Swanley parkrun

This parkrunday I felt pulled towards East London and the closest option was my NENDY, Swanley parkrun. There were no particular challenge chasing reasons, but I wanted to visit a new location after two consecutive repeats recently at Hazelwood parkrun and Riddlesdown parkrun.

Swanley parkrun has been my NENDY for a while. I guess that’s an indication that the NENDY idea stops being relevant after you have visited pretty much all events in a 20 miles radius. And that having it measured in a straight line can be misleading. I am pretty sure it would take me less to reach the LonDone+ venues I am still missing in the NW corner of the M25, compared to Swanley parkrun.

LonDone + deserves a mention of its own. There are 80 events on the list now and I have visited 72. SW is complete, SE and NW on the way. Living in Wimbledon I dread travelling all the way to the NE events, but eventually I will get there. Journey before destination.

Swanley parkrun does not get discussed often, but it is a real gem. Definitely, read on if you are not too far away, because you should definitely visit. It’s in a beautiful park and and the route is genuinely unusual: you need to try it to understand it, but once you are in it, it makes a lot of sense. In the area, Lullingstone parkrun takes most of the fame because of the beautiful lavender fields, but Swanley deserves a mention for sure.

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

Trip to Swanley parkrun and parking

Swanley Park is a medium size green space just outside the SE boundaries of London. It offers a lot and of course it is the location for Swanley parkrun. Interestingly, the official event site provides a Bromley postcode for it, and that postcode gets you to where you want to go, kind of. However, regardless of the postcode Swanley is not part of the London Borough of Bromley, but a full constituent of the Sevenoaks District, in Kent.

According to the official event site, the closest station is Swanley, served by Southeastern. This has frequent connections to London Blackfriars, London Victoria, Sevenoaks, Ashford International and Maidstone. Well served indeed. However, once you are there you still have about 30 minutes to go if you want to walk to Swanley parkrun meeting point.

Driving here is also very convenient if you are coming from anywhere in the South East. Swanley Park sits within the M25, roughly at the midpoint of it s SE quadrant. South of the Dartford Crossing, in case you want to avoid the annoying toll. Once you reach the area by car following the postcode provided by the event page, you will be lead to a small road that goes along most of the park. A few minutes after the GPS tells you you have reached your destination, you will find a car park. I say ‘a’ car park, because I was guided to the one furthest from the meeting point. No drama, it is just 5 minutes walk away, but reaching the meeting point required a bit of navigating using the 5K app ‘get me there’ function.

The car parks at Swanley Park are free for up to 2 hours. If you want to stay longer than that, you need to pay online. The app used in this car park was one I had never seen before, but if you scan the QR code on the sign it leads you to a website where you can easily do it without downloading another piece of online junk.

Swanley parkrun: start and briefings

If you have driven there and followed the postcode like I did, you might be coming from the car park that is further away from the meeting point. Enter the park and you will be in a large round green field. Cut through it diagonally until you reach a tree-lined area. Cross the train tracks and you will see the meeting point up a little hill from there.

This is not a busy event, so until pretty close to 9am there were more volunteers than normal parkrunners and parkwalkers on the day of my visit. If you need to use the toilets before the event, you will need to walk down to the cafe by the lake. Back and forth walking might take up to 5-10 minutes, so bear that in mind before attempting it if it’s late.

The RD gave both the First Timers and the Main Briefings on the day of my visit. The former was a rather intimate affair with no real first timers and a few tourists. It focused on the course, with an attempt to explain it but, mostly, a promise. While you are on it, it will make sense. And it did. On top of that, special mention for the many marshals it takes to make this event clear. All turning points are marshalled and all volunteers were wonderfully welcoming and friendly.

Afterwards, everyone walks onto the path, a few metres down and start lining up for the start. This is were the Main Briefings was held quickly and efficiently.

Then, I heard the RD start the countdown. ‘3, 2, 1, go!’. It was time to go.

