Gunnersbury parkrun (#132)

This week I decided to pause my exploration of new venues and return to Gunnersbury parkrun for the second time. Last time I was here in spring and truly enjoyed the beautiful park. This time, I visited after the coldest week so far and was greeted by a completely frozen lake with swans and ducks leisurely walking on it.

The useless week days leading to parkrunday were very busy this time, with a late arrival into LHR on Friday evening, so I really did not have it in me to drive or travel for a long time early on parkrunday morning. Fortunately, I have plenty of relatively close venues I have not visited yet since I’ve started documenting my visit and I am slowly working my way towards fixing that.

So this is what led me to a quick trip just North of the river this time: kind of lazy compared to the crossing of South London I braved last week to reach Bexley parkrun.

Gunnersbury parkrun is not talked about a lot in parkrun tourism boards and chats. And it definitely deserves better: it is a rare one-lap event in a beautiful park relatively close to central London. A good weather visit is clearly more enjoyable, but it also offers the undervalued perk of being fully on tarmac. That helps a lot during heavy rains, it could have been scary on an icy morning, but it surprisingly warmed up quickly when I visited, solving that.

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

Trip to Gunnersbury parkrun and parking

Gunnersbury park is just North of Kew Bridge, on the border between the London boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond. Technically, it is in Ealing, but the area is probably better known as Brentford.

My instinct was that there wouldn’t be many tube stations right next to the venue, but the official course page quickly proved me wrong. 4 stations are listed as within walking distance, starting from 10 minutes walk up to 20 minutes walk. The stations are Acton, Kew Bridge, South Ealing and Gunnersbury, offering links to the District and Piccadilly Lines and to National Rail. I’m sure there are bus routes available connecting the stations with the park, if you prefer avoiding a pre-parkrun 20 minutes walk. You can check on an app like CityMapper. It is very good, by the way… and this is not a sponsored message, who would sponsor my tiny blog? 🙂

If you are driving, Gunnersbury Park is leisurely nested at the intersection of the Chiswick flyover and the A406 so, depending on where you are coming from, connections might be convenient. And you also get to enjoy the fumes from two major motorways by your running route! Joking (I think)… the park is big and I did not feel or smell either of them. Seen, I did, since one section of the route gets very close.

Unsurprisingly, I was lazy and drove. The short drive took me less than 30 minutes driving up from Wimbledon into Sheen, Kew and Brentford.

If you put the postcode above on your GPS app, it will lead you to the main Park parking spot. It is very small, but it is not a problem because very few parkrunners use it, since there is another very large car park just by the meeting point. This one is about 10 minutes walk from the meeting point, at the North edge of the route, but it has one positive! It is where the only toilets open before 9am can be found in this park (unless the Fitness Centre opens early).

I used it because it is the postcode offered on the official course page, but you might want to drive towards the Southern end of the park and turn towards it to find the bigger and more spacious options by the meeting point.

Gunnersbury parkrun: start and briefings

The meeting point is at the edge of the playing fields, which sit on the SW-side of the park.

If you have parked at the little spot by the Gunnersbury museums I described above, you will not see any signs or direction to reach it. The 5K app ‘navigation’ link works well though and it will bring you out of the landscaped mature park section towards the lake, the fitness centre, a mini golf area and finally some fenced fields. Once you get there, you will still not be able to see the meeting point, but just go around the playing fields and everyone wearing pink will suddenly appear in front of you.

There is literally nothing next to the meeting point, so if it is windy or rainy, you will be fully exposed to the weather. Also, don’t forget the only reliable toilets are 10 minutes walk away, so don’t forget unless you want to stop half way through your run. Guys, no… no bushes either.

The New Runners briefing is held inside the field by a very welcoming volunteer who was pleasantly surprised by the many runners trying our weekly addiction for the first time. This week there were more new joiners than tourists, which is a great sign and, I am sure, was still helped by New Year resolutions. Hopefully it sticks!

After that, it is soon time to walk to the starting point, where the Run Director will deliver the Main Briefing to all runners after they have already positioned to start running. If you are competitive and want to go for a good time, do the elbowing, lobbying and sneaking around before the briefing, there won’t be any walk to reach another location here.

And then, suddenly, it is time to go!

Gunnersbury parkrun course review – star ratings

Gunnersbury parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 627 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, it looks like attendance here bounces up and down quite wildly. I don’t think I’ve seen such a volatility elsewhere, but the range seems to be 400-700… Recent events are closer to the top of the range, probably because of New Year resolutions. But considering the miserable weather, I think this might have tempered even higher possible numbers.

There isn’t any real choke point in this route, but if numbers become much higher than 600, then I expect the whole route to see runners being fairly intimate with each other. Things will be worse on very muddy days because less people will be ready to use the grass sides instead of the paved path. The start has a mini-Bushy feel, with people lining up widely on the lawn rather than trying to have everyone fit on the narrow(ish) path. Along the route things get a bit tight here and there, but after the first 1km I never felt it was a problem.

