Hyde Park 5K by RunThrough – February 2025

My partner wanted to join a race with me and she was keen on the Hyde Park 5K organised by Runthrough. I usually would have said no, because it fell on parkrunday and missing parkrun for another race is cheating. However, this was one race I had not done for a long time and I thought, why not? After all, after visiting Valentines parkrun last week I had finally achieved my target to be parkrun LonDone, so I could take a little break. It’s not cheating if it’s also a 5K and it is a course that should be a parkrun, but never will be, right?

This was a busy running weekend in London. On Sunday, the London Winter 10K would take place. I have run this event before and it is a great one. An opportunity to run in central London and be cheered by penguins. I mean, who can resist that, right? The penguins alone make it better than the summer London 10K, prove me wrong. However, this time I had not registered for it: crap fitness mostly. And Sunday also hosted the Runthrough London Half & 10K. Funny naming, a bit of SEO parasitism, I guess. This I had not run yet and I was registered. However, as I would find out, I am currently not fit enough to join two races back to back. Humbling reality.

As it happens, as most men, my plans suddenly become irrelevant when the lady decides she has different ones. So I accepted I would skip parkrun, run the Hyde Park 5K and see if I still had enough energy tu run the Runthrough London Half & 10K on Sunday. Spoiler alert, I wouldn’t.

Anyway, the Hyde Park 5K is a great little event. Such a central location in one of London’s great royal parks. Probably one of London’s most famous landmark, with a short section along the Serpentine. It really could be the perfect tourist parkrun venue, but I understand why it will most likely never be. If an event like Battersea parkrun gets more than 1000 runners every week, what horde would descend onto Hyde Park every week? And how often would the event need to cancel because of Winter Wonderland and all the other events held in Hyde Park?

Anyway, enough with my ramblings. Time to talk about the Hyde Park 5K.

TLDR: the Good and the Bad about The Hyde Park 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 Hyde Park 5K

My last race was the Crystal Palace 5K in January, but things have not been as consistent as I would want them to be. I realise 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. I guess most people will experience a similar rout: when you want to do it but when it comes to getting out of the door during the week, you just cannot push yourself to do it.

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 Hyde Park 5K now!

Travel and Start Area

Hyde Park is on the main green areas in Central London and I doubt it needs much of an introduction. The Hyde park 5K takes place around the Eastern part of Hyde Park, roughly around the area where Winter Wonderland takes place. I guess since we are in February and that was little more than 1 month ago, that’s why most of the fields were fenced off for resurfacing. Needed, but a shame in terms of visuals for the race.

The event village is in the South-Eastern corner of the park, close to the Serpentine Cafe and not far from Hyde Park Corner.

For such a central location, public transport will be the most convenient option for most people. The closest tube station is Hyde Park Corner, served by Piccadilly Line. Green Park and Knightsbridge stations are also a short walk away. These two options add the Jubilee and Victoria lines to the available options. With a little more walking, you can also use the Central Line from Marble Arch station.

If you want to or need to drive to the event, you can do that. Hyde Park has decent parking locations and the congestion charge does not apply on weekends before noon. Getting there early morning will be easy because of limited traffic, leaving will definitely be a different story.

The car parks are both at the Western end of the Serpentine. Off West Carriage Drive, on both sides of the central bridge. They are fairly expensive and parking apps are not accepted. You can pay by card or contactless though. One weird quirk is that they are free until 8:30am and the machines do not accept any payment before that time. So if you arrive earlier you have to wait until 8:30 to be able to pay. Dumb.

If you parked there, walk alongside the lake until you reach the cafe and at that point you will see the event village. A bit more walking than if you were to come from Hyde Park Corner station, probably comparable to the other two options at the Southern end of the park.

The event village is a bit more compact than you usually see at Runthrough events. There are no coffee trucks or other third party service providers, like metal engraving for example. They make good use of the space around the Bandstand, with registration booths on one side and an empty space for the group warm up on the other side.

This event combined a 5K and, a 10K. Differently from most other cases, both events start together, with people self-seeding based on finish time expectations. It was not a huge field, so this was fine.

Hyde Park 5K: the Course

Events in Hyde Park are not as frequent as the ones held at other London Runthrough locations. When they come up, they are a great opportunity to join a well-organised race at this great central London park. I think the 5K is the best option, since it is only 2 laps on a route that, while nice, it lacks unique landmarks. I suspect 4 laps over this route would quickly become boring and there are plenty of more interesting available.

