Woking parkrun

It’s St. Valentine’s week, so I was all set to visit Valentines: that’s obviously why, this week, I visited Woking parkrun for the first time!

Yes, parkrunday morning started with a bit of drama and anxiety this week, when my alarm decided to soothe me back into sleep at the appointed time and I suddenly woke up at 7:30 in the morning. And I need my sweet time to transition from mindless sleepy zombie to barely self aware amoeba in the morning.

It was very clear crossing London to visit Valentines and grab my first V was not going to be possible. Which is a big shame, I only need 3 more letters including the elusive V. Oh well, 2 of them to go on my last LonDone venues.

While having a lifesaving strong coffee, I managed to switch my reserve brain cell on and look for alternatives. Not my local, Wimbledon Common will be quicksands all through, why would I go there? Ok, you know how it went, so call me any names you want at this point. I quickly considered Tooting and Nonsuch, both definitely reachable in time, but then the tourist bug woke up and I tried looking for something new. I started using the 5K app, but that’s not helpful when in a rush. My NENDY there is Victoria Park, which is not far as the crow flies, but this is London. And I am not a crow. I think… early morning, unstable sense of self.

Fortunately, a few weeks ago I reorganised the index of my posts on this site and, as part of that, I had created a map covering my parkrun touring where I could see what ‘target locations’ were within quick driving distance. Getting into Surrey from Wimbledon is quick via the A3 and early morning you can get where you want fairly fast. I remembered reading that Guildford parkrun was pretty muddy, so I reverted to Woking: a quick look at their pics showed tarmac, so I should be safe there. Moron.

But that’s where I decided to go. It has been a while since I’ve left London for parkrun, that’s usually something I do in spring and summer. I think my last Home Counties visits were University Parks on an unrelated trip and Jersey Farm on a long trip to grab me a J. Last but not least, gaining Surrey Regionnaire status is a long term objective, so Woking made some sense, kind of.

Surrey is home to many gorgeous venues, so I was sure this trip would not disappoint. And it definitely didn’t, with one notable exception which should be apparent by the picture above.

Anyway, enough with personal rumblings I’m sure nobody cares about. It’s time to dive into some more info about Woking parkrun! And ‘dive’ is an unironically appropriate word here.

Trip to Woking parkrun and parking

Woking is a larger town in North-West Surrey, just about 20 miles away from central London. Surrey is home to many beautiful venues, if you can, most are worth a visit. Reaching this part of Surrey is relatively easy, via the A3 directly or the M25 and then the A3 junction.

These roads are notoriously cursed by traffic and roadworks, but early in the morning it is usually not a problem. Differently from other venues, Woking does not sit directly on the A3, so take into account about 10 minutes further drive from when you leave the (occasional) comfort of the motorway. Reaching the leisure centre is not a problem and the car park is massive. It is also free of charge, as long as you don’t stay for more than 2 hours. I tried to see if they have a payment app for it, but I don’t think they did, which is a minor inconvenience if you don’t arrive at the last second like I did. Once you have parked, the meeting area will be a painful 45 seconds walk from the boundary of the car park.

If you are less lazy and less rushed for time than me, you can also get here by public transport. According to the official course page, Woking station is only 10 minutes walk from Woking park, so very doable. I know many won’t agree, because we all like to complain and grumble, but if you are a Londoner, SouthWester offers a pretty decent service, so getting here will not be difficult at all.

Woking parkrun: start and briefings

If you used the car park, just walk towards the leisure centre left side facing it and the second you step foot on the pavement you will probably already be able to see the finish funnel. It is that close, the meeting point is just by the leisure centre at the far side. 

An unusual quirk of this venue is that not much happens here. You have your bag drop and then the New Runners briefing. This is as always held by a very welcoming volunteer who tries to explain the course, but mostly welcomes everyone to a fairly busy venue.

