University Parks parkrun (#127)

I usually go to parkrun events in or around London to further my slow journey towards LonDone, but this week I ended up further out, at University Parks parkrun.

Last week I visited Harrow parkrun and a few weeks ago Jersey Farm parkrun, so I had already been shifting further North from my usual hunting area. That said, University Parks parkrun in Oxford is definitely a bit further North(-East) than usual.

This was an example of taking advantage of trips planned for other reasons to discover a new parkrun venue, which is usually how I get to locations that are outside my usual area. I had planned to go to Bicester Village with Miss IngoRuns and, obviously, why not wake up at the crack of dawn and get wet and muddy before going to that unholy carnage of a place?

When selecting what parkrun I should visit in the area, University Parks parkrun was the easy pick. Relatively new, the nice unique factor of being within Oxford University and the (not fully true) expectation that it would be mud and puddle free.

Let’s dive into some more info about University Parks parkrun, then!

Trip to University Parks parkrun and parking

Plenty of options to reach this venue by public transport, it is as central as it gets in Oxford, after all. That said, since it was only an intermediate stop in a day trip, for me, I ended up going by car, unsurprisingly.

First things first, lets see how you can get here if you are not going to drive. According to the official course page, there are a lot of potential options. The venue is within walking distance from Oxford train station: it seems about 20 minutes walk according to google maps. The course page linked above has detailed directions.

If you are coming from the big smoke, you also have the Oxford Tube bus line as an option, which you should hop off from at Queens Lane. Then the walk should be around 15 minutes long. Based on current timetable, it seems like you should catch the 6:25 bus from Victoria (other London stops available).

If driving and trying to be a bit more cost and traffic conscious, Oxford seems to have plenty of park-and-ride options to leave your car at the edges of town and jump on a bus. The course page has a good list of recommended options depending on where you coming from.

If you are driving, directions obviously depend on where you are coming from: Oxford is well connected by major motorways. From where I am coming from, it was nearly all motorway and the way there was really convenient and I encountered barely any traffic, leaving my house at around 7am.

I followed the directions on the event page and parked at St. Giles’. Plenty of available spots when I got there around 8:30 and about 10 minutes walk to the parkrun meeting points. Only drawback, this parking location is unusually expensive, even for London standards, charging £13.3 for 2 hours, which is also the maximum stay allowed.

University Parks parkrun: start and briefings

The St. Giles’ parking is about 10 minutes walk from where magic happens. Once you get out of your car, turn right inside the first small alley and keep going straight until you get into the park. Very easy and a nice walk across the University district.

Once you get closer to the meeting area, it is quite likely you will be able to see people coming together from pretty far away: it is a large park but playing fields make up a large section of its Northern portion. If you need to use the public toilets, these are about 3/4 minutes walk from the meeting point, closer to the Northern edge of the park, so bear it in mind.

The meeting area is next to a construction site, where there is a bit of an opening. It’s not pretty, but it is functional. The First Timers briefing happens at the West side of the clearing, while people will move half way towards the start to come together and listen to the main briefing.

After the main briefing is done, park runners will walk 20/30 metres East towards the edge of the park and stop at the start line soon thereafter. The path here is fairly narrow, probably the narrowest you will see across the whole course. This means that the start will be congested. When I was there, on a relatively low attendance day, it meant the first 15/20 seconds were spent walking, before the path opened up and the real run started. If you are chasing a PB, try to position yourself as close as possible to the actual start line.

Harrow parkrun course review – star ratings

University Parks parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 401 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, this is on the lower end of normal for this event, with attendance oscillating between 350 and 600+. I guess it depends on the time of the year, which is not surprising for an event taking place in a university campus. At 400 participants, it did not feel too busy, besides the first 30 seconds after the start.

The start line is on a fairly narrow path, so everyone will line up 4 abreast and when it was time to go we had to walk for about 30 seconds. A running start was just not possible, but it quickly opened up and after that there were no other bottlenecks.

