Hampstead Heath parkrun (#119)

Hampstead Heath parkrun has been number 2 on my Nendy list for a while now, but it is part of the scary list of events that are ‘across central London’ for me. As such, they can only be reasonably reached by public transport and usually my laziness leads me to events reachable by car.

The fact that my car is currently grounded helped me take the leap and I am definitely not regretting it. Since I am definitely not a morning person, waking up a bit earlier was a pain, but the overall experience was a real pleasure. Hampstead is one of the nicest areas in London and Hampstead Heath one of its most beautiful parks, so I am definitely easing into it softly, but I am now confident I can tackle most of the N/NW locations over the next few months. 🙂

One more reason why I was delaying my first trip to Hampstead Heath parkrun was also its reputation as a very tough hilly course. And hilly it definitely is, but with the exception of the final climb before the funnel, I don’t think it is as terrible as I thought. It’s definitely up there with the toughest ones in London (incidentally, exactly the same elevation gain as Sunny Hill parkrun), but its gradients tend to be soft both on the up and on the downhill. It reminds me Banstead Woods parkrun, in a way.

I had no parkrun challenges chasing ulterior motives today. This was a return to the core of what I love about parkrun tourism: exploring new venues and enjoying locations I don’t often go to. All the while having a fun run and being surrounded by like-minded people. To top it all off, Hampstead Heath does not offer a local cafe, meaning I was ‘forced’ to explore Hampstead a bit to find a nice venue giving me access to the required post run sugar fix.

Trip to Hampstead Heath parkrun and parking

Hampstead Heath is on the border of TFL zones 2 and 3, so technically not in Central London, but pretty close to it. If you are coming from Northern areas, driving might still be your preference, so if you so decide, the official course page recommends the public parking on East Heath Road, NW3 1NT. It is about 5 minutes (uphill) walk from the runners meeting area. I have not used it, so I cannot confirm, but I read comments saying that it is particularly expensive. It’s Hampstead, after all.

If you are going using public transport and the tube network is your means of choice, then it could not be easier. Well, it could, but it is still pretty convenient. I did not even have to change lines, since I come from Wimbledon and I could use the Northern line all through from South Wimbledon.

The closest tube stop is Hampstead, with Hampstead Heath overground also a possible alternative. If you pick the underground, you arrive in Hampstead village and have something between 5 and 10 minutes to walk to get to the Hampstead Heath parkrun meeting area. I arrived around 8:20 and there were several other people getting out of the tube that looked like parkrunners.

One word of caution: if you use the ‘get me there’ link from the event description reachable via the 5K parkrunner app, it will send you to the parking for some reason. Yeah, I made that mistake even if I thought it was weird when I turned right and everyone else kept going straight. Learning experience: make sure you use the right meeting point as destination and don’t trust apps blindly.

From Wimbledon, I was at the runners meeting point in about 1h, so not too bad… as the crow flies, it should be much faster, but the Northern Line goes East before going North, so there is that. No biggie.

Last recommendation before getting into the meat of this write-up: there is no toilet near the start locations. Hence, a quick visit to a cafe near the station is recommended if you feel nature calling.

Hampstead Heath parkrun: start and briefings

This is a big event, it seems to hover around 450/500 runners, on average. Not enough to get it up there with the busiest in London, but definitely just one notch below them. People seem to arrive late, with 10 minutes to spare max, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see many other people there early.

Once you get to the Heath, if coming from the tube station you will approach from the side where the Hampstead Heath park sign is. The one I used as feature image for this post. If you like take pictures of the parkrun name as memento, use this sign: the team at this event do not seem to bother with the usual name banner. From this sign, it is just one minute walk to get to the assembly area, in a large open area next to a fenced children playing area. The fence is used as unofficial bag drop: not covered if it rains, but safe on the day I used it and, I guess, at most other times.

Briefings were a rather quick and informal thing. Unless I missed it, they did not bother with a new runners’ briefing and dove straight into the main briefing, delivered with a megaphone, since at that time it was pretty busy.

Fairly strong reminders that terrain and congestion can be tricky immediately after the start, inviting everyone to be careful because there have been injuries during recent events. More on that later, but it is a very fair warning and, probably, the main reason why trail shoes might be helpful here in most weather conditions.

Once the quick formalities are deal with, runners start walking towards the start point, which is roughly by the ‘park sign’ I mentioned before. Here, the crowd split in two groups that approach the start on two sides of a small patch of woods and flow into the start bottleneck from two directions. Probably adding to the risk of injuries immediately after ‘Go’ is shouted. It is busy and you will lose some time before you really get going unless you are upfront, but nothing too dramatic. The worst from that perspective remains Fulham Palace, at least in my experience.

Hampstead Heath parkrun course review – star ratings

Hampstead Heath parkrun course review – route highlights

There were just shy of 500 parkrunners on the day I visited: an average level of attendance for Hampstead Heath parkrun. It was a nice and sunny September day without any of the awful heat we have experienced recently. Truly ideal conditions for running.

The start is an adventure of its own at this event. It seems like numbers have grown beyond what people thought they would get to when selecting the course. People separate into two areas that both flow into one large path where the start. Lines are long on both sides. The start is then downhill on a trail path with a lot of stones and tree roots, so do mind your steps, it can be tricky.

Terrain is mixed, with trail paths and paved paths, probably fairly evenly split. I think road shoes should be fine in most conditions, with the exception of the first 2/300 metres after the start. Your call on what you choose to wear, but trail shoes might help minimising the risk of slipping during the initial stampede. Especially if wet.