Afterwards, everyone starts walking away, without any announcement I could hear. As a good sheep, I followed my herd and we all walked the length of the leisure centre and stopped at the other corner. There is a small toilet block here for last minute nature calls.

Once we stopped, everyone turned 360-degrees, facing the road we had just walked. As it happens, this will be the start configuration, with locals already positioned properly along the start line and staggered by expected finish time. The rest of the herd just bunched up behind. The local were the stem of a mushroom and we were the cap.

Then the Main Briefing started, with a particularly entertaining RD cracking a few jokes. And breaking some unexpected news: terrain was ‘soft’ and, apparently, soft is something to be feared in Woking. How bad can it be?

Then, with very little wait, I heard a countdown… and people started shuffling forward! Slowly.

Woking parkrun course review – star ratings

Woking parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 312 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, attendance has been above consistently above 300 in 2024. Similar to 2023, when attendance seemed to be hoovering around 300, with a few events above, but also several in the mid 200s. I think 300ish is the sweet spot for this course: it is slightly busy at the start, but then things spread out pretty quickly. There are bottlenecks, but those are mainly due to people deciding they don’t want to swim in mud, not necessarily because of narrow points.

I think there are three short bridges along the route, creating natural bottlenecks. However, in the second half of each lap, so by the time you get there there is a very good chance the field will already be thin enough for it not to be an issue. One of those bridges come at a very hard left turn, which could make things more challenging if you reach it with a large group. A volunteer was stationed at that spot all the time, I guess this is a known potential hazard point.

Surface-wise is a very binary experience. The first half is on excellent tarmac, well maintained, fast and flat. It drains well and there were no puddles. Then you cross a bridge and turn left to start the ‘trail’ section in the woods. And the ground here seem to have no draining capacity, creating massive muddy areas for most of the section. It is impressively muddy and soft and, I think, it can challenge my local, Wimbledon Common. And I consider my home event to be quicksands for 6 months a year.

Elevation-wise, the feeling I got while running was that of a very mildly undulating course. It never felt hilly and, frankly, besides a little ramp towards the end, I never thought I was climbing anything. But there were several instances where I thought I was running on a very mild, long downhill. There is a noticeable one before the ‘sharp-left bridge’, but I thought there were other ones. In reality, this is as flat as it gets, with 9 metres of elevation gain over 3 laps, unless my Garmin went bananas.

In terms of course design, we are looking at a figure 8 drawn by a toddler with shaky hands. Meaning it’s not an 8, but the idea holds. The top half of the 8 is tarmac heaven, the bottom half of the 8 is muddy woods. And the 2 halves touch each other at the exit of ‘sharp-left bridge’.

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

So, as said above, everyone has already lined up behind the leisure centre facing the finish funnel while the Main Briefing is being held. The briefing naturally transitions into a countdown and then it is time to get started. Since people have positioned themselves in a mushroom shape, you will have a slight ‘sieve’ effect for a few seconds, but then it gets free and fluid pretty quickly.

The first 1/200 metres are in straight line, good surface, a nice bandstand to your right roughly half way. Then you reach the finish funnel and turn sharp right to start going North. This is a short section, because very quickly you will have to turn right again and go back East again, gently turning in the middle of several tennis courts.

Once you have reached the open fields, it is time to start running a L shape at the edge of big open meadows, alongside the North edge of the park. It is still very flat and still very good surface. Keep the L analogy, long line first, then turn right and short line.

Once you are done with the 2 sides of the open meadows, it is time for a half-left turn into a diagonal segment that will lead you towards the little stream at the centre of the park. This segment shows the ‘steepest’ downhill of the course. We have already seen above how it probably isn’t as steep as I thought, but I guess all is relative and on a flat course a slight bump can be more pleasant than it deserves to be.

At the end of this segment, it is time to turn left again. Why? Because we have reached ‘Sharp-left Bridge’! It is a short bridge with a fairly nice view over the stream, but you barely have time to realise you are on it. And that, at the end of a wet week, this is not just a bridge. It’s a portal, like the forest dark where Dante met Virgil to reach the Gates of Hell. Or like an abrupt border between a cheery urban run and a rough cross country survival course.

