Leybourne Lakes parkrun

This parkrunday I have visited Leybourne Lakes parkrun for the first time, formerly known as Malling parkrun. It was a lucky choice, because the beautiful course really looked at its best on one of the first sunny, spring-like parkrundays of 2025. Kent is far away for me, but less painful to get to than crossing London so the unexpected choice of destination ended up being a great one.

Why did I pick Leybourne Lakes parkrun? I did not remember it being mentioned as a bucket list event, nor I remember the news it must have generated when it changed name from Malling parkrun. It was the random result of something I often do mid-week: open the 5K app and cycle through some of the challenges to see if there is any event that gets me some progress within a reasonable distance. This week, Leybourne Lakes parkrun was going to hold its 400th event, fitting the requirements of the Century parkrun achievement. Not one of the traditional parkrun achievements, but one of the custom ones I have selected. I should write something about this new(ish) feature in the 5K app.

Leybourne parkrun is also an event with a specific history. It used to be called Malling parkrun, but it changed name to Leybourne Lakes in October 2024. The new name seems to be more appropriate, but I think it is always a bit sad when names change after so many years. A bit like Greenwich parkrun changing name to Avery Hill parkrun this week.

As said above, this week was Leybourne Lakes parkrun’s 400th event. The special celebration meant a large field and a lot of cakes offered by the great volunteers. A lucky opportunity for me to visit this great event for the first time.

Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Leybourne Lakes parkrun! (Did i say it used to be called Malling parkrun? Just making sure the SEO gods don’t hate me 🙂 )

Trip to Leybourne Lakes parkrun (formerly Malling parkrun) and parking

Leybourne Lakes parkrun, unsurprisingly, takes place in the beautiful Leybourne Lakes Country Park. This is in the Borough of Tonbridge and Malling, in Kent. For London-centric readers, we are looking at the part of Kent touching the South-Eastern corner of the Capital, not very far from wonderful Lullingstone parkrun to the West or Maidstone to the East.

If you plan to come by public transport, according to the official event site, the closest trains stations are New Hythe and Snodland, both around 2 miles away from Leybourne Lakes parkrun meeting point. Both are served by Southeaster trains, with frequent connections to Maidstone. If coming from Maidstone without a train change, a bus gets from there will get you within about a mile from the meeting point.

Coming from Wimbledon, I did not even consider public transport, but I checked it now on Citymapper. A trip to Leybourne Lakes parkrun by public transport would have taken me 2.5hrs each way, heading to Victoria Station, then on a train to Ashford Int., then on a bus from West Malling to the park. Clearly too much for someone as lazy as I am, but it might be feasible for more enterprising people than me.

However, I live in a location with easy access to the motorway system around the capital and, if you are driving, this event is very easy to get to. When you get on the M25, go around the ring road until you reach the connection with the M20 and then keep going East for a short while. The event is very close to a junction, so there will not be much local roads involved. As always, going to the event early morning will likely not see you stuck in traffic, while leaving afterwards might.

There is plenty of parking at the event, but the park can get quite busy with watersport enthusiasts and other users so try to get there a bit earlier than usual. You will need to pay for the car park, but fares are pretty reasonable. Bear in mind, there doesn’t seem to be a parking app linked to this location and the machines are cashless. So, card or touch enabled phone.

Once you get there, the meeting point is a couple of minutes walk away.

Leybourne Lakes parkrun: start and briefings

If you are in the main car park, go around the toilets block and head towards the watersports centre. When you reach the smaller car park dedicated to watersport users, cross the little bridge and head left, past the cafe. This is where the meeting point, with a beautiful view of the lake.

Once it is time, the First Timers briefing happens by the cafe/watersports building, next to the parkrun flag. The First Timers briefing was great, with two young girls keeping everyone in check and giving all the required information.

Shortly afterwards, everyone has moved back to the meeting point and the Main Briefing is held. I did not hear much because it was very busy and there was no loudspeaker system in use. The other trick was that I eventually found out the briefing is given while everyone is already where they will be when it is time to start. So if you are off path or if you have not positioned yourself properly, you will have a bit of a problem when the herd starts moving. Not for long though, the path is wide enough.

Then, I heard the RD start the countdown. 3, 2, 1, go!. The party had begun.

