Hoblingwell parkrun (#118)

I continue crawling towards my LonDone target and with my visit to Hoblingwell parkrun I have now visited 40/62 events. Still quite a few to go, but progress is progress.

I loosely follow the Voronoi map to pick my touristing targets, I like seeing the map fill up, even if in the London area each event only fills a very small area. Hoblingwell was a glaring miss in the South East London region so I knew I had to go there. Urgently. Also, I had read reports that it can get pretty muddy in winter, so it was imperative I would cross Sarf London before the rainy semester started.

I had no parkrun challenges chasing ulterior motives today. A couple of weeks ago I put my parkruning targets for a few weeks in the the planner section of the 5K app and this was the week for a trip to Orpington to visit Hoblingwell parkrun. For a little while I thought about diverting to Sutcliffe, but that’s a speedy course and I am definitely not in a speedy shape.

But let’s dive into some more info abou Hoblingwell parkrun: it is a rare small event for London and it definitely has some unique quirks. It is a really interesting venue that I see very rarely mentioned in tourist groups, so definitely something worth discovering!

Trip to Hoblingwell parkrun and parking

After visiting the extreme Western fringes of London last week for my fourth pilgrimage to the Home of parkrun, this time I have gone to the furthest Eastern hedges. My parkrun tourism travels definitely span far across the capital.

Similarly to last week, it looks like the South Eastern suburbs are equally mistreated by the tube and tram networks, so coming to Hoblingwell parkrun will require using mainline trains and/or busses. If you are brave enough to use public transport, the closest stations is St. Mary Cray, which according to the course page is 0.8 miles away from the start.

Out of curiosity, I’ve checked how long it would take me to get there by public transport from Wimbledon and Citymapper says it would take me about 130 minutes. For a trip that, as the crow flies, must not be more than 15Km.

So yeah, I drove there. I keep being a bad boy in terms of carbon footprint, but to my defense I barely use my car outside of my park running adventures. As usual, the trip there was very easy and flowing with limited traffic early on parkrunday morning and in about 40 minutes I was parked in front of the clubhouse. It is pretty much straight line from Wimbledon, down to Mitcham, then Croydon, Bromley and finally Orpington. It gets a bit twisty across residential areas at the end, but it never gets confusing.

If you follow the postcode above, which is also the one recommended on the official course page, just be mindful that it does not point exactly to the Recreation Grounds parking. Once I saw the entrance to the parking (a small yellow ‘gate’), Waze still wanted me to drive for a couple of minutes. Just get through the yellow thingies: you can easily see the park and people starting to set up the start area.

The parking is not very big, but definitely enough for the current attendance numbers. It might become a problem if the event grows in popularity significantly. Once you park, the rather uninspiring building you see is the clubhouse.

Hoblingwell parkrun: start and briefings

It’s not a massive park and the views around it are fairly open since the whole left part of the course is around playing fields. And the parking is nested in the middle of the left and right side of the park, as a small island of concrete in this beautiful green oasis. This means that it is quite likely that when you get out of the car you will easily see the runners’ meeting area a couple 100 metres away from you, opposite the clubhouse. So, if you need to use the toilets, a quick hop to the clubhouse and then back to the start in 1 minute.

Once you get to the runners’ meeting area, you can immediately see this is a small event, with a familiar feeling among locals and volunteers and the (several) tourists walking around aimlessly. Locals do make a real effort to be welcoming and chatty though, which is really nice.

The New Runners and main briefings both happen in the same area and are done quickly and efficiently but again with a very welcoming and friendly tone.

I really feel for the poor volunteer during the New Runners briefing and trying to explain the course. I don’t think this course can be explained in a way that does not make it sound incredibly convoluted. In truth, it is a bit funky, but not that much worse than many others… but if you try to explain it verbally, it gets really messy. I might try doing it below, just for the kicks of it.

After the main briefing, you turn 90 degrees to your left where you are standing and you are on the start line. If you are really an ambitious go-getter, 3/4 steps will bring you to the front. Yup, very efficient… and the finish funnel is also already there, set-up and waiting for you!

Bushy parkrun course review – star ratings

Hoblingwell parkrun course review – route highlights

There were about 70 runners on the day I visited, quite a change from my visit to Bushy last week. And I truly enjoyed it: it is one of the rare London events that has managed to maintain a ‘local’ feel. At the same time, you can see locals who come together often and a group that is incredibly friendly and welcoming to random tourists.

The course is truly mixed, but the majority of it is a soft version of cross country. It starts on grass, it has two short paved sections and a short section on hard wood path. When I was there road shoes were totally fine, but I can imagine trail shoes might help during wet periods.