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.

While not offering wonderful landmarks as said above, the route is actually quite interesting. I think the Hyde Park 5K would particularly shiny in spring or early summer, when good weather would offer the best views across the park and the lake. When I joined it last in February, a large area was fenced off to fix the grass after Winter Wonderland, I guess. A bit of a shame, it definitely affected the overall vibe. However, plenty of open view areas were still available.

Surface is consistent: all well maintained paved paths. Some are wide tree-lined carriageways, some are narrower paths crossing open fields or tree-covered areas. In general, surface is excellent, so you can go with your very expensive carbon plated shoes if you want to.

In terms of route layout, the map above shows a fairly simple route. Kind of a slightly less boring version of ‘run around the fields twice’. From the start, run up towards Marble Arch and a little before that turn left into the fields. Cross them and start slightly twisty way back to the Serpentine where you will turn back towards the start line. Do it twice, simple.

Now to the race itself. Once it’s time to go, people will start lining up facing the Runthrough arch. Differently from what I thought however, people go to the Northern area of the bandstand clearing and face the arch North to South. Or in another way, you face it towards the Southern carriageway, meaning immediately after passing it you will have to take a 90 degree turn. The self-seeded start moves at good pace and soon you will get going. And unsurprisingly, immediately turn sharp left to join the main carriageway heading towards Hyde Park Corner. Very soon again, it is time to turn left soon to start heading towards the long North-bound straight.

At this point, you take a light left and start feeling a mild uphill. This is a short segment, so soon you will take another 90-degree left to enter the long straight that will bring you along the Eastern border of the park. There will be enough ‘park’ between you and Park Lane to avoid realising you are very close to one of the busiest roads in London. As you run along this long straight, you can enjoy a wide tree-lined carriageway with great surface and, in theory, nice view on open fields on your left. On the day I visited, however, the left side was mostly fenced off for resurfacing work. Finally, in terms of elevation, you will feel a mild uphill: it is not steep but it is long, so pace yourself properly and you will be fine.

You will not have to go all the way up to Marble Arch. I’ve run races that gets up there and it is pretty cool, but full effect would require closed roads and that’s a whole other commitment. When you run the Hyde Park 5K you turn left into the fields before Speakers’ Corner, a few metres before a small cafe. Or at least I think it was a cafe, correct me if I remember it wrong. At this point the profile becomes flat again and you enter the fields on a narrower but still very well maintained path. Crossing the fields is quite pleasant here, with a very open but tranquil feeling. After a short while, take a mild left turn before reaching another sharper 90-degrees left turn.

At this you start going South again on a similarly narrow path sided by small trees. Run on it for a short while until you reach a small roundabout and navigate it to turn right. Now you start running towards a tree-covered area, passing a small building on your left. After this building, a fun S-curve section leads you onto another path that starts a gentle downhill towards the Western side of the park. At the end, sharp right and get on a steeper downhill segment that will go all the way down to the Serpentine lake.

Once you reach the lake, turn hard left again and start running on a path by the side of the lake. You are not on the main carriageway by the lake though, it is a narrower inner path. I guess that’s a good thing because you don’t really want to share the path with horse guards bikes and people skating on roller skies.

Keep running by the lake, pass the cafe and soon after that you will run by the event village. Pass it and keep going for your second lap. Once you come here the second time, keep left where the route splits until you reach the corner where you had entered the main loop on your first lap. Turn 90-degrees left here to get on the short straight to the finish line, which will be just in front of you.

Time to sprint, 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: very easy
• 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. Hyde Park toilet block nearby, long queue for women
• Waves system: by estimated pace
• Start section: not congested
• Course: 2 laps on tarmac paths. Very mildly undulating
• Toilets: none on the course
• Water stations: 1 each lap, 3/400m after start
• Gels: none
• Finish line: ok location, efficient setting
• Bling: nice medal
• Finisher T-shirt: none
• Finisher refreshments: basic

Hyde Park 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

The Hyde Park 5K is a fun event and a rare opportunity to join a race in one of the central Royal Parks without having to be lucky enough to win a spot at one of the larger mass participation events. Also, those are usually either 10Ks or Half Marathons, so you can also run a more manageable distance.

The events is fun, with a field big enough to give you a buzz, but not so big that it becomes congested or overwhelming. It is a simple course which can offer opportunities for good times if you are in shape. I enjoyed it and I think I will run it again, eventually. Maybe in summer, for a different vibe?

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