When I saw that the Southampton Running Festival was being organised by Runthrough in mid June, I had to go. I had never been in Southampton, so it was a great opportunity for a nice day out in a new location. On top of that, I really needed the motivation to come back to Runthrough races after a break that was definitely longer than I liked. I love races, but committing to waking up early on Sunday, after early start all week and then also on parkrunday, has been challenging recently. This was the perfect motivation.
The Southampton Running Festival is held in Southampton Common, relatively in-land and not within sight of the coast. That said the costal location made the weather noticeably better than London on the day. With the added benefit that there was no wind coming from open bodies of water. It is a larg(ish) event, offering 5K, 10K, HM and kid’s race options.
I really enjoy ‘destination races’, where I can combine my running hobby with visiting new places. Living in London, this combined a short trip with a very manageable distance, so it works pretty well for people in the big smoke.
The 10K is run over 3 laps. I usually prefer one-lap 10Ks, but 3 laps within Southampton Common were not boring. That said, unless I happen to be in the area, I doubt I would travel again to run the same 3-lapper again. The HM is 6 laps: it probably takes as much mental energy to keep running around the same loop as it takes physical energy to get through the 21K. I don’t think I will ever run a HM with so many laps… and this is not even the most laps in a Runthrough HM.
Anyway, enough with my ramblings. Time to talk about about the Southampton Running Festival 10K.
TLDR: the Good and the Bad about the Southampton Running Festival 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
- Beautiful, green location
- Tarmac path across the whole course
- A nice downhill section
- Mostly wide paths
- Efficient toilet block organisation
- Water station every lap if needed
The Bad
- Limited parking on site
- No cafe on site
- 3-laps for a 10K are probably the upper acceptable limit to have fun
- Repeat the hill 3 times
Training ahead of the Southampton Running Festival 10K
I have not raced for a couple of months. My latest were the Henley River 10K and the London Landmarks Half Marathon. They were both as much fun as they were awful performances.
When it comes to training, the most important thing is consistency. And I have not been able to get it back over the last 12 months. To a large extent, work and personal life have been getting in the way, but that cannot be a full excuse. There is always a way to get a run in, if I really really wanted. I want to, but probably not enough. I will find a way to get out of this rut, eventually.
The finish time, this time was already a little bit better than in recent races, so let’s take that as a partial win and try to keep getting better and back into the groove.
Back to the 10K now!
Travel and Start Area
The Southampton Running Festival takes place in the middle of Southampton Common, towards the North boundaries of the city itself. This makes it very convenient for people coming into town by car, but more on that later. As for most races, Runthrough has prepared an event guide that could help you find your way to the location.
According to the same event guide, Southampton Common’s car park is in Cemetery Road, SO15 7NN. The guide itself warns people to come very early if they want to use it, because it is fairly small and it gets full quickly. Objectively speaking, it was not that small, but it definitely could not cope with the traffic on a Sunday morning. Besides the relatively large race, I’ve also seen a very large group practicing open-air yoga in the park around the same area. For reference, with the 10K starting at 10am, I was there around 8:30am and I was not able to park in that location.
Not to panic, though… even if I did panic, briefly. Just get out of the park and cross the main park side road to get into one of the many residential streets in the area. It took me about 5 minutes to find a free on street spot. And it was just 10 minutes walk away from the event village.
But before parking, you need to reach Southampton Common, right?
According to the event guide, the most convenient train station is St. Deny’s, 1.5 miles away from the event village. This is served by SouthWestern: for Londoners like me, I don’t think you can get there without one or more changes. If you are driving, however, the story is different. Southampton Common is very close to the M3, less than 10 minutes away from the exit of the motorway. This makes it (relatively) easily reachable from many places in the South of England and not only the coast or London.
Once you have reached the common, marshals and race signs were visible from the very limits of the Common. Use the what.three.words pointer if you think you need to, but once I reached the Common it was just a matter of following everyone else along a long tree-lined path. Then, after about 300m, everything opens up onto a field and I could easily see the familiar Runthrough blue banners and tents on the other end.
The event village was set up on a large open area on grass. Great for a dry, sunny day with no wind. I guess a winter event might feel a bit more exposed. It 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 enjoy your self inflicted physical pain around the Common.
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, a 10K and a 5K. 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.
Southampton Running Festival 10K: the Course
The route is a multiple-lap loop going across the diagonal of Southampton Common. While it seems to pass near major roads a few times, you will feel in the middle of nature for most of it, with a small exception when crossing through the car parking of a small restaurant/grastro-pub. It is beautiful, full of shade and green spaces and peaceful.
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.