Leybourne Lakes parkrun course review – star ratings

Leybourne Lakes parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 464 parkrunners on the day of my visit to Leybourne Lakes parkrun (formerly Malling parkrun). Looking at historical attendance, this was definitely on the high side, but there are plenty of other events at or above 400 during the last 12 months. And one crazy one above 600, for the Christmas special event. With this kind of field, I cannot say I did not enjoy my run. The start was a bit busy, but there are plenty of very successful events where starting is much more of a chore. During the run there are some sections where if you want to overtake, it can get tricky. But again, you can wiggle through if you really want to. I think Leybourne Lakes parkrun can definitely continue growing a little bit, but if it consistently goes above 5/600, it might start being overcrowded.

There are no real bottlenecks around the course. No bollards or gates and most turns are pretty wide. However, in some segments, especially when going by the lakeside residential development, the path becomes a bit narrower. This is where overtaking might be a bit more complicated if you are running with a larger group.

Surface-wise, it is all hard path. Either pressed soil or pressed gravel. At the briefings they told us the path can be a bit broken up here and there, but I didn’t really notice any area of concern. Plenty of other courses with much worse surface conditions where I would still be comfortable running in road shoes. There were no puddles when I visited and, definitely no mud. In short, a great course for a comfortable run wearing faster road shoes.

Elevation-wise, 11m elevation gain over 2 laps clearly confirms this is a flat course. There are a couple of areas where it is noticeable you are running a slightly uphill or downhill gradient, but it is never meaningful. Not as flat as Battersea parkrun or Burgess parkrun, for example, but definitely flat.

Course layout is pretty simple. 2 laps around the larger lake in this system, always following the lake and always keeping the lake on your right.

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

Once it is time to go, everyone turns 90-degrees left from looking at the RD and no further movement is needed to be on the start line. A bit messy for unaware people who were standing outside the main path like me, but it normalises pretty quickly. Keep going in a straight line as well as you can and by the time you have found your place in the main group, you will be starting to leave the area with trees on both sides of the path.

Here you will join a more open segment, with moderately hilly fields to your left and trees on your right, separating you from an open view on the lake. This segment keeps going straight for a short while and then it starts incorporating wide turns that make for a beautiful visual impact. You will see runners in front as a long winding snake going through the little hills. At the end of this segment, a wide turns right gets you to the other side of the lake.

Here there will be a gentle uphill as you start getting closer to the lake, until you meet a volunteer marshalling a gentle right turn and, soon afterwards, another volunteer at a sharper right turn. This last turn marks the end of this side of the lake and the beginning of a crossing over the small land bridge between the two lakes. Beautiful views with water on both sides are to be found here, if you can spare a second to enjoy them. Since I am slow, I definitely did.

As you leave this land bridge, you enter an area running alongside a new-looking lakeside housing development. Beautiful coloured buildings that blend pretty well with the park environment. This is the most twisty and turny portion of this course and it also is where I think the path was narrowest. Fun, but overtaking was again not obvious. By the team you leave this segment, time for another short segment before turning 90-degrees right for the last long straight at the bottom of the lake.

This last straight is again pretty open, with grass on the left and good views of the lake on the right. At the end of this straight, a 90-degrees turn right gets us back in front of the cafe. Run by the back of the cafe and you are again where the original meeting place was.

The first time you get here, one more lap to go. The second time you get here, the finish funnel will have materialised where everyone was standing during the initial briefing.

Congratulations on completing Leybourne Lakes parkrun!

Facilities at Leybourne Lakes parkrun (formerly Malling parkrun)

Leybourne Lakes Country Park is a beautiful, well maintained park with a lot to offer. Granted, the great sunny day probably showed it at its best, but I really enjoyed my visit. The rangers booth shows a lot of activities being organised here and the water sports centre offers a lot too, including scuba diving. I might try that here in the near future. Has anyone done it here and can comment?

Toilets are available by the car park and they are open before 9am and clean.

As far as parkbreakfast, the cafe is by the meeting point, with a beautiful outdoor seating area what clear shines in spring and summer. It offers a decent selection of sweats and savoury options and service is not terribly slow on high attendance days.

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 Leybourne Lakes parkrun, I ordered an Oreo ice cream, a Diet Pepsi e and a single espresso. This cost me £7.25. Pricey but i guess not obscenely so, considering the prices I’ve seen recently at other events. It does seem like park cafes increase prices with the turn of the year.

Leybourne Lakes 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.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

Leybourne Lakes parkrun was a pleasant surprise. It is a really beautiful route on a park that offers a lot if you want to spend a few hours here after the main event. The cafe is also great, with the outside sitting area by the lake. As far as the run is concerned, it is a very pleasant route that could be conducive to great times.

It’s far, so I don’t know if I will come back, but this is definitely an event that could give me the motivation to come back.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Leybourne Lakes parkrun team for your hospitality! See you soon, hopefully.