Lordship Recs parkrun

This week a spur of the moment decision sprung in my mind on parkrunday Eve and I followed through, visiting Lordship Recs parkrun for the first time. Or Lordship Recreation Ground parkrun. Or Lordship parkrun… you know, many names and the SEO gods are confused. Anyway, one more week wandering around the far away lands of North London for me, after the trip to Oak Hill parkrun last week.

I usually try alternating new visits and re-visits each week, but this time I realised next week I will not be park running, so I could make an(other) exception. How could I miss parkrun next week, you might ask in shock and disgust? No worries, the unforgivable infraction is because I am planning to volunteer at my local. Not because I might something as bonkers as going on holiday on a parkrunless country. They exist, poor lost souls.

I had been leaving Lordship Recs parkrun unticked for a long time. One issue is logistical: it does not have easy option to park your car and the trip by Tube is fairly long and moderately convoluted. And it also needs 15mins plus of walking once you get there. This leads to the second reason: I preferred not to walk through the area during dark winter hours. This was because of the stigma the area still carried in my ignorant mind after the Tottenham riots of several years ago. Tell you what? The walk from the station goes through a very nice residential area and I’ve rarely visited a more friendly and welcoming event team. I learnt, once more, that we all have unfair unconscious bias… can only accept it, learn and grow. I loved this event, truly.

Anyway, enough with personal rumblings I’m sure nobody cares about. It’s time to dive into some more info about Lordship Recs parkrun! Or Lordship parkrun. Or Lordship Recreation Ground parkrun. Last time I do this, I promise.

Trip to Lordship Recs parkrun and parking

Lordship Recs parkrun is in the Tottenham area of North London. It is a very ‘urban’ part of town, with higher density housing and shopping parades. This means there is limited spare space and this little green spot is a treasured oasis. Similarly, I guess, to the nearby hillier park, connected to the North.

However, this is also means there isn’t a lot of room for a dedicated car park. Lordship Recreation Ground does not have car parks. According to the official course page, plenty of the nearby streets offer free parking on weekends and, from what I’ve seen, I have no reason to doubt it. However, given its location, public transport is definitely recommended. Even someone as lazy as me could do it, so it should be possible for most normal human beings.

The two closest underground stations are Turnpike Lane and Seven Sisters. The former is served by the Piccadilly Line and the latter by the Victoria Line and the London Overground. I have tested both, arriving at Turnpike Lane and leaving via Seven Sisters.

The Piccadilly Line option is slightly closer, slightly less than one mile. Once you get out of the (tiny) station, it is a 15 minutes walk through a quiet residential area. A fairly pleasant warm up on a good weather day. To reach Seven Sisters, the official course page recommends catching the 41 bus. The stop is about 10 minutes walk from the meeting area and the post run cafe.

Lordship Recs parkrun: start and briefings

If you are coming from either of the stations I’ve mentioned, you will approach the park from the South. Shortly after entering the park, you will reach the model traffic area and have to walk through it to reach the meeting point. This is an interesting feature that, accordingly to the historical venue information bible that is blog7t’s blog, opened in 1938 and was designed to teach children basic traffic laws in a safe environment at a time when car ownership was starting to increase. Nice idea.

Once you have walked through that area, you quickly reach the Lordship Hub. A volunteer-led community centre with cafe, it seems to be a lovely focus point for the park the overall area. It will also be where the post run coffee and cake ceremonies will happen. The building itself is pretty basic, but it has a very inviting sitting area by its side, complimented with picnic tables in front of a little lake. The lake itself, comes with plenty of ducks and even a resident family of tortoises (pictures at the bottom of this page). A truly beautiful spot to meet before and after parkrun on a sunny day.

The New Runners briefing happened just in front of the Hub. A friendly and welcoming gentleman tried to explain the course layout. It can sound confusing but, in reality, it is one of the simplest you will experience while parkrunning.

Afterwards, it is time to walk alongside the lake and cut to the other side. There is a little path starting in front of the Hub and it is probably just 30 metres long. Half way through, people will pass by a little island which is where the tortoises where sunbathing on the day I visited.

Once on the other side, everybody will line up on the path, ready to listen to the Main Briefing while already lined up for the main event. The path is not very wide, so a fairly long queue might form. However, moderate attendance levels still mean that no one will lose too much time and things will get going in a fairly efficient way. At least as of event 77 in March 2024.

Time to go!

Lordship Recs parkrun course review – star ratings

Lordship Recs parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 154 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, attendance in early 2024 seems to oscillate around 200 range. I guess as an urban venue, the Easter weekend did not bring a spike in attendance. I think 150-200 is a healthy field for this venue. It does not feel busy, but there is a good buzz. The paths could probably host many more runners, even as a 3-lapper, but there would be congestion at the start.

