Morden parkrun

Finally this week I have visited Morden parkrun for the first time, on its event number 4. Which also came handy for my headless Wilson Index. At the time of writing, this is the latest addition to the London parkruns roster, leading the total number of venues to 63 for people who might chase the respectable title of LonDone. Incidentally, after visiting Morden parkrun I am at 57/63… soon to be 65, apparently.

Morden parkrun had its inaugural event on 15/06/24. I was really sad I was not able to join that as my first (and likely last) inaugural, since it is located less than 2KM from where I live, but the launch was incredibly stealthy. I understand the reasons, but I can still be moderately disappointed, I guess. Oh well, life goes on.

After the third event, Morden parkrun had to take 2 weeks off because the park was used as park&ride location for a few people who decided to visit a local tennis tournament taking place just up the road. How rude of them. But now it is over and we could go back to enjoy the beautiful Morden park.

The return to London was very welcome, after the long-distance touristing to Brecon, in Wales, to visit Y Promenâd parkrun last week and the lavender chasing trip to Lullingstone parkrun the week before. I love touristing and exploring places far from home with the excuse of parkrunning, but sometimes a more relaxed parkrunday morning closer to home is very very welcome. Next week, abroad!

Now, back to Morden parkrun for an important point. If you have been in Morden, you might know there is a very beautiful park within walking distance of the tube station. Morden Hall Park is a National Trust property. This park is gorgeous and definitely worth a visit (if you are visiting with kids, I recommend Dean City Farm next to it as well), but it is NOT the location of Morden parkrun. It hosted a one off event years ago, but then parkrun never came back. And now that it is back in Morden, it went to a different park, Morden Park. Opposite direction from the tube station.

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

Trip to Morden parkrun and parking

Morden Park is to the South of the London of Borough of Merton, a big borough at that. The closest station is an overground one, Morden South. The station is, surprisingly, served by Southern, on the St. Albans/Luton to Sutton line. A pretty large chuck of North London might find this convenient, if not exactly fast. Once you get to the station, it is a 1 mile walk to Morden Park.

If you prefer using the tube, Morden is the last station on the Southern end of the Norther Line. Funny sentence. Once you get out of the station, turn right and cross the road at the first opportunity. On the other side, head right towards the Iceland supermarket and keep going straight. If the tall Civic Centre is on your right, you are going in the right direction. Keep going past the Mosque and turn right when you reach Merton College. The park will be behind Merton College.

If you are driving, Morden is actually pretty convenient, within easy reach from the M25 and the A3. Getting here will be easy and fast early morning. Leaving? It will probably be hell if you need to trace your steps back on either of those. Anyway, there is a fairly large car park behind Merton College, by the new(ish) Leisure Centre. The car park is not free and a parking attendant was hunting and heading of fines before parkrun on the day I visited. Be warned, payment can be settled via the RingGo app and it is rather cheap.

However you are coming, you will probably be walking through the car park. The meeting point is a couple of minutes walk away.

Morden parkrun: start and briefings

If you are in the car park, head to the opposite side from the Leisure Centre and leave it taking a side path. Head left past the back of the Registry building and you will soon reach the open green expanse of Morden Park. However, don’t run towards it yet. Turn 90 degrees left and go around the weird red brick wall on your left. It’s the back of a stage, fronting a small lawn enclosed by hedges. This is the quirky, cool meeting point for Morden parkrun.

It might sound weird, but the enclosed meeting point in front of a stage works very well and, loosely, it reminded me of Canons parkrun. But better, since there there is no real enclosure. Anyway, it is big enough to hold at least 400 parkrunners comfortably, probably more. And it provides a good elevated vantage point to the volunteers for the initial briefings. It also allowed the team to come up with a very long finish funnel snaking around the hedge on both sides. Unusual and quite fun.

At event 4, the briefings lasted a bit longer than usual, because of special guests and well deserved thanks to the people who made this new event possible.

The first special guest was the co-RD, who was apparently the future RD in training for Beddington parkrun. I guess this gives us the confirmation we needed to know that Sutton will soon get a new event. Great, if the location is what I think it should be, it is great. Hopefully we get to see it in good weather soon.

Then we had political guests, including Merton Council top brass and the Morden MP. A few words from all of them, but it was not too much.

