The Easter weekend I had a busy running schedule and on Sunday I drove to Henley-on-Thames to run the Henley River 10K for the first time. On Saturday, also known as Parkrunday, I had obviously visited a new parkrun venue at Lordship Recreation Ground and on Monday I the Nice Work Easter 10K in Regents Park. I haven’t recorded video highlights, nor plan to write a report about the latter, but it is very similar to other races I’ve run in Regent’s Park.
Runthrough also organises a half marathon as part of the same event and I think I want to try that distance here next time. That said, it was a good idea not to this time around. Weather was moderately grim, but the Thames had flooded part of the route and the hills were also moderately painful. I wonder if Runthrough Trails are sadistic or if it is just the nature of trail running that attracts runners who love to suffer. Probably a bit of both :). That said, I will need to decide what is worst: wading through water like in Henley or wobbling through mud like at the Wimbledon Common 10K.
I was pretty excited about this race. I had not been to the area many times before, so it was also a nice way to discover a little bit of Berkshire while running through it. And, let’s be honest: riverside runs are the best. Some substantial body of water near a running route always puts me in a better mood while slogging through it.
The route is a rare, wonderful 1 lapper for the 10K and it covers beautiful hilly landscape, forest sections and a long riverside (side?) segment. If you are brave enough to go for the Half Marathon, then you add one out and back segment, making it nearly a 1 lapper as well. Kind of at least.
I also think the location makes it a convenient running day trip for city dwellers in London. We have wonderful parks in the big smoke, but the countryside is definitely a different thing. Henley is not exactly countryside, but it’s close enough. And it is extremely convenient to reach from London. If you drive, at least.
Anyway, enough with my ramblings. Time to talk about about the Henley River 10K.
TLDR: the Good and the Bad about Henley River 10K
If you don’t want to read through all my drivel below, I thought a short summary of the key highlights here could be useful. Still, read the rest as well. Otherwise you will hit the wall during your next race, maybe. Maybe not, but why risk it?
The Good
- 1-lap 10K!
- Beautiful countryside settings
- A long riverside stretch
- Nearly no shared road segments
- Not too much mud
- Plenty of parking available
- Runthrough organisation always a safe bet
The Bad
- Quite hilly before you go back down to the river
- Very few areas where supporters hang around
- Long segment where you run INSIDE the Thames: get your shots against salmonella before, I guess
- Remote event village: can’t really stroll into Henley afterwards
Training ahead of the Henley River 10K
After having braved The Big Half and the 2023 London Marathon last year, my fitness really tanked. It was probably due to a combination of work and personal stress, limited time and general sloppiness, but I cannot keep looking for reasons and excuses. I need to get myself back on track and this has been a pretty painful process so far.
I have a spot in the London Landmarks Half in April. At this point I have to accept I will not run a great race, but hopefully I can get to the end in a mildly embarrassing time. At the end of the day, completing an event is already better than skipping it outright. I’ve also won the ballot for Royal Parks later this year… let’s move the bar and hope I will be able to do well for that one.
So, let’s be honest, I was not trained for this race. I couldn’t run all of it without walking breaks, but I still enjoyed it. That’s what matters, mostly.
Back to the 10K now!
Travel and Start Area
The Henley River 10K starts at Temple Island Meadows, Remenham Lane, Henley on Thames. According to Runthrough’s event page, the postcode for the event village is RG9 3DB.
Henley on Thames train station is served by Great Western. Services into and from London can be found at Paddington or, if you want to leave from Waterloo, you can also use SW and change in Basingstoke. From the station, it is apparently a 30/40 minutes walk or 15 mins by taxi. Kind of a pain, at least for someone has lazy as me.
Driving is actually pretty convenient if you live anywhere close to an A or M road. Either get straight into the M4 or use the M25 to avoid London traffic and get into the M4 around Heathrow. From there, it is not far. Get past Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead and you will soon reach Henley. At that point, it is not far at all, but it might still take a little longer than expected. The approach to the event village is by a very narrow local road, so traffic might appear suddenly.
Once you get to the event village, there is more than enough room to park for a lot of runners. It is on grass and parking attendants will show you where to go. I was unluckily and ended up having to start a new line from the furthest point away from everything else. But here I am again showing how lazy I am, but it was just 200m away if I try to be honest.
The grass was a bit squishy and wet, but not particularly muddy, so arriving to the village was not as traumatic as the first few minutes of the Wimbledon Common 10K were. The village included the usual logistical tents, plenty of toilets and a couple of food, sweets and coffee stands. Very handy for non-running friends who might have come over with you and will have to wait you while you climb and swim through the route.