Yup, at the end of the bridge, it’s time to turn left and enter THE WOODS. Muahahahahaha. Evil laugh for effect.

The first impact with the woods is misleading. Yes, tarmac turns to hard path, but it still hard and it can be called a path, or a trail, without being laughed at. Soon after though, you will encounter the first muddy spots. They are fairly wide and cover the whole width of the path, but still relatively self contained. I encountered 4 or 5 of these along this segment that follows the little stream.

At the end of this segment, though, you reach a volunteer that shows you a sharp right turn and tells you to pay attention on the path. Really? Now… I thought that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 200m…

Oh..

Yes, I’ve taken the turn and seen the trail ahead.

To continue the analogy above, this is where Virgil tells Dante it’s time to stop joking, we are now entering the lower Circles of Hell. Where the nasty guys go, not the funny innocuous hedonists you met above.

It is a sight to behold. Deep, sticky, soft mud from side to side. And here, it is not a few patches of mud along a hard path. It is a few (rare) patches of hard path interrupting a long glorious river of mud.

It was fun. This is the path you have to negotiate for the whole segment going South-West diagonally at the bottom corner of the map.

There are legends of parkrunners getting swallowed never to be seen again, but most reach the end of this segment and the sight of a hard path with green, dry(ish) grass next to it is comparable to when you see an open kebab shop at 3am after a Friday night of drinking. Ecstasy.

At this point, it is time to exit mudland and turn sharp right for a brief segment and then left again to eventually reach what I called above the Gates of Hell, or the centre of the figure 8. This time you are leaving those scary muddy lands behind, but you know you will need to see them again!

Once you have passed the centre of the 8, time for another short detour South, sharp right, hop on a bridge again, right again and soon left for one last straight segment. I actually liked this twisty and turns design, it is fun.

This last straight is not long and it ends with a small incline that ends in front of the toilet block where the original start line was.

It was a hard lap. You are muddy, but happy you survived the quicksands, how great, we are done!

Nope.

2 more laps… lol.

After surviving the quicksands twice more, you will make your way towards a finish funnel that will feel sweet than ever and a choir of cherubs sings in your head. You did it. Virgil did not leave the woods, and Beatrice is there at the end of the funnel, waiting for you with her peaceful smile and a token in hear hand.

Congratulations on completing Woking parkrun! Time to wash your shoes now… 🙂

Facilities at Woking parkrun

Woking park is dominated by the leisure centre and Pool in the park. So it is natural most facilities will be in this big monster of a building. By the way, clearly off topic, but the swimming pools seem pretty impressive and the slides are a sight to behold. I suspect my partner might insist we can back here in summer for an afternoon.

I don’t know if parkrunners have access to toilets in leisure centre before the run, but in case of emergencies there is a little toilet block near the start line (not the meeting point). Key word: small. And this is a busy event, so time your visit if you need it.

After the run, parkbreakfast is at the cafe in the leisure centre. You get in and then walk through past a couple of doors and reach the cafe. Nice area with basic decor but a lot of light and decent views. Limited choice in terms of food, though. Mostly prepackaged stuff.

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 Woking parkrun, I ordered a single espresso and a lemon soda and an undefined muffin. This cost £5.85, which is ok I guess.

Woking 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 was fun. Painful, but really fun.

It is truly a course with two different faces, and both are enjoyable. Don’t come here in winter targeting a good finish time and you will have a good time. Pun intended.

The team is very friendly and welcoming and I am sure they look at us tourists with (slightly) hidden sadistic thoughts. I would as well, not complaining. 🙂

If you come in summer, you might even get a good time here because it is very flat and the paved section is fast.

Facilities are ok and the park offers enough to spend a couple of hours after parkrun if you so wish. Try this venue, it is great a break from the usual urban venues. I will be back again, I am sure.

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