As it often happens for new events, the First Timers Briefing didn’t really take place, with most things being covered during the Main Briefing, kind of. Then, when everything is taken care of, it is time to walk out of the enclosure and loop back into the open fields. No more than 1 minute walk and everyone is lined up along the open start line.

Time to go!

Morden parkrun course review – star ratings

Morden parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 434 parkrunners on the day I visited. This is a pretty meaningful field for a London venue, but not yet comparable to the busiest ones. And there are quite a few in this part of London: Bushy, Clapham, Tooting to name just a few. It is only the 4th event, so drawing conclusions on long term attendance is impossible at this stage. Furthermore, this was the first event after a 2-week long hiatus, adding even further uncertainty. Ignoring the first event, the second and the third both attracted around 3-350 parkrunners, which seems to be an interesting data point. If I had to bet, I would assume that will be roughly the average attendance level in the future, with large seasonal swings. In any case, I think this course can easily host 4/500, if it gets to that.

This course does not have any obvious, tight bottlenecks. A lot of it is run on grass, with large natural paths that can offer more room to the sides if and when needed. On the day I was there, the grass was short and the ground was dry, a further test might be needed during muddy, wet winter. There are a couple of 90-degree turns which can get a bit busy if coming in large groups, but nothing dramatic. On top of everything, it is a 3-lapper, so there are often people overtaking or being overtaken. At around 430 participants, I don’t think it was a problem. It would certainly be if attendance doubled.

Surface-wise, it is probably 80% grass, with a short segment on a good, level tarmac path. On the day I visited, it felt great. The grass was dry and short and soil was firm but not overly dusty. Pretty much perfect conditions for this course, I think. If we were in a summer heatwave, I think dust could have been annoying, couple with very little shade protecting from the sun. Conversely, in winter Morden park is well known for becoming very very muddy. I suspect it will not get as bad as its neighbour Wimbledon Common parkrun, but we will see. I will come back to check it out. On my last visit, I ran in road shoes and it was totally fine.

Elevation-wise, at 57m elevation gain over 3 laps, you will not be climbing mountains at Morden parkrun. But you will come back from it with the distinctive memory of an undulating course that felt harder than it should have. If you look at the elevation chart below, you can easily see that it is virtually never flat. Most gradients are fairly mild, don’t be fooled by the scale, but a couple of them are noticeable. The first one, immediately after the start. The second one, when you join the tarmac path. But it is a lot of fun because what goes up then needs to go back down again and the downhills are very enjoyable. Believe me!

In terms of course design, I am quite impressed by what the team came up with. They managed to make it much more fun than it should be, given the terrain they had available. It has a lot of turns, mild climbs and long downhills and beautiful views on the rest of the twisted field of runners/walkers. It is, roughly, a figure 8, so you also get a point where two different halves of the course nearly touch each other, adding to the visual impact. Finally, the start and finish are separated from the main loop by a roughly 100m climb/descent. Evil as you start, a godsend at the end. The opposite of what the sadistic designers of Hampstead Heath parkrun decided to go for. Thanks Morden parkrun team for your consideration.

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

As said, after the initial ceremonies, it is time to double back around the hedges and enter the open fields. Once you get there you will immediately have a good feeling for the scenery of this location: large, open green meadows with gentle rolling hills and spots of trees here and there. It is nothing extraordinary, but it is beautiful. And calming, in a way.

The start line is on an open stretch of grass, so people tend to spread around quite comfortably, making it nearly an open start. It does not go as wide as places like Bushy, but it can handle large numbers. I guess it could be allowed to go wider, but it would not be a good idea because of the tight turn that will come soon. Once everyone is ready, the countdown comes and it is time to go. And here you have the first nice surprise the team has devised for us: it is an uphill start! Like another recent new event in the South East, Wakehurst. Maybe teams are finding a sadistic taste for it? 🙂

When everyone gets going, it can get a bit chaotic for a few seconds because the wide start tends to converge to a ‘path’, but there is more than enough space for it not to be too disruptive. Then, it is immediately time to climb up ‘the hill’. It is not too steep and it is certainly not long, so the early adrenaline will carry you up easily. But don’t overdo it, or you will pay for it later. You have 3 laps of this stuff in front of you, don’t forget!