One thing RunThrough races offer than not many other organisers do is a fun group warm up before starting, if you are into that. I’m not, but it is still pretty cool for the general vibe it creates.
This event combined both a HM and a 10K and, as it often happens, the HM started about 30 minutes before the 10K. Once the warm up dedicated to the latter was done, everybody lines up in front of the arrival arches and it is time to get going.
Henley River 10K: the Course
The route takes in both sides of a bend in the River Thames, just outside Henley on Thames. You start at the right end of it, run most of the bend to the left side, cut through over hills and meadows and then run back along a straight riverside segment. It is quite clever and it keeps things interesting. A lot of different terrains and running conditions. Not much inside the town of Henley on Thames, though.
A Relive route plot can be found below and on my YouTube channel as a Short. The full video highlights are also available on the channel and embedded in the next section of this post.
This is not a terribly hard route, but there is a section in the middle that has the makings of a real trail run. It is not long and, worse come worse, you can walk through it. The views it gets you are worth some of the additional pain. But be aware, there will be elevations, mud, grass, tree roots. And also the occasional cattle gate you can only walk through or fallen tree you have to jump (or climb) over.
While it was not as muddy as I could have expected, recent rains had made the Thames full and proud. And the majestic flowing sir had decided to reclaim part of the terrain on its sides. This meant that for a good 2/3km, there were long stretches of the path… under water. Literally, in some parts we had to run in more than 20cm of water… splash splash splash. Since over recent times our country has not done very well to limit pollution flowing into our rivers, I hope I did not have any open wounds in my feet and lower legs. I’m still alive a week after the race, so I have probably been lucky.
In terms of route layout, it is pretty simple. While running, it will feel you are taking a lot of twists and turns and plenty of marshals are around the course to make sure you don’t get lost. And you do wiggle and turn quite a bit, but that’s mostly to cross fields and wooden patches in the right places. In reality, you are following the river for half of the course and cutting through the area in the middle for the other half. And the painful bit is straight in the middle, so don’t overdue during the first 2.5k and be ready for some fun.
In terms of elevation, at 79m over 10K, this seems to be less painful than it will feel. Perception-wise, it felt very hilly.
This is probably because essentially all of it is concentrated in two climbs at 2.5k and at 4K. They are fairly steep, but not long.
It is rarely fully flat, but the undulation you have to deal with besides those two climbs is fairly minor.
Also, don’t forget the downhill bits. If you go up, you also need to go down after all. Most of the major downhills are in wood sections. This means negotiation tree roots while letting gravity do its thing. It’s fun and I did not find it dangerous.
Now on to the route. I will try to describe it as well as I can. And as much as I remember, but even after just one week, the twists and turns are difficult to describe. Your best bet is going down to the bottom of this page and look at the video highlights I’ve prepared. They start with a few seconds of aerial views of the area, but they go into the main event pretty quickly.
When you start, you leave from the ‘arrival line’ and go straight towards the river. When you reach the river, you turn left for a short riverside run and then turn right again to go again ‘in-land’. Essentially, you are running 3 laps of the square that encloses the car park. Pretty uninspiring as initial sections go. When you leave the car park, things start getting more interesting. Unfortunately, this segment will also be the final segment before you reach the finish line.
After you leave that area, you keep running on hard paths for a short while, cutting through a green field and then a bit of softer mud until you reach the river again. Here you start coasting the river on the left to right segment of the river bend on the map above. The first 4/500m or so are on grass/soft path, very close to the water. It got pretty muddy here. Then you get through an open gate and run on tarmac by a cute lock.
Once you get past the lock, you enter again an open grassy area while keeping the Thames on your left. Rougher river area here, with some beautiful views where the water joins from separate sides.
It won’t be long before you leave the river behind and turn in-land to start the trail section of this event. The first part is a straight line through fields again, with some very scenic solitary trees in the middle. After you pass the trees, there is a gentle turn left, still on tarmac, that weaves around the bottom of a hill. Yup, hills are not ornamental, so immediately after you get to to other end of the bent, you see what’s coming. Climbing it. The first climb is steep, but short. Painful, but doable if you have paced yourself. At the top, the first of what will be several gates. You get through it, turn hard left and run slightly down a local village road before you turn again and get into the meadows proper.
