I had not taken part in a middle distance official race, so a few weeks ago I decided to enrol into the Richmond Park 5K.
As it is ‘just’ a 5K and not an event where I expected to try getting anywhere close to a PB (my 5K PB is in the 24s), I picked a nice event that I had already run in a location that is both gorgeous and challenging. Gorgeous, because it is Richmond Park. Anyone who has been here before will know it is an unexpected, incredible oasis fo green in the middle of the massive metropolis that is London. When you are here, you nearly forget you are at the fringes of such a large, busy city. Challenging because it is quite hilly and the first half of it is on fun undulating trails.
The event is organised by FixEvents, one of a small roster of dependable companies that put together good, fun running events in or around London. I have joined their events before (this was my 6th, including a couple of virtual ones during COVID) in several locations and they have never disappointed. They tend to organise smaller events with a majority of the field represented by average runners and a few speed demons. You actually might have a shot placing top 3 with average middle of the pack skills. These days a lot of these running events are also available via Let’s Do This, which seems to be the winning aggregator for running races in the UK and is moving towards one-stop-shop for bookings. Might write a dedicated post to cover how to book a good running race in the UK.
Finally, as I will write below in more detail, the course of this 5K is nearly the same as the Richmond Park parkrun. But it starts and finish in a different spot. And in my humble opinion, this layout is better than the one used by Richmond Park parkrun.
Training ahead of the Richmond Park 5K
I had already joined this event in the past and I enjoyed it. It was supposed to be an intermediate step in my late summer series of events to try getting back into shape after a frankly abysmal performance at the ASICS London 10K. Event I had enjoyed nonetheless.
After a few days of rest, I think I started building volume up decently well using TrainasOne, but then things kind of fell apart again as work got surprisingly stressful during late July and August., .
Here is a plot for the Strava fitness score over the last month. Regardless of the name, this definitely does not show fitness, but HR-weighted volume rump up. Just another version of TSS without a trademarked name.
Well, I guess getting to the race flat is better than getting to the race negative.
I will continue slowly building volume up after my next race 1 week after the Richmond Park 5K – coming soon 🙂
So yeah, training was mediocre at best. I did not walk to the start line expecting a great performance, but it was still going to be fun and a nice way to test how bad things really were. Hint: pretty bad, but slightly better than what my weekly parkrun adventures could suggest.
Back to the 5K now!
Travel and Start Area
The Richmond Park 5K follows mostly the same one-lap 5K loop at the North side of Richmond Park the Richmond Park parkrun does, but beware, it starts from a different spot.
If the weekly, free parkrun starts by Richmond Gate, this and most other chipped 5Ks organised in Richmond Park start by Sheen Gate. This is even more important now that driving through the whole park loop is fairly restricted if you are coming by car. First rule: do not drive to Pembroke Lodge. If you do, you’ll have to walk more than 3K to reach the start.
If you are driving, you can enter the park from Sheen Gate, it is still open to vehicles, but exclusively to reach the (free) parking, If you don’t find a spot there, you will have to go back out and hope to find one around the nice residential area. The free parking is fairly large and you should be fine if you go early enough, but make sure not to park outside of the allocated spots: parking wardens and park rangers are very active and I saw infractions being levied on the day. Deservedly so: Richmond Park is a jewel we are lucky to have as Londoners and we should respect it.
By Sheen Gate and very close to the start there are public toilets available for park users. FixEvents did not bring any additional por-a-loos. The public toilets are fairly small and long queues form for women at busy times. Also, in theory you should pay to get the door unlocked, but when steady streams of people use them, that becomes ‘optional’. Consider contributing nonetheless, if you can.
The small event village is 100m walk from the parking lot or from Sheen Gate if you came by bus.
Fix Events does not seem to mail bibs home, so you should come over with a few minutes to spare to collect them before the race. The process is fast and efficient and they were even accepting registrations on the spot.
At the tents, besides registration, there is a back drop area and they also sell some merch.
Pre-race is fairly low key, no music, warm-ups or other random activities, this is really all about running and enjoying your race.
The organisers give you 10 minutes warning before it is time to go and then they ask runners to walk towards the start line arches and within a few seconds you are off. If this is your first race, don’t worry about your position in the queue, timing is chipped so your races only starts when you cross the timing mats.
Richmond Park 5K: the Course
The event is at the North side of Richmond Park, one of the most beautiful, peaceful and green corners of London.