All in all, this could be characterised as a relatively easy route, even with the potential of being fast. However, I don’t think it is necessarily a PB route. The main thing slowing you down is its consistently undulating profile. The climbs are not terrible, and they are probably more than compensated by the downhills, but you repeat them all 3 times, so unless you are exceptional at pacing, they will both wear you down. For different reasons, obviously. I am not someone who can hold back to conserve energy when gravity decides it’s time to give me a boost.
The surface you will be running on is excellent. I might be forgetting some small areas, but I doubt it. I think it is 99% tarmac with the last 200m being the only exception. And it is very well maintained and smooth. If you are holding your carbon plated shoes in reserve for a fast, well paved course, this is a decent candidate for them. No issues with mud or wet grass anywhere around here. Nor any bottlenecks or areas where you are forced to slow down by crows or congestion.
In terms of route layout, it is genuinely as simple as it gets. A roughly oval loop that you need to run 3 times if you are going for the 10K. There is only one sharp turn at the Southernmost point.
In terms of elevation, at 88m over 10K, it is definitely undulating. However, you can find much worse out there.
The interesting thing about this course, however, is that it is never ever really flat. Really, look at the picture, literally never.
Roughly, the first half of the course is a long, mild climb. It’s never overly painful, but it is continuous, so in the last lap I definitely started suffering it.
Then, for most of the second half of each lap, you enjoy a mild downhill. It is not steep, but it is definitely noticeable. Before getting back to the event village at the end of each lap, then, there will be another short, mild uphill.
It is not painful, it is actually quite fun.
Now to the race itself. Once it’s time to go, as usual, people are asked to start lining up behind the timing mats based on expected finish time. There is a start funnel just by the paved path, which helps proving a very quick transition to proper tarmac.
Very soon after you start, you join the main circular paved path and enter the ‘forest’. I wrote it this way because while this is a Common and I would have expected it to be relatively wild, it is actually very well tended all through. The forest is in reality long tree lined paths, with very nice views and shade.
Relatively soon after the start, you will have to turn 90 degrees right and start going towards the top-right corner of the Common. They have different turn points for 5K runners and for longer distance runners here, probably because 5K runners keeping to the tighter corner will help them with a later diversion.
After this turn, you start a relatively long section which will bring you up. In more than one way: up to the North edge of the Common and up elevation wise. This long straigh(ish) segment is all uphill.
The elevation gradient is never steep, but it is consistent. There are maybe a couple of short flats and even one short downhill, but they do not impact the overall feeling or effort.
It continues being mostly tree lined, with a few clearing that provide nice breaks and some additional sunlight.
Roughly half way through this segment, there is a gentle curve left, but it doesn’t really affect the feeling that you are really running in one consistent direction.
Once you reach the end of the corner, it is time to turn right again and the downhill will start again. At the beginning, it probably offers its steepest segment. But not for long. Elevation will soon smoothen out and it will continue being barely noticeable for a while.
The first party is a wider, slightly more grander looking ‘tree-lined avenue’ with nice green feilds to its North. Then, after a minor left turn, you start seeing the lake to your right. It is not huge, but it looks nice and I always find body of waters look great when I pass by them during a race.
Here we will not run around it or anything like it. However, we pass by its side before continuing on the tree-lined avenue. A fun music tent was set up here, to cheer everyone up.
Shortly after the music tent, it is time to enter the parking lot of a small restaurant, run in front of it and then again enter the Common proper. This bit was a bit weird, but it kept things different. The path then will be narrower and not very long. Soon we will have to turn slightly right, then cross a little bridge and sharp right again. We have now joined the wide path that we had walked to reach the Event village from the car park.
Keep running North, run past a wide clearing used for group exercise and yoga, then turn slightly right again for a short, minor uphill. At the end of it, it is time for a 90-degree left turn that allows us to enter the very wide fields where the event village was located. During the first and second lap, you need to cross in a straight line following the path. Half way, there will be a water station, if you need it.
At the end of the third lap, take a left into the actual fields when signalled. Use a dirt path to run an L-shaped detour with the short segment getting you slightly South and then the longer segment covering the 2/300m leading you home towards the finish arches.
Get that adrenaline pumping and enjoy the crossing, you have done it.
You made it! Enjoy a chat with the other runners and the rest of your day now. Congratulations on completing the Southampton Running Festival 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, but I am not a local
- 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 congested at all
- Course: 3 laps on tarmac paths. Undulating
- Toilets: none on the course
- Water stations: 1 each lap, around the event village
- Gels: none
- Finish line: ok location, efficient setting
- Bling: nice medal
- Finisher T-shirt: none
- Finisher refreshments: basic
Southampton Running Festival 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
This was fun. It was a nice location for a 10K and the weather was just perfect. The first glimpses of summer!
It is not PB-material, but it is not too hard and the challenges keep it interesting. I definitely enjoyed it.
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!
