Harrow Lodge parkrun

This week I ended up picking the furthest away event I still had to visit on my way to LonDone: Harrow Lodge parkrun. I had been looking at this venue for a while: it’s quirky course design and it being a rare one-lapper really attracted me. I was waiting for a moderately dry week with semi-decent weather and on parkrun’s eve, I decided it was time. Time to traverse the Big Smoke and reach the far away boundaries between East London and those remote lands called Essex.

I seem to continue being in a long streak of fairly unique venues for some reason, after Wakehurst, Osterley and Wendover Woods. They are all special for different ways, but they all stand out from the crowds. And I am happy to report Harrow Lodge parkrun does as well. Spoiler alert: I truly enjoyed the course. It is not stunningly beautiful like Wakehurst parkrun, but it manages to remain interesting for the whole 5K. And that’s an impressive achievement.

I have now entered the home stretch on my long crawl towards LonDone completion. After ticking Harrow Lodge parkrun off, I’ve now completed 53 venues out of 62 at the time of writing (May 2024). Less than 10 to go. All far away for me, but I will get there.

Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Harrow Lodge parkrun!

Trip to Harrow Lodge parkrun and parking

If you look at a map, Harrow Lodge sits at the very Eastern border of the LonDone area. Within the M25, but on the border between the London Borough of Havering and Essex. Or I guess some might say already within the historic county of Essex. Since I live in Wimbledon, getting there for me is a serious trip. Crossing London is never efficient, unless you happen to be lucky and go from one end of a tube line to the other.

The meeting point for Harrow Lodge parkrun is not very close to a tube or train station. The closest station is Elm Park, served by the District Line. So technically, good for me coming from Wimbledon… but that’s not a fast line! If you get there by tube, from the station it will take you about 15 minutes to walk to the meeting point at a leisurely pace.

Looking at my trusted Citymapper app, had I decided to travel by public transport, it would have taken me roughly 90 minutes. Not too bad, to be honest.

I ended up driving, and it took me little more than 1h to go there and nearly 2hrs to come back. Wonders of London traffic I guess, combined with a visit to the Dartford Crossing and a trip all around the M25 on the way back.

If you are driving, the postcode indicated above will lead you to the Hornchurch Sports Centre car park. It is fairly large and free and, apparently, it comes with the opportunity to use the toilets at the Sports Centre. However, it is on the opposite side of the park, so plan for a 10 minutes walk to reach the event. Alternatively, you could put Harrow Lodge Park car park, Warren Drive in your GPS and reach a smaller car park straight in front of the meeting point and start line. It is still free, but it is smaller, so I guess leaving it for the locals is the decent thing to do.

Harrow Lodge parkrun: start and briefings

However you have decided to get here, once you reach the Warren Drive car park, you will see the team and the first few parkrunners coming together just past the park gates. I got there around 8:30am and there were not a lot of people there yet, but all the equipment was already laid out.

If it is a nice day, it is a beautiful area to hang around for a little while. A well landscaped field by a lake full of ducks and swans and several big trees providing shade.

The Lakeside Cafe is only 2 minutes walk away and it has toilets, but I have not checked if it is open before 9am. No mention of it on the official course page, so I would assume the answer is probably negative.

Things are pretty friendly and informal here. I still got a ‘small community’ feeling here, which is fairly unusual for London and always welcome. And it goes without saying that everyone was extremely friendly to the few tourists and genuine new runners that had joined the pack.

The New Runners briefing takes place on the field, close to the banners and flags. It is pretty quick, since describing the route besides a few key highlights is probably a losing battle anyway.

Just before 9am, everybody lines up by the finish funnel, getting ready for a confortable, wide starting line. A good loudspeaker system is used for the Main Briefing, which was dealt with pretty quickly on the day I visited. Get ready anything you need to get ready while it is happening, because it will transition extremely fast to a short countdown.

Then, without any need to move elsewhere, you hear the timekeepers shout. 3, 2, 1.

Time to go!

Harrow Lodge parkrun course review – star ratings

Harrow Lodge parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 204 parkrunners on the day I visited. Looking at historical results, this is very much at the higher end of local attendance, with only one other recent event getting more. I guess the sudden start of a very late semi-spring inspired a few hopefuls, like me. Normally, attendance seems to be around 130-160 per week, but even at 204, the course never felt overcrowded. And this is even if there are several segments with narrow paths.

There are no real bottlenecks around the course. No gates or barriers. But there are several segments where the path narrows to make overtaking very difficult, especially on the opposite side of the lake from the start. This means if you are a speedy runner, you might find yourself being slowed down for a short while. That said, these only come way into the run, so you would assume you will have people running at around your speed around you.

Surface-wise, this is a real mixed course. It starts on grass and it stays on grass for a while. It was ok, nearly pleasant, when I visited, but I am sure it can get muddy and slippery in winter. Then the rest of the course alternates sections of hard path and sections of tarmac, with a majority of the former. I was wearing road shoes and I was totally ok, but I would expect trail shoes to be needed for wetter parkrundays.