A Relive route plot can be found below and on my YouTube channel as a Short. The full video highlights are also available on the channel and embedded in the next section of this post.
The first half of the route is on undulating trails. It is hard nor it gets too muddy even in winter, but if coming here after a week of rain, trail shoes might be needed. In dryer months, and when I was there this time, road shoes were totally fine. And great for the fast, paved second section.
It is a moderately hilly course and this configuration works better than the one used by the local parkrun.
In brief, the first half goes up. And surprise surprise, the second half goes down. Magic, isn’t it?
Even the first half is not too bad, it is one gentle sustained longer climb, a fun fast descent and then a shorter but slightly steeper climb, before you turn around at Richmond Gate and start having fun again.
I might have mentioned a few times that this is virtually the same course of Richmond Park parkrun, so you can find a detailed course description on my blog about it.
So, what are the main differences?
It starts by Sheen Gate instead of starting by Richmond Gate. This way, you have to get through the trail uphill section when you are still fresh and, if you managed to hold back somehow, you can let yourself go and recover missed time on the downhill paved section.
Maybe 2/3 of the way through the trail section, you will pass the point at which the local parkrun starts, probably 300 metres or so before turning left and climbing towards the paved path. Here, instead of climbing off road there, you will keep running straight until the Richmond Gate and turn left using the main paved road, by the car entrance. This is the only short section where you run on a pavement next to a road where cars can go. It is no more than 50/100 metres at most.
From here, you will enjoy perfect surface with a slightly undulating gradient, but the uphills are few and short and the downhills are long and steeper. It is a lot of fun, truly. It is fairly wide, so overtaking should not be an issue. Just be aware, you are barely half way through, so don’t go crazy with that downhill pace, there are still flat stretches and even a few short climbs.
But more than anything, enjoy the views, across the whole loop.
On both sides, you will most likely meet deer, going about their day and barely paying attention to those weird humans running for no reason. 🙂 On the day I was there a few decided to cross the road not far in front of me so I saw some runners who had to nearly stop to accord them the unavoidable right of passage.
Then, if you had not pushed too much and you are still able to see and think straight, in front and slightly to your left when you are half way through the paved stretch.
On a good day, the view is incredible, with clear sight of the City, the Shard and Canary Wharf.
After that point, you will quickly reach the turnaround point where you can run on the paved road that used to allow cars to reach Sheen Gate. I guess the perfect line is still on grass, but the road is what most runners selected.
A short straight run and you can see the finish line and get to your well deserved celebration and energy bars.
The medal is nice and it is handed over by staff a few steps after you pass the timing mats.
Facilities
Small events can often still seem genuine and friendly gatherings of amateur runners without many of the bells and whistles of mass participation events. There is room for both and both are great. That said, there is organisation involved in making sure even just a couple of 100s runners can show up and effortlessly enjoy their distance. And issues can easily spoil the experience. This is not parkrun after all, you have paid for it.
Lets go over my thoughts about some of the items that can affect the experience then:
- Transport to start line: ok, but not the most convenient by public transport
- Start area(s): not overcrowded, pleasant and efficient
- Kit drop: I did not use it
- Start area toilets: no dedicated facilities. Public toilets 1 minute from the start
- Waves system: by distance
- Start section: no congestion
- Course: nice and scenic. Big thumbs up
- Toilets: non on the course
- Water stations: at 5K mark
- Gels: None, even for longer distances (10K and HM on the day)
- Finish line: beautiful location, efficient setting
- Bling: nice medal
- Finisher T-shirt: none
- Finisher refreshments: basic but good
Richmond Park 5K Video Highlights
I have prepared video highlights that I hope you will also enjoy. I do this for most of my races and parkrun events I attend, it’s a fun hobby for me. If you enjoy it, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. I am very far from monetising it, but it is always nice to see someone appreciates it..
If you enjoyed this report or the highlights, you can find a list of my parkrun reports here.
Conclusions
It is a great location and you can truly enjoy a moderately challenging run in a beautiful location. You can do it for free on the same route as a parkrun, but the start location of this event works better. It’s not the kind of event that you will remember for months and keep raving about it, but is fun and accessible.And if you are just starting, it can also work well as granulation from C25K: that’s what I did, years ago… and haven’t stopped since.
Did you run as well? Let me know your thoughts!
Do you want to run it, but think you cannot? Let’s chat, anyone can do it, really!