Elevation-wise, this course is one of the hilliest in London. You are never really on the flat for longer than a few metres. The uphills are long and the downhills are steep. It’s actually kind of fun and, while it seems to have the same 101 metres elevation gain, I think Sunny Hill felt harder.

The course is pretty simple. One section downhill to reach the ‘loop’, two laps of the loop and then a painful climb to go back to the runners meeting point where the finish funnel is. There is one bit on the loop where you could get confused and no marshal was there, but there were yellow flags on the ground.

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

As I said, the start is a bottleneck on a decently wide path fed into by two narrow paths. It will take some time for people not in front to reach the actual start line after gun time has started going. Once you get there, congestion gets a bit more manageable, but it will be 2/300 metres before the field properly spreads out. And those 2/300 metres are run on a moderately steep downhill with uneven terrain, tree roots and gravel. Nothing to be concerned about, but pay a bit more attention than usual and don’t let the start adrenaline and the downhill get to your head. At least not too much… 🙂 Which is a shame, because the downhill could be great for a fast start and you will pay for its friendly gradient at the end. With interests.

At the end of the first descent, when congestion gets a bit messy, you enter the loop and you might have the illusion that things get flat while you keep running in the mature woods with a nice open field to your right. It is just an illusion, since you will start climbing pretty soon. With the exception of a few respites, from here it will be consistently uphill until you reach the lakes area.

This climb is not too steep to run and it goes through a pleasant wood with a few stretches of open meadows to your right. Pace yourself and you can get to the top without walking breaks and take full advantage of the short flats and declines interspersed in it to recover rather than push beyond your cruising speed. You will thank me later.

At the top, where a nice volunteer will greet you, you will turn right immediately after you see the first lake. You will run by the side of two of the Hampstead Heath lakes here and will be able to enjoy very nice views with the sun rising on the opposite side of the lakes. When you turn right you also start running on paved paths and leave the woods for a while to enter a beautiful section with open meadows and well tended hills. I guess this is where the sheep used to be in the past and now it is a very relaxing, scenic area for visitors and parkrunners.

This section is flat for a short while and then it starts climbing again briefly until you reach a small copse of trees and briefly see the second lake. Turn right again and off to another, longer climb that will lead you to the highest point of the loop. This side of the loop is quite exposed, so it must be an interesting section on windy days.

When you get to the top, a few marshals will be there to show you the sharp right turn into a hard path that will bring you down again. Quickly. This is steep, rather short and fun. Here the path is quite narrow and if crowded, you can run off on the side to take advantage of gravity and pass a few people without too much risk of tripping.

However, as I said, this descent is not long. At the bottom of the hill, you turn right again to enter the last side of the loop. It is mostly uphill again, again on wood trails with fairly easy terrain. There are some longer flat stretches on this side though, it felt ‘easier’. Be careful around half way through this section, where there is a sudden left turn that was not marshalled on the day. I saw some runners just ahead of me going straight at this point, but fortunately noticed some small yellow flags on the ground and turned. It was the right choice. 🙂

After one more climb, you will reach the end of the loop and a Marshall showing you that you need to turn right into the original long uphill section for your second lap. There is also a sign showing that you need to turn right the first time and left the second time, to go back to the meeting point where the funnel will be.

So after one more round around the loop you will be back here and turn left… at this point you have run for around 4.5km and you are tired, looking forward to a easy home stretch. LoL, time to suffer because what goes down needs to go back up and now it’s time to pay back for the easy downhill start. I found this bit painful, probably because somehow I did not expect it. It is not only the initial stretch downhill on reverse, but also the short walk from the runners meeting point to the actual start line. And I did not realise that was downhill too, which means more uphill on the way back.

Then suddenly you turn right and you are 50 metres from the funnel, only one last steep(ish) downhill on grass to get there. I had still some gas left so I sprinted through it, as I often do, and I nearly slipped on the wet grass. But I did not, had a laugh and got to the funnel. Just be careful, if you can remember to at this point 🙂

The funnel was not too long and pretty efficient. Scanning seemed to take a bit longer than at other events with similar numbers, maybe they had fewer scanners. Nothing to complain about though, it was all great, efficient and rather fast.

Well done, you have conquered the hills at Hampstead Heath parkrun! Fun, wasn’t it? And definitely, one of the most beautiful venues in the Capital.

Facilities at Hampstead Heath parkrun

There are no facilities at Hampstead Heath parkrun. Well, unless you are there early enough and want to use the bushes, that is.

That said, the Heath is just 5 minutes walk from Hampstead village centre and there are plenty of nice cafes there. I chose Boulangerie because it looked good and it had outside tables. Lovely pastries and some cooked options or salads if that’s what you want at 10am after a run.

Disclaimer: the cute doggo is a bonus and it is not included with your breakfast.

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 Hampstead Heath parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a lemonade and a fruit danish. This cost £9.1, which is expensive, but it was a nice cafe in the Hampstead town centre, so I was not terribly surprised.

Hampstead Heath 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

A great venue that is close to central London, so I often see it as one of the recommendations for visitors. And I can definitely confirm that I would recommend it too, especially if you are in town during a dry and sunny period. The Heath has a special charm, not sure why, but the combinations of real wood section with wide sweeping grassy hills and substantial lakes are truly special. Emotional even.

It is a lovely venue and I would love to try it again one day now that I know the course. And it is not difficult to get to. I also read that there are apparently an A and B course. I don’t know how different they are and how they are picked. I will see if I find any info, but if you know please feel free to help in the comments!

I am pretty sure I will visit again.

Thank you, Hampstead Heath parkrun team for your hospitality!