Orpington parkrun (#113)

After several weeks away from London, it was time to get back on track with my chase for the LonDone parkrun achievement and I decided to visit Orpington parkrun for the first time.

The idea is to finish South London, starting with the ones more difficult to reach with the Tube. This left me with two options: Orpington or Hoblingwell. Having read that the former was mostly grass I decided to take advantage of the fairly unique fact that it has not rained for 3/4 days and picked it as the venue for this parkrunday.

I think the decision to run this course in dry weather was the right one. It is not really 100% grass, most of the route has been turned into beaten paths, but I am sure it can get pretty muddy in winter. Goodington Park looks glorious when you get there: wide open meadows surrounded by tick trees and hills in the background. Bromley really seems to be a gorgeous part of town and I had never been in the area before starting parkrun tourism. I think I will be back: bonus of running explorations!

Trip to Orpington parkrun and parking

Bromley is kind of neglected when it comes to the underground network, which is a shame. According to the course page, mainline trains going to Orpington would be the best options for most people. From there, you have to walk or jog for 1.6 miles… or get a bus. From where I am, Citymapper suggests 2 tube lines (Northern and Victoria), South Eastern to Orpington and then 10 minutes on the R1 bus. This would clock in at roughly 2 hours. Each way.

So, lazy me being lazy me, I drove in roughly 45 minutes. It was a surprisingly sunny day, so I could enjoy an open top drive, which is also a bonus, even thought not an environmentally friendly one. Sorry.

The drive was fairly smooth, going through Croydon and Bromley, mostly on wide high capacity roads.

The parking is probably 300 metres from Orpington parkrun meeting point and people coming together are visible from it. The main parking is not huge, but there is an overflow just to the side of it which seems to be more than enough on normal weekends for an event that gets around 120-150 runners on average. As of August 2023, parking here was free.

Orpington parkrun: start and briefings

The parking is a small enclosure just before the children play area and the entrance to park. When I arrived at 8:30, it was still half empty. When I left, most of the overflow area was full.

Walking to the meeting area takes 5 minutes and you can see where volunteers start congregating from the parking.

On a blue sky day, the visuals immediately after entering the park are truly beautiful: the meadows are green and lush and the views are wide and unobstructed. The sun is rising straight behind the meeting area, pointing you towards your target.

The meeting area, as said, is still on the main area of the park, a short walk from the start line proper. People seem to arrive cutting it pretty close to 9am, I guess this must be a pretty tight knit community affair and formalities are not a major requirement. The team is welcoming to newcomers and a few tourists joined the new runner briefing with me.

Huge thanks to the girl who held the new runners briefing: the route is not easy to explain at Orpington parkrun! It made for a fun moment when she tried doing it in a way someone not familiar with the course could understand and she definitely did a great job. But yeah, it does sound scarily confusing 🙂

After the new runners briefing, everyone walks to the start line just past a copse into the first rugby fields and the main briefing happens on the start line. It was, again, a fast affair before the countdown started and we were on our way to enjoy Orpington parkrun.

Orpington parkrun course review – star ratings

Orpington parkrun course review – route highlights

There were around 130 runners on the day I visited, so average attendance for the venue. Definitely no issues with congestion given the wide start and the fact that the few areas where paths get narrower are not to be seen until the opposite side of the course. This is a venue that feels open and spacious, with several sections either on the side of open fields or crossing through them. Awesome in summer, I wonder if the wind can become an issue in winter.

The course is mostly grass, or natural hard paths probably created by walkers and runners going through that grass. There is a short paved section and a couple of woodland trails, but not major over the whole route. I ran in trail shoes, but they were not needed on this dry August day. I am sure they would be most if muddy/slippery.

In terms of elevation profile, it feels pretty flat. There are some gentle inclines, but I would not call it undulating. And certainly not hilly, but my objectivity might be slightly impaired after surviving that monster that is Queen Elizabeth parkrun last week. As a course, it reminded me of Old Deer Park parkrun, if you have been there.

The route encompasses 2 laps and a bit… maybe 2.2, 2.3 laps, if we want to try being precise. If you look at the map above, you first run around the first squared playing field near the green dot and go back towards the ‘finish’ sign. From there, you will do 2 full laps that will include both football pitches areas to the right (without intermediate vertical section, obviously).

The start is one lap around rugby (football?) pitches until you get back to the area where runners originally met. That’s simple and easy enough, run around a square on grass.

When you finish this first short loop, you turn right and briefly run behind the sport pavilion before turning left and crossing the main open meadows area. It is quite beautiful here and not slippery. The first half here is downhill, then there is a mild uphill… nothing scary, let gravity do the work for you and then inertia 🙂

At the end of Meadows Crossing, you cross the first tree lined area briefly before turning right again for another descending section on open grass. Then you transition to what is in the top left corner of the map after your next right turn. Here you will have a short section of woodland paths with a lot of large exposed roots. Easy to navigate, if you can see them.

At the end of this short shaded area, you turn right again along the side of the open meadows until you surprisingly turn left a few metres before the initial meeting point.

This is where things get slightly different in a way I did not expect: you enter the playing fields area of your first loop, but you only run along one side, then cross into a second playing fields area. Here you run 3 sides and go back into the previous ones, making it a loop around 2 blocks of football pitches.

At the end of the double loop, you are back at the initial meeting point and start your second full lap.

The finish funnel will be where the initial meeting area was, with very efficient volunteers letting you through and scanning in a breeze. Great team!

Facilities at Orpington parkrun

The ‘Pavillon’ next to the initial meeting point has got toilets open from 8:30am. It might look like an abandoned storage area if you are not familiar with it, so I was not sure I could go in, but most locals seemed to do it so I went ahead. And yeah, perfectly decent facilities 🙂

The official course page refers to a cafe in the same pavillon, i think, but there wasn’t anything resembling it when I was there. Or I didn’t see it. On my drive back I stopped on the way to get the refreshments I fully deserved during this hot and humid parkrunday morning. 🙂

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 Orpington parkrun, I was not able to enjoy the course facility, so n/a for this one.

Orpington 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 location, with a great team of volunteers and it feels kind of flat, which is a nice thing after the last few hilly weeks. The map looks fairly boring if you have not been there, but the terrain offers enough different views and sections to make it a very enjoyable run.

Thank you, Orpington parkrun team for your hospitality!