When you reach the top, pass a tree and you reach a volunteer who will show everyone they need to turn 90 degrees left. Since this event does not like running on the flat, it is now time for a light downhill. It is quite welcome, especially on later laps, but now it will be even more tempting. While fresh, you will be tempted to take advantage of gravity and go faster than you should. Don’t: not because it is hard underfoot, it is not, but to conserve energy and pace for the whole 5K.

Keep going for a few seconds and you reach another marshall, prompting for a right turn. You are now going around a patch of trees. Here it feels relatively flat, but it is probably not. I guess it was a very mild uphill, probably. Soon you will reach the end of the patch of trees and it will be time to turn right again. Here you are at the start of a slightly steeper uphill. You are climbing and crossing the main hill at the centre of the park, towards the centre of the 8. Get climbing and watch in front of you, to the left, to see the whole field of runners snaking ahead. Quite nice visuals.

At the top, after a very short flat segment, you will reach another marshall. This is the centre of the 8, so if you are around mid pack, the speed demons will be coming towards you in front. Cool effect, the two segments touch each other but don’t intersect. You have to turn left, however, and get on the main downhill of the loop. It is noticeable, long enough and run on wide(ish) good terrain. Fun, let it go a bit, enjoy yourself!

At the bottom, turn right and run for 2/300m on what seems to be flat terrain again, towards the corner of the park. Time for another sharp right turn and you are on the paved segment. Here you will run on a good, narrower path and guess what you will have to do? Climb back up the hill you just run down from. Good things have a cost!

This is probably the longest climb and you have to get through a couple of gentle curves before you reach the top. Up there, turn right again towards the centre of the park for a short flatt(ish) segment. At the end of the paved segment, sharp right for another climb on grass. You are not at the top of the hill yet and the team wants you to enjoy yourself, so what did they come up with? Obviously, doubling back in the direction you came from, to conquer the hill again.

This grassy climb leads you back towards the trees that were by the centre of the 8. Reach them and run on their right side and go all the way around to reach the centre of the 8 and turn back in the opposite direction. Kind of a V-shaped mini out and back. After you have looped back, climb again, the hill is not done with you yet!

Another short climb on grass gets you to the very top of the Morden Park hill. Once you get on top, you will see the ‘start’ of the loop yet, where you had turned left after the start. Run to it on a very mild downhill, nearly flat. When you get there, turn right to start your second lap. Go through it all again 2 more times!

At the end of the third lap, go straight when you get here and enjoy the steeper downhill. It is probably less than 200m, so if you still have energy in you, you can slowly start your sprint finish, taking advantage of the very welcome downhill. I don’t remember potholes or other terrain issues, so it should be pretty safe.

Finally you reach the funnel and you are done! The funnel seems short, but as you go, you will see that they were ready for large numbers. It snakes around the hedge that created the meeting point enclosure, turns in, snakes a bit more. Tokens are handed out in front of the stage, where scanning is also happening.

Congratulations on completing Morden parkrun!

Facilities at Morden parkrun

Morden Park is a fairly large green area, with plenty of corner dedicated to various sports and even with spot dedicated to flying unmanned model aircrafts. That said, there are not many man-made facilities in the park itself, with most of them concentrated in the area of the Leisure Centre. This relatively new building offers a nice swimming pool, a gym, toilets and a small cafe.

I can see the toilets becoming a problem here, if numbers grow a lot. There are only two stalls, shared by men and women. However, at least they are available and they are clean and open before the event.

The cafe is very small and pretty basic when it comes to possible food choices. Plenty of cold or hot drinks will be available though.

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 Morden parkrun, I ordered a Diet Coke, a single espresso and a Kinder Bueno. This cost me £6.20, which is definitely more expensive than it should be, considering what it was.

Wanstead Flats 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 hobby 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

Morden parkrun is a very welcome addition to the long list of London parkruns. I really enjoyed it! When I hear events have more than 2 laps, I am usually a bit skeptical, but it works very well here, with a fun, beautiful course that always keeps things interesting. And an enthusiastic team of volunteers that will make you feel at home immediately!

This is now the second closest event to where I live, so I am 100% sure I will be back. I want to enjoy it again before seasons turn and then definitely see how much of an ordeal mud turns it into. At least once, but I suspect Morden parkrun will become a spring/summer favourite in the future.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Morden parkrun team for your hospitality! It was the first of many future visits and I am sure I will join you as a volunteer after summer.