Tooting Common parkrun

This week I have opted for a short commute and visited Tooting Common parkrun again. It is the closest venue to where I live, after my local at Wimbledon Common, so I had been there many times. After a tiresome week, I really could not be bothered waking up at sunrise to visit a new venue and I had not been at Tooting Common parkrun for a while and never since I’ve started this blog. So it was time to add my second most frequently visited venue to the list.

The last time I had been here, I had volunteered as a Tailworker, I have probably not run here for more than one year. Nice to be back running the Tooting Triangle. After volunteering last week ahead of running the London Landmarks Half Marathon, it has now been two weeks since my last new venue addition. Must get going with it again next week! Lordship Recs was a great discovery, so I am sure I will find more great venues in the N/NW LonDone quadrant.

Tooting Common used to be my ‘PB attempt’ course in the early days before COVID. It is flat and it is relatively flat. Those days are long gone though: it used to be busy, but not comparable to a drive out of London before a bank holiday weekend busy. Now it has reached the latter status. And I have discovered faster venues like Dulwich or Burgess.

Anyway, enough with personal rumblings I’m sure nobody cares about. It’s time to dive into some more info about Tooting Common parkrun!

Trip to Tooting Common parkrun and parking

Tooting Common parkrun sits in a busy sub-urban residential area straddling between South West and South London, not far from the more central bits of town that sit South of the river. It has a very large natural catchment area, even without taking into account what it can share with neighbouring events like Clapham Common parkrun. And like Clapham, being in such a dense and popular residential area means it got really busy with locals. Really really busy.

If you are travelling from another part of town, public transport is actually not too bad. There isn’t any station in the immediate vicinity, but according to the official course page there are several within 1 mile of it. These are Tooting Bec, Balham, Streatham Hill and Streatham. So a combination of London Underground and National Rail.

Since public transport would take me 40 minutes, but driving takes me less than 20, I’ve always driven there. In terms of parking, there is a good size free car park just off Dr. Johnson Avenue. This is inside the Common and 3/4 minutes walk from Tooting Common parkrun’s meeting point.

While the car park is not huge, it seems most people come here walking or using public transport since the vast majority pops up during the last 10 minutes. If you need to use the car park, you should be ok even if you don’t get here at sunrise. At least, I’ve never had any problems.

Tooting Common parkrun: start and briefings

If you are coming from the car park, you are sitting just by the bottom-left corner of the Triangle, as the route is known. This is also where one of the available toilet blocks is, but I’ve never checked it out to see if it is open before 9am.

Once you leave the car park, just cross into the Common and you will join a straight, paved path just by a cluster of tennis courts. Turn left heading North, towards a small cafe. Keep going for 2/300 metres passing a cute little lake on your right. When you reach the cafe, turn left and you will certainly see the meeting point from here.

People congregate on the sides of the path (don’t block it!) about 200m from that cafe. It’s on the edge of large playing fields which are usually shared with other organised training groups.

The New Runners briefing happens in the fields and it is welcoming and focused on funnel logistics and a chat with tourists. Explaining the course here is not going to take a long time.

Afterwards, everyone starts organising themselves in a (long) line on the path and the Main Briefing starts. Excellent loudspeakers make it possible for everyone to hear all announcements even if things have gotten very very busy over the last few minutes.

When formalities are over, the countdown comes pretty quickly. Hopefully people have posited themselves roughly at the right place based on expected pace. It will be important here, because the horde of parkrunners will keep moving as a solid block for quite a while.

Time to go!

Tooting Common parkrun course review – star ratings

Tooting Common parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 657 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, attendance can vary pretty wildly here, with some days at 300 and some days above 700. I guess this probably depends on the weather. One side of the course can get extremely wet and moderately muddy here, so that probably explains the low attendance days. As far as the high attendance ones? At 650, it was pretty much a solid block of runners all through. Not terribly necessarily, but on the margin of being annoying. This is another South London event that has pretty much nearly reached capacity, so hopefully numbers can spread around other events soon, new and old.

Strictly speaking, I don’t think the course has real bottlenecks. But it has several sharp turns and very large numbers, so choke points appear more than once. The first one is the sharp right leading from the start area to the loop. Here the path is fairly large, but you have so many people turning at the same time that things will crawl to a halt. At the end of the first straight, you will have a sharp turn and then suddenly some barriers. Things can get slow here too. And finally, the next turn after the hard path straight along North Drive. This is very tight and narrow. Honourable mention for the whole final side of the triangle bringing you back up: narrow and not well surfaced, people will have to slow down even if it is not raining.

Surface quality is mixed. The first side going down from the start to North Drive is really really good. Relatively wide and well surfaced tarmac. Then you have hard parts on the bottom side. It is pretty good and it drains well, so also in wet condition it is usually kind of ok. Finally, the third side: old tarmac with potholes and swells, you need to watch your steps. It is also fairly narrow, so if you want to overtake you will need to stop out on the mud… ehm, grass.