The whole 5K is on tarmac, when it comes to surface. I guess there hasn’t been any recent resurfacing, so there are several potholes, but it is not as bad as some of the reports you can find on internet seem to suggest. It is fine and it is not muddy, which is the key point in my opinion. Just don’t expect it to be super smooth like in Dulwich and pay some attention and everything will work out well.

Elevation-wise, according to Strava Gunnersbury parkrun nets 26m of elevation gain over the single out and back lap. I have to say it feels mildly undulating, with the weird observation that the downhills felt more than the uphills to me. I do not remember the little uphill you can see in the middle of the elevation picture below, but I remember plenty of long and pleasant downhills. The only little incline I remember is the one that comes just before the finish line: nothing to write home about though (just on this blog). You will be fine.

In terms of course design, it is great actually: 1-lappets will always get full marks for me. It starts with an L-shaped run on the side of the playing fields for about 1k, then you enter a nice loop around the landscaped area of the park before joining the L again and going back for last K. It is enjoyable and never boring, except maybe the last 600m, but you see the funnel at that point!

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

As said above, everyone lines up along a wide imaginary start line that starts at the paved path and encroaches well into the playing fields to avoid an endless queue after things get going.

The horde of parkrunners starts going parallel to the path and then, over the first 400 metres, progressively shifts right towards it. These 400m are the first straight line you see on the map above and they are, awesomely, a descending slope. It feels great, but since this is an out and back, it will feel less great when they will become your last 400m.

At the end of this straight, it will be time to turn left, to run along the second side of the empty playing fields and start going towards the beginning of the nice loop. Nice loop which is the fun part of this route. However, about half way through this straight, there is a little wiggle and you will change scenery. It’s barely a turn, but parkrunners transition from open fields into a tree-lined path. It is a very welcome change, I really don’t like running around football fields, but I love ‘forest’ paths.

You are not there yet, though. It will still be a few minutes before you can officially exit the starting ‘L’ section. After slightly more than 1K, you will meet a happy volunteer who will show everyone they need to turn sharp left to enter the loop. The Event Team should consider equipping this Marshall with a cattle prod as numbers increase at Gunnersbury parkrun.

I think this might be where there is a tiny climb, while you run alongside a fenced (larger) lake before turning left again and go through a final straight that leads to what I believe is a fairly run-down service building. At that point, you turn sharp right and leave the fence behind you heading towards a circular pond, which you will coast for a little while. This was the pond that was totally frozen when I arrived and when I passed it running there was a park janitor breaking the ice with a stick. He had already done a good job and I guess that was to avoid anyone stepping on what was clearly very thin ice.

After the lake, it is time for another turn right to enjoy a fun descent towards the back of the historical buildings in the park (the Museum, I guess?). Soon after you will turn again and start the brief section that runs alongside the A406. There are trees on both sides so you will not think about the busy road for longer than a few seconds. Once this short bit is over, it is time for one more right turn and a long straight line run through the ‘forest’.

At the end of this long flat straight, you will reach the larger ‘fenced lake’ again and run alongside it for a little while until you meet the Marshall-who-needs-a-cattle-prod again. She will smile again and indicate your left so that you don’t get lost and enter the initial L section again, from the opposite side. Here the out&back part proper starts and you know what to do. The open fields are is a bit miserable when tired but it is quick and seeing the finish line helps ignoring the little incline you have to face now.

At the end, it is time to get into the very long funnel and slowly slowly queue to get your barcode. Everything works extremely well and things move fairly fast. In the unlikely case you are reading me, lady who tried passing me at the end waking the sprinter in me suddenly, thanks for a nice challenge and well done on a great run! 🙂

Congratulations on completing Gunnersbury parkrun!

Facilities at Gunnersbury parkrun

Gunnersbury Park is fairly large, so a lot of things might be on offer that I have not seen during my visit. There is even a grand-looking museum that apparently hosts a varied collection of historical pieces from local inhabitants.

I’ve written about the car parks above and you only need to decide on a fundamental philosophical question. What is more important for you: a short walk to the start or a run on an empty bladder? Hard choice

The cafe closest to the finish funnel is Putt in the Park, a very small cafe serving the mini golf facilities. It gets very busy and the wait for hot drinks can be very long, while cold drinks and ready food can be grabbed fairly quickly. Not much choice in terms of food, but what I had was nice.

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 Gunnersbury parkrun, I ordered a single espresso and a blood orange soda and a pastel de nata. Yes, not a custard taste, a pastel de nata. I am fancy. 🙂 This cost £6.5, which is fair and in line with average London prices.

Gunnersbury 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

I really liked this course the first time I visited with good weather and I really liked it this time as well. It is a one-lapper, so it starts as a winner in my book and the loop part can be quite interesting. It is flat(ish) with a good surface… what not to like?

Facilities are good and the park offers enough to spend a couple of hours after parkrun if you so wish. Try this venue, it is great and it deserves more attention for London parkrunners. I will be back again, I am sure.

And obviously, thank you, Gunnersbury parkrun team for your hospitality!