Oak Hill parkrun

This Parkrunday I was supposed to be in Wembley late morning, so I took that as a sign I should visit Oak Hill parkrun for the first time. I had already visited other venues in the NW London cluster that are closer to me, so this was the first step in tackling the N/NE cluster of events set in those far away lands. With Beckton and Greenwich over the last couple of weeks, I have completed the SE corner, so no excuses left, unfortunately. Early mornings are going to be a staple of my Parkrundays for a while.

This was venue 51 on my slow crawl towards LonDone status. I am entering the home stretch and it has been a truly great experience, visiting so many parts of the Capital I had barely ever heard about, even if I’ve been living here my whole adult life. There are rumours of several new venues starting in London in the near future, so who knows when I will complete the task. The journey is what matters, reaching the destination will be a bittersweet moment, I am sure. Oh well, one of the possible new venues is very close to where I live, so it might also be a godsend for my (obviously pointless) Wilson Index. See my post about parkrun challenges if you are interested in discovering more about the addictive dark underbelly of parkrun 🙂

I did not plan to travel all the way to Oak Hill parkrun this week. I was actually planning to visit a closer venue that would not be new to me, but it would be an addition to this website. That said, on Friday the boss-lady decided I would have to be in that area at 10:45… and I cannot say no the Boss. Obviously. Silver lining: a new venue ticked off!

I had not really considered Oak Hill parkrun in my short term plans. It looks really far, the route description does not sound particularly appealing and it has Hill in its name. That is scary. Which is a weird unconscious bias, since Sunny Hill parkrun was definitely one of the venues I’ve enjoyed the most during my parkrun travels. Or Huddinge parkrun, in Stockholm, which does not have Hill in the name, but it is one of the most painful monstrosities I’ve run so far… and I loved it.

Anyway, quick spoiler to say that this venue is not as hilly as you might fear.

I was also hopeful about the weather when I woke up. For the first time in a while, it looked like we could have a sunny day and, finally now that we are at the end of March, we could experience some pleasant weather. Reality partially disappointed and I’ve experienced a weird weather effect: half of the course was freezing, with penguins joining the crowd and the other half was pleasantly warm. Go figure…

Anyway, enough with my introductory fluff. It’s time to dive into some more info about Oak Hill parkrun!

Trip to Oak Hill parkrun and parking

Oak Hill parkrun is set in Oak Hill park. Duh, thank you Mr. Obvious. This park is in a residential area in East Barnet, which sits comfortably close to the North Circular. So if you are driving, this event is actually fairly easy to get to, for London standards.

That said, let’s start looking at public transport options. These are ok, but not exceptional. According to the official course page, the closest station is Oakleigh Park Station, about 10 minutes walk from the venue.. This is served by mainline trains managed by Great Northern and Thameslink. Since we are now seeing more public transport strikes than France or Germany, check before you decide to go this way. Tube stations are available, but they are at least 30 minutes walk away.

If I check how long it would take me to reach Oak Hill park from my base in Wimbledon by public transport, I get a scary 100 minutes estimate, with at least 2 changes, if not 4.

The fact that I decided to drive there will not surprise usual readers of these reports. This time I had the additional excuse that I had errands to run nearby as well. As said above, the event is about 5 minutes drive from the North Circular, which makes it fairly convenient for anyone coming from outside London or from other corners of the capital. It is not perfect, but it is much better than crossing through residential areas for an hour.

Once you get there, there is a great, free car park by the Parkside Gardens entrance to the park. It is not huge, but big enough for about 50 vehicles and it has the added bonus of being 2 minutes walk away from the meeting point. I got there at 8:30am and it was about half empty, so if this is your choice, come with a bit of time to spare and you should be fine.

Oak Hill parkrun: start and briefings

If you used the car park, you will see volunteers and runners coming together just in front of you, less than 100m away. Probably less in a straight line, but you have to cross a little stream via the bridge in front of the little square golf cafe. The meeting point is on a shaded corner between the bridge and a few tennis courts. It sits just at the edge of large fields and at the bottom of the local hill. 

