Ingrebourne Hill parkrun

This parkrunday I have visited Ingrebourne Hill parkrun, the latest addition to the roster of London events. London-ish, in this case, but still within the boundaries of Greater London, even if the address is in Essex. Coming from Wimbledon, this was a long trip for me, but I wanted to hit event number 6 to fill a gap in my meagre Wilson Index bingo card.

After the visit to Gladstone parkrun last week, I was not afraid of elevation this time. The event is described as starting with a mini-loop up and down a substantial hill and this is true. However, I found the hill section to be the most enjoyable section of this course. The way up is not excessively steep and the way down is twisty and winding with wide views on the surrounding areas and the local lake. I would have done it again, honestly. The rest is more mundane.

With this visit I hit two target objectives and also completed an unexpected challenged. For the latter, keep reading below. In terms of objectives, I wanted to tick event 6 for the Wilson Index and I wanted to progress on my slow crawl to LondDone. Ingrebourne Hill parkrun started in December 2024 and it brought the total number of London events up to 65. After today, I have run 63 of them, so I think I will complete it (temporarily, I am sure) during February… I think I can mark St. Valentine(s) day for it. Or a date close to it anyway.

Ingrebourne Hill parkrun also brings the an option to grab an ‘I’ in London for alphabet chasers. Until recently, the prime option was probably Ifield Mill Pond parkrun, next to Gatwick. For me it was the second ‘I’, which works well. I completed my first parkrun alphabet in December at Victoria Dock parkrun, so now I can chase the second one. Slowly, without obsessing.

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

Trip to Ingrebourne Hill parkrun and parking

I am not very familiar with this side of London, so I did some googling to understand the location. Ingrebourne Hill parkrun is in Rainham, in East London. According to Wikipedia, Rainham is part of the London Borough of Havering, while the official event site gives an Essex address. I guess both can be true at the same time.

If you are planning to go by public transport, this area does not seem to be particularly well served by the Tube or urban train lines. Reading the official event site, the closest station is Rainham, served by SouthEastern trains. Then you have to walk just shy of 1 mile to the meeting point or try your luck with one of the many local buses mentioned on the event site.

Had I tried to go using public transport, CityMapper suggests it would have taken me roughly 2 hours, going to Barking by Tube and then one local bus. Since I am lazy, I went by car and going there took me roughly one hour, while the trip back was about 90 minutes in mid morning traffic.

There is a small (free) car park inside the Country Park, but when I reached it at 8:30 it was already completely full. A parking marshal was already there to help with directions and suggested going back to the nearby Tesco Megastore, where free parking is available for customers up to 3 hours. That location is also convenient because there is a cafe in the building, but bear in mind it is roughly 1km away from the meeting point.

Ingrebourne Hill parkrun: start and briefings

I entered the park from the Rainham Road entrance, same as for the car park. Once you park here or reach this point walking, just get through the car park and enter the Country Park from a little gate on the opposite corner. Once you are in it, turn left and you will see people congregating down the path no more than 100m away.

There are two parallel paths here, with a grassy area between them. One path is closer to the lake, the other is further in, towers the side of the park that borders with Rainham Road. The meeting point with event pop-up sign is on the inner path, where start line and finish line will also be.

Once it is time for the First Timers briefing, volunteers shout out to all interested to walk towards a bench on the path by the lake. On the day I visited, I would guess about 80% of the people there went for it. It was well delivered, with information on the course and the usual procedural items for new joiners.

Then everyone walks again across the grass and start bunching up along a relatively narrow path. The recommendation was for everyone expecting to run slower than 20mins (lol) to position themselves towards the back half of the field. Eventually the Main Briefing started and, while there was a loudspeaker, it did not work. So, sorry, but I have no idea what the RD said. Literally, I didn’t hear a single word. Hence, I also had no idea how close she was to the end of her speech.

Suddenly, people started moving. It was time to go!

Ingrebourne Hill parkrun course review – star ratings

Ingrebourne Hill parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 231 parkrunners on the day of my first visit to Ingrebourne Hill parkrun. Since this is still a new event and it is in London, I don’t think any conclusions on average attendance can be drawn after only 6 events. Out of the first 4 events, 3 see attendance levels above 300, with a peak 368. The second, fifth and sixth events were in the low/middle 200s. Considering how many tourists were there today, I don’t think this event will stabilise above 200, but I am sure it will continue having a steady stream of visitors. And besides a bit of congestion at the start, I have no doubt it could handle the occasional foray into the 400 region.

The course is fairly open, with no obvious obstacles. There are no gates, bollards or other dangerous things to navigate. Inclines are all relatively mild and there are no 180-degree turnaround points. It is a good, pleasant course, with the only caveat that it is run on paths that can get a bit congested if coming all together in a big group. I think this is effectively relevant only for the first 1/200m after the start, but if you are still in the middle of the pack when the uphill section starts, it might take a bit longer. The downhill is also not very wide, and it is quite twisty and turny so it might get busy again.

Surface-wise, it is all run on hard paths with grass on their verges. They are well beaten and pretty even, with few stones and no tree roots. On a dry day, this can be a pretty runner-friendly path. However, they don’t seem to drain perfectly, so during a winter day, there will be puddles. My visit came after a couple of days with intermittent rain and there were several large puddles. The grass verges were muddy if you wanted to avoid them. I ran in road shoes and I was ok, but I suppose waterproof trail shoes could have helped a bit.