There are no bottlenecks along the route. Except a bit of queuing at the start, things flow marvellously throughout the course. There is one bridge people need to cross, but it only comes about 600m after the start and the field will have spaced out at that point. It is wider than similar bridges seen at other venues, so nothing to be worried about there. A lot of 90-degrees corners on this course, but they are all wide and you can easily keep your speed and efficient line while negotiating them.

Surface is fantastic. Maybe I am a bit traumatised by the cross-country venues I’ve visited during the wet and muddy winter months, but here you can have fun in all seasons. Clearly, the tarmac is recent and well laid. It kind of reminds me the surface quality seen in Dulwich: rock your racing shoes, you won’t spoil them here!

Elevation-wise, Lordship Recs parkrun is essentially flat. At 13m elevation gain over 3 laps and a bit, you cannot call any of the inclines you encounter a real hill. There is a fairly long, but very mild incline on one side of the fields, but you can barely feel it. Conversely, no really noticeable descent either. Can’t have the good without the bad… unless it is point to point. I would be curious to know if there is a point to point parkrun with meaningfully negative elevation anywhere in Europe. Any reader who knows about one, comment please. I’d love to visit it!

In terms of course design, it tries to be confusing, but it is not. 3 laps of the park with an additional mini lap, make it 3.25 laps, maybe? Looking at the map above, the mini-lap is the loop at the bottom. Then you do 3 full laps of the park and the 4th time you pass the Hub remember to turn left at the bridge to reach the finish funnel.

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

Once the Main Briefing is over, everyone starts running from where they stand. It’s one of those ones: position yourself smartly and fairly. The first part is a short straight segment alongside the little lake from the North side. Soon it will be time to turn left and enter what will be the main perimeter loop. After a short straight, turn left again and enter the model traffic area.

This is a short segment, but the setting is beautiful. Mature trees, fake signs and mini zebra crossings: it feels like parkrunners are going through a main road in a large city marathon. Feels timely with the 2024 London Marathon around the corner: if any of you is joining it for the first time, give a look at my 2023 TCS London Marathon report. It is a fantastic experience, unique, really!

After 100m or so, you leave this tiny mini city and pass by the lake from the opposite side and the Hub for the first time. As the volunteers say, count how many times you need to pass the Hub. The right answer is 4! Keep going past the cafe for a wide left turn on open fields until you reach a little bridge with a very cheerful volunteer. This is where the real main loop starts and you will have to repeat it 3 times. On you go, cross that bridge.

From here, it gets really simple: basically a run around the field. You start skirting around a (service?) building straight after the bridge. The up a straight getting all the way to the top of the park. Here a left turn gets us on the North side of the park and another left turn will get us on a long South-bound straight. This side will show a tiny bit of elevation, with a mild climb up, down and up again. Nothing meaningful really. And a slight bend that will make you think you are running two different segments after trees start being on one side again. But you aren’t really: you are just approaching the lake area again.

Keep going straight and it will soon be time to turn left again and go through the model traffic area. Soon you will pass the Hub the second time, knowing you will have to do it all again two more times.

The fourth time you pass the Hub, keep going up to the bridge, but remember you need to turn sharp left now. And here it is, a 100m long straight that will get you to the finish funnel. This is just after where you started your run, roughly half way through the side of the lake.

The funnel is not long and it is managed very efficiently. Once you have scanned, just walk either side of the lake and join everyone else inside the Hub. It is part of the experience here.

Congratulations on completing Lordship Recs parkrun! Or Lordship Parkrun. Or Lordship Recreation Ground parkrun. (Yeah, I know I had promised, but the SEO gods are ruthless, sorry-not-sorry)

Facilities at Lordship Recs parkrun

A small, but beautiful park, with plenty to see and do. I’ve already introduced the Hub above and this will also be where the toilets and the cafe can be found.

Toilets are open before the event and you can find me inside the Hub, just left after entering from the main door.

After the run, turn right instead and you will get to the small cafe. It has a good selection of warm food and fresh cakes, with efficient and welcoming staff ready to deal with the weekly horde of famished parkrunners.

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 Lordship Recreation Ground parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a fizzy lemonade and a slice of lemon cake. This cost £5.7, which is in line with average prices observed around London parkrun venues. Unless they are run by Colicci’s, in which case prices will be extortionate.

Lordship Recs 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 a nice surprise. Maybe it was the nice weather after a grim winter, maybe it was me arriving unusually early and spending some time watching ducks and tortoises before the event. Or maybe it was the great spirit the team welcomed us and how it brightened everyone’s mood. I don’t know, but I loved this little event.

The course is pleasant and fast, even with such a simple layout and a relatively small park. And the surface is fantastic. I think I will be back. And you should definitely visit! And not only to get once of those low Wilson Index numbers: Lordship is a mature event now.

And obviously, thank you, Lordship Recs parkrun team for your hospitality!