The location makes it great as a finish spot, since it gifts runners a rare downhill funnel approach. However, on the day I visited it meant we were all standing around in a shaded area which also seemed to be the converging point of all cold wind streams that decided to visit the area. It was freezing, truly. Unseasonably freezing and, also, significantly colder than anywhere else along the course. On the positive, we got to play with penguins and polar bears for a little while.

10 minutes before 9, we were called to the New Runners briefing, which was very welcoming and thorough. Apparently, on the day I visited the contingent of tourists and true new joiners was significantly larger than usual, with a group coming from as far as Australia. Welcome to London, I hope you enjoyed swapping kangaroos for penguins! 🙂

The main briefing than takes place opposte the spot chosen for the New Runners’ one. Many runners had arrived by then, making the area lively and buzzy and all announcements took place as they should. It is then time to walk to the start line, which is about 200m away. You cross the bridge again and start walking towards the centre of the park, nicely under the sun. The path is in great condition, but fairly narrow. This means there will be a long queue of parkrunners 3-abreast at the start line. Position yourselves roughly in line with your running pace, there won’t be markers on the ground helping you with that.

Then, with very little wait, I heard it was time to go. A bit of congestion for sure, but not as bad as it could have been given the width of the path.

Oak Hill parkrun course review – star ratings

Oak Hill parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 376 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, this seems to be a record for Oak Hill parkrun. Or at least the highest attendance level in the recent past. In general, it seems attendance hovered around 250-300 up to the end of 2023 and this year it started recurringly breaking 300.

There are 2 bridges along the route. The one close to the meeting point will only be met at the end of the first lap, so you would expect the field to have spread out it enough for it not to be a problem at that point. The other one is 3/400m after the start, so the first time you reach it, everyone is still very bunched up. Not a safety concern and not a narrow bridge, but it will mean people will have to slow down and navigate around each other. In general, paths are narrow throughout, with the only exception being the downhill approach to the finish line. This means often during the first lap and, occasionally, during the second and third ones, you will find yourself manoeuvring around other people or having to slow down when you would want to keep pushing. I think at 350-400 runners, the event remains enjoyable, if a bit busy, but it attendance were to keep growing behind that, the team might end up being under pressure. Similar to what I thought about Clapham Common parkrun, even if at a different scale.

Surface-wise, I can only say one word: wonderful. It is well laid, even tarmac all through. A pleasure to run on with road shoes. You might even get one step forward and sport your shiny carbon-plated babies, if you wish. It won’t wreck them. During the briefing they mentioned one puddle: it is quite they thought they had to mention the barely wet spot. After recently wading through lake-sized puddles at Crane Park or trekking through muddy quicksands in Woking, Oak Hill parkrun felt like a real treat.

Elevation-wise, it seems like the team wants to over emphasise that this is a flat course. Maybe to fight the stigma from having ‘Hill’ in the name? I think in reality, Oak Hill parkrun should be described as a mildly undulating course. At 48 metres of elevation gain over 3 laps, it cannot be considered hilly under any definition. But there are a couple of small ramps and one fun quick steep(ish) downhill. It is not painful and all is definitely easily runnable.

In terms of course design, it is very simple. 3 laps in an oval shape along the border of the SW section of the park. Pretty simple, really. For a tourist or an occasional visitor, the park has enough interesting features and the course enough changes in setting to keep things more than interesting enough. For a local, I suspect the course might get a bit boring after a while. In my part of town, I think it could be compared to Tooting parkrun. I love it and I love the atmosphere and feel of it, but the course gets repetitive quickly.

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

Once it is time to start, everyone starts walking North from the meeting point. Cross the little bridge, turn left and keep walking on what will be the course for laps 2 and 3. About half way to the second bridge, everyone will stop and start bunching up. Roughly at this spot, there is a weird swampy area to the right of the path, where water seems to flow and stay there. I suppose this will dry up when we have a month or two without torrential rains in late spring/early summer.

