. It is small and easy to miss, but it was pretty empty by the time I got there at 8:30am, and this was a high attendance day for Charlton parkrun, so I would be optimistic if I had to try it again.

From Torrance Close, it is just a 3 minutes walk to the gate of the park closest to the parkrun meeting location.

Charlton parkrun: start and briefings

Once you enter the park, you see a nice tree-lined little central avenue with the cafe on your right and the toilets on your left – they are open early. After that, there is a large children playing area on one side and a large field used by several groups for morning strength conditioning. It looked busy and with plenty of activities early on Friday morning even besides parkrun, which is not common at all venues. Energy was buzzing, cool vibe.

About 150/200 metres in a straight line from the park gate, there is an open field where parkrunners meet. If you don’t see it immediately, you will see it after a few steps, it is impossible to miss.

The team seems to be extremely friendly and welcoming, with an informal approach and a lot of nice personal touches. The picture above was a first from me: it is cute. A personal message from the event team, not only welcoming the crazy tourists travelling around to tick a non-existent digital number off an app, fully owning it and enjoying the slightly different parkrunday, with a couple dozens new faces.

First timer/visitors briefing were both fast and fun: big thanks to the two ladies who gave their time for the roles and did a great job at it.

Then it’s time for the long walk to the start line: a whole 20 metres again. So similarly to my experience last week at Bedfront Lakes, conserving energy for this trek is important! 😉

Charlton parkrun course review – star ratings

Charlton parkrun course review – route highlights

The event page says the average field is usually around 170, today there were around 190, so slightly more crowded, but nothing meaningful. Also, the start is on an open field, so the venue could deal with very large numbers (at least at the start, debatable for the rest of the route) without creating congestion and slowing people down.

Charlton parkrun is mostly grass or narrow paths with grass on each side, with the exception of two short sections with paved tarmac, one at the first right corner after the start and the other one as you approach the start area at the end of each lap.

Grass and paths were totally dry on the day, so road shoes were totally fine, I wonder if on wet days trail shoes might be useful. I usually don’t like running on grass, but at Charlton parkrun, grass was very short and the path area was very hard, so I found myself often choosing to run on grass even when I could avoid it. It gave me a slightly more bouncy feeling and it was easier on my joints, I guess.

The route is as simple as it gets: 3 laps around the perimeter of the park. It can get moderately boring, to be honest: the park is a beautiful activity area, but views are not exactly changing with each turn. That said, the atmosphere the team manages to create makes up for the consistent three-lapper. A bit like Tooting, if you have tried that one… but not as fast.

The course is essentially flat with a slight climb on the North and NE sides and a slight slope on the South and SW sides. But nothing to worry about.

As said, you start on the open field and quickly condense on a path that is fairly wide and narrows progressively in a way that is fairly consistent with how the runners field adapts to each parkrunner’s speed. I wonder if at this point the ‘path’ is actually the result of running on grass every Parkrunday morning for nearly 2 years. 😀

After a few 100s metres, the straight reaches a point where you get on a paved path by welcome trees for a little while and then you see a marshal indicating the point where you need to turn right cutting back into the field. After the right turn you go straight on grass/path on a consistently positive but very mild climb to run through the East side of the park.

The North side is a long straight mostly on grass/path again: about half way you cross the paved main central avenue of the park and enter the other half via a gate (no danger, it’s wide and there is a marshal). Highlight of the section before the gate is an open view of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers. They nearly look beautiful from here. Nearly.

At the end of the straight you turn right again for the West short side. This is more interesting, with a nice curved section under lush trees and then a fast descending section on tarmac to get to the bottom. You then turn right again and cross a field to reach another gate leading you into the paved central avenue by the children play area and back up to the start/finish point in a few seconds.

Get to this point, do it twice more and you will see the home straight. At the ed of your last lap, you go back into the field instead of passing by the ping pong tables and the finish funnel will be there, waiting for you with cheers all around.

Facilities at Charlton parkrun

Toilets are available by the park entrance, one minute walk from the start/finish and 5 steps away from one of the two cafes in the park. They are open early, which is great if you come from far away. A bit on the stinky side, but not a big deal.

The little cafe in the same area is really nice. It’s a small building with a lot of character inside and very efficient ladies working inside. They seem to fully adopt the parkrun spirit, because one of them was on the field cheering for a big chance of the run. It offers a good assortment and their bacon baps are praised by many, go for it if you want savoury instead of cake. 🙂

A few tables outside also provide a nice sitting area for the warmer months. It got full pretty quickly, but patrons were rotating quickly as well.

As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location? At Carlton parkrun I ordered a Cinnamon swirl (great), a Diet Coke and a single espresso and this cost me £6.0, the cheapest entry so far, I think.

Charlton 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 really nice event, with a friendly and ‘unique’ team of volunteers, a small self-contained park in a London area I did not know well and a lovely cafe. The run part is relatively average, but the overall event is definitely worth attending.

Had I finished with a more respectable time, I would probably know I will not come back, but with a time above 30, I still have motivation to come back, one day. And I probably will!

Thank you Charlton parkrun for your hospitality!