Crystal Palace 5K by RunThrough – January 2025

Once again, I subscribed to the Runthrough annual pass and I joined the Crystal Palace 5K as first event of 2025. I had done the same last year, on an incredibly rainy and muddy day. Luckily, this experience this year would be a bit more pleasant and I would be able to enjoy the course much more. I also happened to join this event less than a week before visiting Crystal Palace parkrun for the second time, so comparing the courses was interesting.

First of all, why did I renew the Runthrough annual pass? Well, in its old incarnation, it is great value. Or was. For less than £300, you get unfettered access to all RT events across the UK, with the only slight inconvenience of having to go through the inefficient booking process via LetsDoThis. If you join all available races within a reasonable distance, this becomes a steal. And even if you don’t join them all, but limit yourself to a decent number of events, you still get plenty of timed races at a decent price. At least compared to how expensive they are when bought individually.

Now, down to the comparison with Crystal Palace parkrun. You can read everything about the free, weekly event on its own post, but in short, the RT route is better in my opinion. It is only one lap for the 5K and, while it starts with a slightly boring 1K lap on top of the terraces, it does also cover the lake are where you can spot the dinosaurs. The RT event is probably slightly more challenging, because it starts and ends on higher ground but it gets down to the same lowest point. So, if you do the map, it’s easy to deduce net elevation will be higher.

Like most RT events, on the same day they offer a 10K and a HM. These usually end up being multi-lappers. While I would love to try a 10K on this course once I am in better shape, I cannot for the life of me understand why you would want to run 4 laps+ of this course. Sure, the challenge is intriguing, but it must really be an ordeal.

Anyway, enough with my ramblings. Time to talk about about the Crystal Palace 5K.

TLDR: the Good and the Bad about the Crystal Palace 5K

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?

Training ahead of the Crystal Palace 5K

It’s been a long time since my last race. I admitted in many places that I lost my mojo. Not in terms of enjoying myself, but the consistency of mid-week training to get the miles supporting a decent time. And decent fitness, since I also gained a good amount of weight over the last 6 months.

Oh well, no point crying over it. Life is beautiful because it throws new challenges at us. So now I have the challenge of finding my consistency again. And a completely rebased performance ladder to compare myself against. Gone are the times of 24mins 5Ks and sub-2 HMs. Let’s try to claim them back or work towards them again!

Back to the Runthrough Crystal Palace 5K now!

Travel and Start Area

Crystal Palace park is a big park, with plenty of different areas and entry points. The parkrun starts on its Eastern boundaries, while the Runthrough Crystal Palace 5K start on its Western boundaries. I would defer to the Crystal Palace parkrun review for several suggestion on how to get to this beautiful corner of South London.

If you are coming by car, there are plenty of options and, even arriving not very early I was able to find a spot next to the start area. However, bear in mind start locations are at opposite sides to he park. So the recommended car park recommended for parkrun is not the one I would recommend if going to a Runthrough event. For this event I would recommend the main car park by Ledrington Avenue, just by the steps leading to the terraces. The meeting point will be up there.

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.

Crystal Palace 5K: the Course

In Crystal Palace, you will find a pretty unique one-lap 5K, at least for Central(ish) London. The route is different from the one used by Crystal Palace parkrun, since that is a 2-lap event. If you are familiar with the free event, it runs on the third quarter of the RT event, more or less. It is a a challenging route, with higher elevation change than the local parkrun and more chances to be stuck in very muddy or wet areas.

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.

I find this route enjoyable, in a rather masochistic kind of way. After a though segment shortly after the start, it then morphes into a flat gradient before gifting you a great downhill. Don’t push too much though, or you will pay for it later, because you will need to come back up.

Surface is very mixed. The majority of it will be on paved roads, with a mix of large carriageways and small paved paths. However, there are several segments on hard dirt paths and two crossing unpaved trail sections. Anything unpaved seems to drain terribly here and turn into quicksands if it has been raining a lot. You will have very different experiences if you run in summer or in winter. And if it has been raining, come wearing trail shoes.

In terms of route layout, the map above looks more complicated than it will feel during the event. You start with one loop around the terraces, then divert towards the sides of the hill. One long slightly twisty downhill before you climb towards the lake and run around it. Say hi to the dinos and climb up a bit more before crossing the false planes mid-hill. At the end, one last climb to reach the start/finish area again.

Now to the race itself. Once it’s time to go, you set off in the middle of the flat area on the terraces. Turn right soon after going through the arches and keep going on the flat for a little while. Then turn hard right under the trees and start a short steep uphill trail segment. This can get very muddy. At the top, turn right again and you will have to cross the terrace area again, in the opposite direction.

At the end, right for a steep trail downhill and left at the bottom to head towards the side of the hill.

From here you will have about 1K of downhill fun on a wide paved carriageway. It is great and it goes through an area with mature trees. At the bottom of this long downhill, a hard left turn gets you into the other trail segment of this course. You cross through a patch of trees with fairly uneven terrain, while downhill. This also tends to get pretty muddy when it has been raining.

Once the trees are behind you, turn left again and rejoin the paved path, now narrower than before. Here you just by by the side of a field before you reach a car park. Get past some barriers and head towards the steep uphill in front of you. Painfully steep. Thankfully brief.

Once you reach the top, turn left and start running by the side of the scenic lake. A right turn after a few metres and go by the full side of the lake. Then turn right and right again and start climbing slightly by the same lake, with a view on the dinos by the water on your right. Soon after you meet the dinos, another left turn to climb some more, fairly steep again. Twist and turn some more and you will have reached the top. A short straight by some playing fields before another short trail section. Steep downhill here, because why would you not go down a bit again to enjoy more uphill later? Can never have enough of those in a short 5K, right?

At the bottom, if you are running on a Sunday, you will soon pass by the charming farmers market before entering another open area going across some charming fields. At the other end, another steep uphill, a left turn for a short flat and then a turn right for another steep uphill. You are nearly at the the top. But not just yet. Cross another open area with a gentle uphill and turn left for an apparently pointless mini-loop. Not pointless though, because it is an opportunity to run downhill for a couple 100 metres before turning 180 degrees and run uphill for the same distance.

When you reach the point where this mini-loop started before, turn hard left for a short climb that will get you to the point where you had left the terraces area before. Turn left there and you are in for a short straight with the finish line in sight.

When you reach the mid-point of this esplanade, turn 90-degrees right for a short sprint finish towards the arch.

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 Crystal Palace 5K.

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

Crystal Palace 5K 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. Crystal Palace is a great location with a lot to offer after your run if you want to stay. It is a challenging course and it can become a nightmare if you come during winter. Or summer, if it has been raining consistently, we are in the UK after all.

I will definitely come back, maybe trying the 10K option, ie two laps of the same course.

Do you want to run it, but think you cannot? Let’s chat, anyone can do it, really!