Surface was hard path all through. It had rained a lot overnight and earlier in the morning, but there wasn’t really any mud on the course. Puddles were plenty and some were pretty big and slippery, but no lakes to wade or quicksands to survive here. I ran with road shoes and it was totally fine (unless you hate wet feet), but maybe trail shoes would have been slightly more convenient on such a wet morning.

Elevation-wise, this course is fairly flat, with only 16 metres of total elevation gain over 2 laps. There isn’t any really noticeable incline, to be honest. A bit of mild slopes here and there, but something you will barely know it is there.

In terms of course design, it is very simple: 2 laps around the perimeter of the park. You start a little inside the park, run to the perimeter path and go around twice with a little half loop mid way. Then after 2 laps you turn left towards the start and reach the finish funnel. The ‘half loop’ is cruel, because you think you are nearly at the end of the lap when you approach it but, in reality, you are just half way. Fun effect.

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

As said, we started more or less 100 metres inside the park, all bunched up on a narrow path. People have to walk to the start line after timing has started and then probably another 20/30 metres on a narrow path. Then the path opened up quite well and we could start running under beautiful tress in full autumnal colours. Which meant a lot of leaves on the ground, so be careful not to slip up here with a horde of enthusiastic and still fresh parkrunners just behind you.

The initial straight is pretty short and soon the herd will take a gentle left turn and enter the perimeter path around the park. This first East-West section goes along the North side of the park and it sided by beautiful trees to the right and playing fields to the left. It is easy to run on and pleasant. At the end, a sharper turn left for a shorter segment that goes alongside the back of the University buildings, with some grand surroundings offering a different view for a short while.

At the end of this segment, you will reach the corner with the small cafe described below and turn, you guessed it, left again.

One more flat, straight segment at the edge of the park before turning sharp left to cut through the park and the sharp right and reach the start location. Here you will see the volunteers and, if you are not super fast, maybe some early finishers or other finishers during the second lap, but you will not cross other runners. A sharp right gets you into another path that leads everyone back to the edges of the park.

At the end, the obligatory left turn is back on the menu and everyone enters a long straight alongside a river. This is a beautiful and interesting segment, with water to the right and mature trees on both sides of the path. I enjoyed this bit the most on what is, otherwise, a fairly ordinary setting.

When the path reaches a small lake to complement the river, it is time to turn left again and very shortly afterwards, reach the point where parkrunners flowed into the path from the start and begin the second lap.

At the end of the second lap you will then turn left at the same junction instead of going straight and quickly reach the finish funnel, which is surprisingly short given the amount of people that seem to come here. No issues at 400 attendees, but it might get busy when attendance crosses 600.

Congratulations on completing University Parks parkrun!

Facilities at University Parks parkrun

Toilets are available before and after the event at the Pavillon towards the Northern edge of the park. You can follow a straight path from the toilets leading straight to the meeting area, about 3/4 minutes walk.

There doesn’t seem to be any real ‘park cafe’, neither near the Pavillon, nor near the start. There is a small cabin cafe at the SW edge near the park exit, shown in the first picture below. Crepes seem to be their speciality and they had a decent spread of sweet options. Suprisingly, when I got there at around 9:45, the staff inside said they were not open yet. I don’t know if this was just an unusual situation the day I was there or if it is normal.

Since the ‘local’ option was not available, I walked back towards my car and found a small but attractive cafe straight across the road from the St. Giles parking area: Greens, shown in the second picture below.

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 University Parks parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a vitamin water and a delicious slice of lemon polenta. This cost £8.0, which is slightly on the expensive side.

University Parks 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

As always, visiting a new parkrun venue and University Parks parkrun definitely delivered. There is something special about further out venues, the sneaky pleasure of discovering a new location while attending to bigger unrelated weekend plans.

Oxford, and its university quarter, lend a majestic background to this event and the local population a young, vibrant team to volunteer and run.

The venue is a bit plain, but it is thoroughly enjoyable. I doubt I will be back any time soon given distance, but you never know!

Thank you, University Parks parkrun.

And obviously, thank you, University Parks parkrun team for your hospitality!