Elevation-wise, Tooting Common parkrun is and feels flat.. At 11m elevation gain over 3 laps, you don’t really feel any meaningful change in gradient. Unless you want to register the 5 metres hill at the very top corner of the Triangle. Not worth reporting it to be honest, it is done and gone in a couple of seconds.

In terms of course design, it is super simple. You start from the fields and soon join a tarmac path You run around a triangle 3 times, then go back to the same field to finish. Getting confused or lost is impossible. There are also several marshals around the course. Probably more for safety that actual routing needs.

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

Once the Main Briefing is over, most people will be already lined up to start. Or pretty close to it. I can’t stress enough how important a realistic positioning is here. It’s not only a matter of getting to the start without wasting a lot of time, things flow pretty quickly here. It is important because you will always be part of a block of runners here. The field will spread out a bit over the first couple of laps, but not that much. It is narrow and it is 3 laps. There will be a continuous blob of runners flowing through the course. Blobs are sticky, so find your position in it or it might get difficult.

Once you get started, the first 150/200 metres are not part of the loop yet. You are running towards the Tooting Triangle on a paved path that is fairly wide. However, early run enthusiasm and little adjustments within the runners goo substance I’ve described above mean plenty of people will stray out of the path to try overtaking. Nothing wrong with that, I’ve done it too. However, a sharp right turn will come soon. The stampede will be moving over towards the left, be careful and watch you step, especially if you are not on the path or decide to pick the wrong side of ‘the tree’ when you turn.

Once you are on the actual loop, it is time to tackle to first side of the triangle for the first time. Here the path is wider and surface is great. Things get flowing a bit better, also because the gradient is probably slightly downhill on this side of the park. You will pass the lake, the playing fields and soon be roughly by the car park.

At the end of this straight, it is time for a sharp left turn. Surface transitions to pebbles for a short bit and then it will be hard path. Once you turn, after a few metres you will need to negotiate some barriers and then slightly turn right to join the real next side of the triangle. This is a long straight on hard path, with trees on your left and a busy road on your right. Again, relatively wide, so if you want to overtake, you should be ok here. This side is a bit shorter than the other two, but it does not feel meaningfully shorter.

At the end of this straight there is the sharpest turn of the route. It is very narrow and very sharp, with a little uphill bump before it. Not difficult, but people will slow down. Once you turn, then there is a short section under tree cover before things open up again.

This will be the last side of the triangle, bringing you back up North. It is all on tarmac, but it is not good. Plenty of cracks, potholes and little bumps. A bigger one one third in could be tricky, but a marhsall is usually standing there to alert you to it. This old, broken tarmac also does not seem to drain well. On the day of my last visit it was nice and dry, but it can get very wet and muddy.

Half way through this side, you pass the lake again from the opposite side, then you enter a tree covered area again for the last bit. You will then see a small hill, get to the top in 4 or 5 steps and greet the volunteer positioned at the top edge of the triangle. Turn sharp left once more and you are back on the first side. 10/15 metres of mild downhill and you have reached the path that originally led you into the loop. Don’t turn yet, hold your excitement. You have only run 1 mile, not 3. 🙂

Keep going for 2 more laps, then turn at the end of the third. Tooting Common parkrun offers a nice 150/200 slightly downhill lead up to the finish funnel. This can be quite fun, let it go if you have any energy left! Then it is time to enter the very very long single funnel. It works well and the team is really well organised to deal with the high numbers.

Congratulations on completing Tooting Common parkrun!

Facilities at Tooting Common parkrun

Tooting Common is not huge, but it is a very nice local park. When the weather is nice, it can get very busy with locals enjoying it and there is a lot to do here for a relaxed morning.

The cafe by the meeting area offers toilets, but there are usually not open before 9am. There are toilets in a building near the car park (past the path), but I’ve never checked them out.

The Sanremo Cafe near the start/finish area is actually a little jewel. Small, but offering a nice spread and service is usually pretty fast and efficient. What makes it stand out, however, is how many outside seats it offers. In spring and summer, sitting for a few minutes in this nice location is great after a run.

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 Tooting Common parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a Pepsi Max and a pastel de nata. This cost £7.2, which is expensive, also compared to London standards. I guess as the venue got more popular the owners of the cafe decided to take advantage of it.

Tooting Common 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

Lovely park, for a fun event with very nice crowds. It is probably too busy this days to be a fast course and it could get a bit frustrating as a very recurring event, but it is still very enjoyable. I have been here 9 times and I am sure I will visit again.

And obviously, thank you, Tooting Common parkrun team for your hospitality once again!