Elevation-wise, this is unquestionably a hilly event. At 30m elevation gain in total over effectively 3 laps, it is clear this cannot be seen as a very hilly parkrun, with even a few London events worse than that. However, it really is never flat. The first mini lap is where you will find the steepest elevation, but since it comes early on, you will probably still be fresh and it is long enough not to be painful. The way down is fun. Then the longer laps are still probably 2/3 uphill along the foot of the hill and 1/3 downhill. Several gentle inclines with short flat intermissions.

Course design is pretty simple. One shorter lap (ca 900m) up and down the central hill and 2 longer laps around the base of the same hill. Start and finish are roughy in the same place.

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

As said, the start came suddenly and I started shuffling around with all other parkrunners. The start is on short straight dirt path starting exactly where the meeting point was. It is not long before a gentle bend brings everyone to the right, crossing a small copse of trees. Shortly after leaving the trees behind, another gentle turn left put everyone on the path that is going to climb the main hill.

The climb section is not very bendy, with only two longer segments and a final, very short one. You will be climbing for around 400m, with a gradient that is definitely noticeable but, at least for me, it was not terrible. And I am not a great hill runner. At all. After a longish straight, turn around nearly 180 degrees on a wide turn and keep going up in the opposite direction for a similar amount of time. Another turn, this time right for a very short segment that bring you to the top. Here an observation point is guarded by a marshal who congratulated every one on reaching the top.

The descent starts immediately, but give a look around and take in the panorama. To be honest, the surrounding areas didn’t really have any show stopping beautiful landmark, but still, it is a very open wide view and it was quite enjoyable, regardless of the concentration of industrial architecture. I appreciate it is physically impossible, but I had the distinct feeling that the way down was steeper than the way up. There are also more turns, with shorter segments going back on themselves as you scuttle down the hill. There is also a nice view on the lake just below the hill. When you reach the bottom of the hill, turn right one last time and run through a slightly longer flat straight segment alongside the lake. At the end, left turn to go for a short stint along the path where the First Timers briefing was, turn-around 180-degrees and run for another 20 metres towards the original start line.

You have now finished the first shorter lap, totalling at just below 1KM. Keep going the same way you ran before up to the turn that got you onto the hill climb. This time, instead of turning right, turn left and you will enter the longer loop that will need to be repeated twice.

The longer loop is objectively more mundane, running in the middle of a relatively consistent mix of marshlands and trees. The first two thirds are slightly uphill with a steeper uphill at the end, the last third is downhill. It is a fairly regular rectangular shape and it itself contained, without going to the start/finish area again while you run through this again. It starts relatively open and with grass on both sides, before turning right and starting a more interesting section with both grass and sections under trees. By the time you need to turn right again, it continues being with trees on both sides, but you will see the incline getting a bit steeper.

A gentle bend will lead to a short, steep(ish) climb and when you reach the top soon afterwards another volunteer will be there to cheer you up. Not far from the end of the loop. Keep going straight for a little longer on what felt like a short flat segment to me before turning right to enter the last side of this rectangle. This is mostly straight and mostly downhill, which is a pleasure at the end of your run, really.

When you get to the bottom of this segment, turn right to do it all again once more. The second time, turn left to head home. A short segment running back the spare bit you run through in the other direction at the beginning and a finish funnel will welcome you where the start line was.

Congratulations on completing Ingrebourne Hill parkrun!

Facilities at Ingrebourne Hill parkrun

Ingrebourne Hill Country Park seems to be a beautiful nature reserve with plenty of space to enjoy, exercise, relax or explore. But no more facilities appear to be available. There is a pub a few metres away from the car park, but at the time of my visit it was called. Signs suggested it will open again late February 2025. Maybe it will be come a post parkrunday focal point. Maybe not.

However, as for the car park, a Tesco megastore comes to the rescue. Toilets and a cafe are available before and after the event and, if you need to, you can also buy a pack of toilet rolls. You never know when the great toilet paper shortage might hit!

As far as parkbreakfast, as mentioned Tesco Cafe will probably be one of the long term options. Once you get into the store, go up to the first floor, navigate through the clothes are and you can reach your destination. The cafe is not beautiful, but it has a decent, if pretty standard offering and a decent number of tables if you don’t want to have breakfast in your car.

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 Ingrebourne Hill parkrun, I ordered a muffin, a Diet Coke and a single espresso. This cost me £6.8. Fairly priced, considering quality and location, at least for London standards.

Ingrebourne Hill 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.

• Instagram
• Twitter
• YouTube

---

Achievements and performance

Conclusions

Ingrebourne hill parkrun is a new event, but even after just a month from its birth it is running like clockwork already. A great welcoming team and an interesting route made the long trip definitely worth it, even ignoring challenges. I particularly enjoyed the first short loop, with a fun and scenic way down from the summit.

Many people will come here because of LonDone, but this new little event would be worth it regardless. I’d love to visit again in summer and I definitely would, weren’t it so far. Who knows, maybe life will bring me to the area on parkrunday in the future.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Ingrebourne Hill parkrun team for your hospitality!