This starts after a gate that gets you on your first grass section. Here you have another climb, steeper than the previous one and maybe also a bit longer. At the end of it, another gate, this one unattended and impossible to pass without stopping and walking, especially if you reach it as part of a group with other runners. After that gate, you are again getting into a short climb and then transition into a flattish to moderately downhill very narrow path. This will soon transition into more open area wider paths, crossing glorious meadows again. They look good even in grey, I am sure they must be truly beautiful when the weather is less crappy.
After yet another gate, its time to turn left into another local paved road. Moderate downhill again, but it won’t last. Soon, out of nowhere, you will see another Marshall showing you the way. Through a gate, back into the fields you go. After you jump in, you will soon see another beautiful view. Climb through meadows on a small hard trail, on the crest of a hill, with view on both sides. And maybe just as welcome, a table with your first (and only) water station. Keep going through this hill crest until the top and then let gravity help on a short and steeper descent. At the bottom, time to transition to another landscape: now we are trail running through a small wood.
It starts immediately with a short, steep climb, then a couple of falling trees to jump over and then a short flat top. Soon, it will be time to run down a steep, fun downhill. Another gate will stop the fun, so don’t run too fast or you will have to stop suddenly and, potentially, hard. After the gate, cross another green hill that leads to a tree covered path again. Part flat, part downhill.
The path then again ends into a smaller green area. This finishes next to a boundary wall with a small door onto another paved village road.
You might not know yet, but you have reached Henley on Thames. Turn left and soon turn right again for a short 100m on the pavement along a busy road.
After crossing a bridge, unfortunately you find out that you will not cross into town. You immediately turn right again and get into a small, narrow pedestrian cut-through.
The cut through soon feeds onto the Thames Path, for the final few Ks along the river. Well, ‘alone’ was the idea, I guess.
The beginning is exactly in line with expectations: a great pedestrian path along the river with beautiful views of Henley. But that changes soon: immediately after leaving the very vicinity of town, the river had reclaimed the path. Not all of it, but several long sections.
Some of this bits were ok to run in, even though the water was freaking cold. Others were objectively too deep to run in, so most people gave up and just walked through. Anyway, shoes, socks and feet were soaked already.
Not as quickly as you would have expected, you get back to the area where you had started. Seeing the Temple is giving it away.
But you don’t turn towards the end as quickly as you would like. You probably still have half a mile to go, because you want to go beyond the area, turn right and take the same detour around the parking lot you did at the start the opposite way.
Then it’s time to go along the river one last time, before turning left in the arrival straight. Longer than usual, keep running and don’t give up, people are watching! 🙂
You made it! Enjoy a chat with the other runners and the rest of your day now. Congratulations on completing the Henley River 10K.
Facilities
Small events can often still seem genuine and friendly gatherings of amateur runners without many of the bells and whistles of mass participation events. There is room for both and both are great. That said, there is organisation involved in making sure even just a couple of 100s runners can show up and effortlessly enjoy their distance. And issues can easily spoil the experience. This is not parkrun after all, you have paid for it.
Lets go over my thoughts about some of the items that can affect the experience then:
- Transport to start line: not obvious unless you drive
- Start area(s): not overcrowded, good vibe and services
- Kit drop: I did not use it, but it is available and covered
- Start area toilets: no dedicated facilities. Portable cabins at the start. Limited queue
- Waves system: by estimated pace
- Start section: not very congested
- Course: great trail run
- Toilets: none on the course
- Water stations: 1, roughly half way
- Gels: none
- Finish line: ok location, efficient setting
- Bling: nice medal
- Finisher T-shirt: none
- Finisher refreshments: basic
Henley River 10K Video Highlights
I have prepared video highlights that I hope you will also enjoy. I do this for most of my races and parkrun events I attend, it’s a fun hobby for me. If you enjoy it, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. I am very far from monetising it, but it is always nice to see someone appreciates it..
If you enjoyed this report or the highlights, you can find an index to my parkrun reports and an index to my race reports on these links.
Conclusions
I enjoyed this route and I will be back, probably opting for the Half Marathon distance next time. I think the location would lend itself better to a late spring, early autumn date, so hopefully there will be an opportunity for that. I’d love to run it with good weather and, ideally, when the Thames sticks to its usual home.
It’s not the easiest of routes, but it offers a nice change in settings and views for London runners. Try it out, if you have a chance
Did you run as well? Let me know your thoughts!
Do you want to run it, but think you cannot? Let’s chat, anyone can do it, really!
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