Hazelwood parkrun

Last parkrunday, I’ve visited Hazelwood parkrun for the second time. It was not my plan, but on parkrun eve I found out I would need to be in Richmond before 11am to run some annoying errands. So off my long distance plans went and I scrambled to find a location that would allow me to do that.

For a brief while I considered Old Deer Park parkrun, Richmond parkrun or Crane Park parkrun. I have visited all 3 a few times and maybe I could take the opportunity to take one little step forward towards moving my P-Index from 6 to 7. But that’s a long journey that would require re-running several events and that’s not really the mind space I am in at the moment. Motivation comes from exploration these days.

Since I achieved the Surrey Regionnaire status a few weeks ago after visiting Guilford parkrun, I was already planning to re-visit the 3 Surrey events not covered on this site yet.. The other two are on the Southern edges of London rather than West, so the choice easily fell on Hazelwood parkrun. The other two are also very hilly and I was not in a climbing mood this time.

I visited Hazelwood parkrun last time in October 2022, a messy time in terms of personal life. I did not have very positive memories of it. I mostly remember it as a rather uninspiring 3 lapper around rugby pitches, similar to Old Deer Park parkrun or Walthamstow parkrun. And yes, this course is not scenic, but after visiting once more, the course is not as bad as I remembered. It is enjoyable, it has some variety and a great team of volunteers and locals. Just do not expect scenic views and varied surfaces.

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

Trip to Hazelwood parkrun and parking

The event takes place at the Hazelwood Centre, a multi-sport but rugby-focused large sports centre in Sunbury on Thames, just at the edges of South-West London. Sunbury on Thames is within the M25, roughy in the SW corner, tucked between Ashford and Esher. And very close to the M3 motorway.

According to the official event site, the closest train station is Sunbury station. The station is served by Southwestern, with frequent connections with London Waterloo. It is, however, not a stop called by expressed services, so it is not the fastest connection. Once you reach the station, google maps suggest it will be a 20 minutes walk to reach the Hazelwood Centre. Bus alternatives are also available from Kingston, Staines or Brentford and they are indicated on the official event site. Or you can use the always great Citymapper app.

If you are driving, the Hazelwood Centre has a decent size free car park on site. I guess if numbers were to explode, parking could become an issue, but at the moment it is more than enough for this event’s average field size. If coming from London, M3 or A3/M3 combos make the trip very convenient, at least on the way there. As it is often the case, leaving might be a different story, especially considering how messy the A3 can be these days.

Once you leave your car in front of the squat building that hosts the London Irish facilities and club house, just walk through the passage in the middle and alight on the other side, where Hazelwood parkrun meeting point is.

Hazelwood: start and briefings

When you are leaving the car park, approach the main doors of the club building. If you need to use the toilets, enter via the main doors, if not, just walk through the open air cut through and you will reach the courtyard area in front of the rugby pitches. This is where Hazelwood parkrun meeting point is.

The cut through and the side of the building offer some useful protection from rain and wind if it is a bad weather day. If not, walk around this nice and spacious open space while you wait for things to start.

The First Timers and the Main briefings both take place in that open space. The First Timers briefing was welcoming and comprehensive, with a useful print out of the route to help people understand how many laps of which lop everyone will have to do. That said, as it often is the case, unless you are going to be first, just follow the person in front of you and you will not get lost.

Soon afterwards, the Main Briefing started, not far from where the previous one was. A good time focused on milestones and tourists, which some people coming from pretty far away. I think I heard one visitor was from Bermuda: impressive. Once this is done, everybody starts working to the far corner of the first mini-loop, or about 300m away. Once there, people can line up for a wide open start on grass.

Then, after waiting 30 seconds for a couple of late comers, I heard the RD start the countdown. 3, 2, 1, go!. The party had begun.

Hazelwood parkrun course review – star ratings

Hazelwood parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 158 parkrunners on the day of my last visit to Hazelwood parkrun. Scrolling through historical attendance levels, this could be a record, or at least it is the highest in quite a long time. It never felt busy: the course could handle twice that quite easily, with the only choke points being the transitions between different fields. Attendance seems to be around 100 historically, with a few forays towards 150 with good weather. Which makes sense for a course fully run on grass.