Elevation-wise, this course is gently undulating. You are rarely on a totally flat section, but is very rarely painful enough to notice. There is only one short steep and aggressive climb, but it can’t be longer than 5 metres. At 49 metres net elevation gain, there is much much worse out there.

The course is bonkers. Technically, 2 laps, in reality, it will sound much more complicated than that at the briefing. 1.5 laps of the first field, short connection through the second field, 2 laps of the wood area and the second field, connect back, 3/4 laps of the first field.

Simple right? Yeah, it sounds better than what it really is, when you are on it, it kind of makes sense. And the team has placed plenty of volunteers at all junctures where you can be confused. Just make sure to keep count, the team here are great, but they cannot count for all faces they see passing by.

A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.

The start is on a fairly open section half way through one of the short sides of the first playing fields section. Everyone can get going easily and quickly arrange comfortably along the path. It will not be long before you turn left the first time for the first long side of the fields and then left twice to go back to the start and do one more ‘half lap’. This is run on the side of grass fields, so it’s a mix of grass and hard path. No tree coverage, so you will be fully exposed to the sun in summer and rain/wind in winter. Mostly flat, with some gentle elevation that you barely feel.

Half way through the second loop, you turn left wider and you descend towards the second playing fields area where a paved, descending path is waiting for you for a short, enjoyable straight. At the end of it you turn right into the fields before quickly turning left and tackle the steep climb. Very steep and it could be painful if it was just a little bit longer, but it’s not… probably 5 metres and then you are on the flat again. It’s kind of fun and the fact you are coming from an easy section when this evil thing is thrown at you helps.

When you get on top, you quickly run around a small BMX track. It looks interesting and certainly a lot of fun if you have the right trick bike. A marshall is strategically positioned here, since you will pass from this bit 3 more time back and forth.

After the BMX track, you turn left for a short undulating section covered by trees on one side only. Half way through it, you run by the parking lot and see the clubhouse, the cars and the start area from above. Unusual and pretty cool. Soon you reach the end of this section and what happens to be also the end of the park.

Here you will run on grass at the edge of the part enjoying a negative gradient for a while until you turn right again and enter a trail section inside the woods. This is fun again, descending and moderately technical, but it is not long at all. A short descent from the original turn, then right again back towards the centre of the park and soon left again at the other edge of the grass fields. This whole section and the next short bit is on narrow paths, so you might get stuck for a short while if bunched up and behind people who are slowing down when you still have some energy left.

You will soon be by the BMX track again and this time you need to go down the steep slope! Brace yourself, let gravity do its job and if you don’t trip and roll you will have a lot of fun! It’s not too uneven, let go, it will be fun.

Once through, it’s time to run up the North side of the playing field until you get to the edge of the park and transition into the sidewalk, to the puzzlement of local walkers going about their business. Here you have a longer, mild climb until the top of this small hill, where a nice volunteer will ship you back into the park, to cross the field once more, turn right (last time!) and climb up the steep bump a second time.

Do it all again and next time, after you cross the field, you need to turn left to start the journey back to the start. Remember you have to do it the second time you got there, the poor volunteer cannot count for everyone and when I got there he tried to suggest I had to do one more lap. I guess I looked very slow 🙂

At this point you loop back to the higher playing fields and run the ‘half-lap’ from the beginning in reverse to reach the incredibly short but efficient finish funnel and get your coveted barcode (don’t take it home!).

Well done, you have completed Hoblingwell parkrun!

Facilities at Hoblingwell parkrun

The toilet is in the clubhouse. Just walk in and turn right immediately after entering. It is open before 9am.

The cafe is in the clubhouse too so everything is next to each other here. It’s a small event, so there won’t be queues after the end and the staff is extremely efficient and friendly. It is a rugby clubhouse, not a fancy cafe, so ‘healthy options’ will be limited. Ok, let’s be honest, non-existent. But what is available is actually pretty decent and dirt cheap, comparably speaking.

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 Hoblingwell parkrun, I ordered a Diet Coke and a bacon bap. This cost £3.85, which is the lowest I have had to pay for a parkbreakfast so far. And it also came with outside tables!

Hoblingwell 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

This is a really interesting event and one I rarely heard about before embarking into my journey towards parkrun LonDone. This part of London is really beautiful and living in Wimbledon I had also never explored it before, so going through the local parkrun events was a nice opportunity to get a glimpse and reasons to come back.

I particularly enjoyed the friendly and familiar atmosphere. You can still feel this is a smaller event where people are close to each other but, at the same time very welcoming to tourists and making an effort to have a chat.

The course is kind of bonkers, in a fun way. The team have done a great job designing it: given the large space dedicated to playing fields it could have been pretty boring, but it is not. It keeps you interested, even through the second lap. It’s cool, I will be back!

Thank you, Hoblingwell parkrun team for your hospitality!