As already said, when it is time to go, it will feel a bit busy. The path is not unreasonably narrow, but it is definitely not wide enough to accomodate all runners during the first lap. However, it is a quick start, not a minutes long walk to the actual start line in some of the most congested events. Thinking of you, Fulham Palace parkrun 🙂

Very soon after the start in the middle of open fields, the group will reach a small copse where you will have nice mature vegetation on both sides. This will not last long, but it shows you are approaching the next bridge and entering a different section of the park. Less than 50m later, it is time to take a sharp left, get on the bridge and then take a sharp right immediately after the bridge. This snakey bit is fun, but it will feel busy during lap 1. Once you are past the bridge and have not been run over, it is again a long straight, this time with tall mature trees on your right. Some were blooming with beautiful pink flowers, it looked beautiful. The path is flat and straight and a pleasure to run on.

Soon you will reach the real turnaround point were, at the end of the park, a sharp U turn will send you back towards the start area from higher ground. For now, the path will still be flattish. I think there is a small positive gradient, but it is barely noticeable for roughly half of the straight on this side of the park.

About 40% of the way through, there is another small S curve section. You first climb a little ramp, get to higher ground where a motivating volunteer greets you, descend quickly for a couple of metres and then turn right again. You have reached the higher ground section. Here you are half way up the hill and can see the fields and the start line area to your left. The path is even narrower up here, can accodate 2 at most. It starts with a uphill section first then a short flat and then it will be time to start the descent.

The way down is short but steep. It happens on an area where the path widens significantly, so you can let go without being afraid you might trip and bring 10 people down with you. parkrunners bowling is not a risk here. Shortly after the descent, you will have about 40/50 metres flat and you will be passing the finish funnel. With funnel and volunteer cheering on your right, keep going and you reach the first little bridge you walked past earlier. Keep running where you were walking before and you will soon reach the start point. From here, it is 2 more identical laps.

At the end of the third lap, after coming down from the hill, keep going straight for those 40/50 metres and then take a slight left into the funnel. It is a nice way to reach the end, with gravity helping where energy might have faded.

Congratulations on completing Oak Hill parkrun!

Facilities at Oak Hill parkrun

Oak Hill park is a relatively small park, but it houses quite a lot of different areas and dedicated facilities. According to the course page, toilets are available and open before the run starts. I did not find any close to the meeting area, but I think there are some in the pavilion near the start line, about 3/4 minutes walk from the meeting point. Toilets are also available at the cafe on the opposite side of the park pictured below, but I don’t know if they are open before 9am.

There seem to be 2 cafes. A small one by the meeting point that seems to serve a golf club and a larger one about 100m away from the meeting point, just at the other end of a field. The former does not seem to be busy after parkrun. I instinctively went to the latter for parkbreakfast. It has a small outdoor sitting area that is a great thing to have in good weather – a shame it is not bigger. Inside, the area where you queue is very small, so it will feel a bit cramped, but service is quick and efficient. I forgot to take a pic of my order, but it was decent.

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 Oak Hill parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a 7Up Free and a lemon slice. This cost £6.6, which is acceptable, but on the overpriced side of things for what it was and considering the sweet was prepackaged and not freshly made.

Oak Hill 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

Oak Hill parkrun was a nice surprise. Not because it has a bad reputation, but because I had no expectations. I rarely hear it being recommended and, since it is pretty far away for me, I had not done a lot of research about it.

It is a nice local park with interesting features and spotless landscaping. The team is very welcoming and the event is organised perfectly.

If if weren’t for the distance, I would be sure this would be a venue I could visit a few times a year. As things stand, I don’t know if I will be back, but never say never. I might be in the area again!

And obviously, thank you, Oak Hill parkrun team for your hospitality!