As already said above, it’s hard to identify any bottleneck around this course. The start line is wide, on grass: no issues at all there. The transition into the third field goes through a small cut among trees, so if you are approaching it in the very middle of the pack, maybe you have to slow down a little bit. But I doubt it can get very problematic. When starting the first longer lap I met a van that was unloading some sports equipment. Not an issue, but that was probably the tightest spot I encountered.

Surface-wise, 95% of the course is on grass, with a short straight on high performance tarmac. A sprinting lane for warm-ups? Anyway, see it is all grass. The grass is cut short, so the feeling is like running on dirt paths with some additional softness to it. Kind of ideal if not muddy or not excessively dry and dusty. When I visited conditions were pretty great, so road shoes were totally fine. If muddy or very wet, I suspect you want to come wearing trail shoes.

Elevation-wise, 38m elevation gain over 2.3 laps is not a lot, but I would have expected to notice it a bit more. Instead, the route felt nearly completely flat. I did not notice any real elevation, so I will class this is a flat course. Never mind what Garmin and Strava say.

Course layout here is pretty simple. You start with one full lap of the first rugby pitches enclosure just in front of the meeting point. When you finish the first lap, you keep going and start two long laps, including two more nearby sections. So, 2.3x laps, roughly.

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

Hazelwood parkrun offers a very comfortable start, wide and open. When you start, you run South alongside the fenced border of the first cluster of rugby pitches. You soon reach its end, turn left 90 degrees and run in front of the clubhouse. Then another 90 degrees turn left to go back up along the same area. Here, you can briefly enjoy a short paved ‘lane’ with excellent responsive surface. Leave the paved lane then for a short section on gravel before turning left again and finish the short loop. The second and turn time you will reach this point, remember not to turn, but keep going straight.

Keep going on this straight between clusters of pitches and turn left again at the end. Technically, this is where you end the first short loop. Run 3/4 of it again to get to the point where I wrote above to remember not to turn. Do just that and go straight and you will enter the new part of the bigger loop. Once you start running besides the second cluster of pitches, the path opens up even further, offering a transition to greener surroundings. At the end of the straight section, turn left again and quickly descend towards the manned gates leading to the third field.

Here you quickly cross through the trees separating the two sections and enter the third field. This is connected to the rest of the course only by this gate. Hence, you run around all 4 laps before coming back to the gate, cross it again and this time turn right after exiting back at the top of the second field.

Once you are back on the second field, run a short straight to get back at the top of the long segment, where you will start a long straight getting you all the way back to the club house. Nearly completely straight, with the exception of a short S-section at the junction between cluster 2 and cluster 1.

Once you reach the left turn going in front of the club-house for the second time (or first after a long loop), turn left again and do it all again. Once you come back here for the third time, keep going straight for a wider turn following a path laid out by cones. After the wide turn, run along the club house until you reach the finish funnel positioned at the opposite end of this area.

Congratulations on completing Hazelwood parkrun!

Facilities at Hazelwood parkrun

The Hazelwood Centre, also known as the home of London-Irish, is first and foremost a rugby club. With facilities developed around the evolution of a large club house. Hence, functional but fairly spartan when compared to other locations.

Toilets are available and clean. They were open before and after the event and accessible from the main doors of the club house from the car park side.

After the run, parkrunners can use the club house for some calories and drinks. As a clubhouse, do not expect fancy pastries, but you can choose between bacon baps and sausage baps. Average to low quality and overpriced.

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 Hazelwood parkrun, I ordered a bacon bap, a coke-like soda and a single espresso. This cost me £10. Absurd price to be honest.

Hazelwood 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

I enjoyed my second visit to Hazelwood parkrun much more than my first. This is not a scenic venue, but if visited every now and then, it can be very enjoyable. The team is great, local runners are great and the course is more interesting than it might seem. There is some variety and it starts getting a bit repetitive only at the very end of the third lap.

Will I be back again? It’s not far from my base in Wimbledon, so I would not be surprised if I did.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Hazelwood parkrun team for your hospitality, once again! See you soon, hopefully.