Elevation-wise, at 26m elevation gain, this is very very mildly undulating. Not a cross-country route, but it sometimes gives a similar feeling, so you would expect a bit of ups and downs here and there. But it is never hard and, 24hours later, I am left here thinking if I remember any major hill. And I don’t.

In terms of course design, it is at the same time simple and virtually impossible to describe. To the core, it is one lap around the edges of the park. Simple, isn’t it? In practice, it always feels like it is is wiggling and turning around. And since it is mostly under tree cover and there are a lot of paths in the park, there are several areas where you could take a wrong turn. Fortunately, the team has peppered the course with a lot of arrows and there are many marshals around the course. Hand up, for only the second time in my parkrun career, I took a wrong turn. That cost me maybe 30 metres, because there was a marshal in sight, but still, pay attention.

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

Once the Main Briefing is done, people already find themselves lined up to start. Fast countdown and everybody starts moving across the field. As mass starts go, the relatively low numbers and wide start line make this feel pretty comfortable. Everybody starts running on an open field, with short grass over fairly firm ground. It was not wet or muddy, it felt good. This will be the beginning a a first long straight across the Southern bit of the park. You will pass a couple of large trees, then cross a paved path and then keep going alongside the edge of the parks, with nice houses to the other side.

At the end of this straight, everybody takes a wide left turn around a big tree. Here the hard path section starts. After going North, briefly, we then need to start a diagonal N-E facing segments running a hard path with overgrown field vegetation on both sides.

The next section is the long, wiggly ‘straight’ leading towards the Sports Centre. It’s a blur, I usually try to post turn by turn descriptions, but in this case I am really not going to be able to. This segment look straight on the map above, but it definitely isn’t. It is a continuous stretch of changes in scenery, changes in surface and little turns. It is actually much more fun than you would expect it to be. In short, you will constantly switch between tree covered paths, little copses, off road paths and field crossings.

Roughly half way through it, a nice volunteer is guarding a very important point: where the way back will briefly touch the way out. You will see him again!

Eventually, a nice ‘tree-lined (little) avenue will transition into a paved path to the side of a field, which you will leave half way to cross another field and loop back into another tree lined path ending at the Sports Centre. Simple, isn’t it? It’s not, it’s confusing and chaotic, but it works. It works very very well.

Once we run behind some buildings that sit in front of the Sports Centre, we then turn back again and eventually enter a short mature forest section. This will then transition into a narrow path among shorter shrubs and open fields.

After a short while, we reach the little bridge connecting to the car park near the initial meeting point. Don’t get excited, you are not done yet. Turn right and conquer a little hill, cross a field and you will then meet the ‘crossroads marshal’ I mentioned before. Here he will guide you to enter another copse, which is where I briefly got lost. Take the right turn and you will exit towards the end of the lake opposite the meeting point. Go around the lake and then turn for the home stretch.

You run along the lake, then slightly veer off towards the middle of the field. A small group of mature trees cuts this long straight slightly half way. This section is painful. Not because it is hard per se, but because it comes at the end and it is longer than it might seem.

Anyway, you will soon reach the end and transition into a very short finish funnel. Scanning worked seamlessly when I was there, with a great team welcoming all runners.

Congratulations on completing Harrow Lodge parkrun!

Facilities at Harrow Lodge parkrun

Harrow Lodge park is fairly large and genuinely beautiful, but most of it is left to nature. The Sports Centre to the North is large and I am sure it offers plenty of services, including toilets before 9am.

Near the starting point, the closest hub is the Lakeview Palace Cafe, just a few minutes walk from the meeting point alongside the Lake. It offers toilets and the well deserved food and drinks after the events. It also has a pretty nice outside sitting area facing the lake. This is great on a sunny day, a very enjoyable set up for a chat.

Their speciality seems to be cooked breakfasts: they have a large kitchen which churns out pretty nice looking dishes fast. However, be aware of a couple of unusual quirks. First of all, they seem to be set on table service and really want to know what table you are sitting at when you order. Second, there is a £10min to pay by card. This is frankly ridiculous in the UK 2024, so come prepared.

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 Harrow Lodge parkrun, I ordered a single espresso, a diet coke and a cherry muffin. This cost £5.8, which is fair. Just remember the minimum charge, or you will have an unpleasant surprise.

Harrow Lodge 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

I really enjoyed this event. There aren’t many true one lap events in London, so when I get to explore a new one, it is a privilege. The route works extremely well here, we could call this event the Bushy park of East London. The extremely welcoming team adds to what makes Harrow Lodge parkrun a special venue that people in this part of the country should visit even if not trying to achieve LonDone status.

If it wasn’t so far away from me, I would definitely come back. As things stand, I doubt I will come back again on purpose, but if I happen to be in the area for other reasons on a parkrunday morning, it will definitely be at the top of the list.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Harrow Lodge parkrun team for your hospitality!