Swanley parkrun course review – star ratings

Swanley parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 53 parkrunners on the day of my visit to Swanley parkrun. Before things got going, it definitely felt like an intimate affair, with nearly 1 volunteer every 2 parkrunners. However, when things got going, it never felt lonely. If I look at historical attendance, I would dare say that the event I attended was below average for a spring event, but not terribly far from expected. The last few events saw fields of around 80-90 people, while winter events were more around 40-50. I suspect the bank holiday weekend plus horrible weather might have affected attendance. Could Swanley parkrun take more people? Sure, maybe even 150-200, but if it really were to explode in popularity, the many loops and the out and back section might become very congested.

There aren’t any real bottlenecks around this course, but there areas to keep in mind. First of all it is a course made up of 3 portions all connected by one central crossing hub. A lot of people will be coming and going through there, so pay attention. I have not seen any issue on my visit, but worth keeping it in mind. Then, roughly half way through the out and back straight there are a couple of bollards. Well signposted and wide: again, not a big issue once you know they are there.

Surface-wise, this is a mixed path, but most of it is on grass. It starts with a downhill straight on tarmac, but the tarmac was wet enough that most people, me included, choose to run on the grassy verges of the path. After that, it is mostly grass with some sections of hard path. While it was raining, we are at the end of May after a dry spell, so running on grass was pleasant and there was no mud. I can imagine, however, how this course might be an interesting mud bath during winter. When I went there, I ran with road shoes and they were totally fine.

Elevation-wise, this course was more undulating than expected. At 54m over 2 laps, there is not going to be any massive hill, but there are a couple of mild ones in the second and third sections of the course. It’s not going to be killing you, but you will notice them.

In terms of course layout, Swanley parkrun looks weirder than it actually is. You will run 2 laps made of of 3 segments all connected in a central area. The first segment is a straight out and back. The second segment is a flat lap around a meadow with a small climb at the end. The third segment is more cross country, with a grassy crossing of a hill and a climb under trees.

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

After the briefing, everybody transitions quickly into the run, with a comfortable start. And it is downhill, so that will add to the start line enthusiasm. When I was there, it had been raining all night and the short tarmac path was wet and slippery, so many people preferred running on the grassy sides. You will soon reach the foot of the hill and turn hard right, transitioning on grass for a short uphill stretch up to a tree-covered area.

This is the start of the first of three loops that make this course up. The first one will be a straight out and back on hard path. It is straight and roughly flat, with a clearing in the middle where you have a small depression you go down into and then back up from. Midway you turn around a pin with a nice volunteer cheering you up and then you go back all the way. This will create a 2-way running section. It is wide enough not to be annoying, so you can focus on enjoying the busy feeling it creates.

Once you are all the way back, you reach the ‘central switch point’ again and turn left once more, to enter a big open field. This is the field you crossed to reach the meeting point if you parked where I did. Head up a small hill on grass, then keep going around the edges of the field on a pleasant grassy running surface. Once you have passed the mid point of the field, after leaving the car park behind you, stray onto a hard path for a short straight section. At the end of it, when the path turn right towards the central switch point again, it becomes uphill again for a short while.

Once you reach the top and and the central point again, turn left once more. 90-degrees this time, so you will run a short straight along the train line and across the bottom of the hill you ran down from after the start. Reach the edge of the children play area and turn 90-degrees right for a short uphill before turning 90-degrees left again and enter the third loop of this course. The first section is quite beautiful, crossing diagonally across a hill on grass, with the lake on your left.

When you have reached the other side, turn right and transition onto a hard path again. Good surface without many rocks or roots. This path is mostly under tree-cover, with a light climb followed by a flat section before a slightly steeper climb. At the end, you reach another volunteer and cross back into the open grassy hill, at the top of the hill you cut through before. Run a short straight at the top of the hill before turning right and head downhill towards the central switch point by the rail line.

At the bottom, turn left and head towards the little bridge where the three segments come together. Turn left again into the out and back segment to start your second lap.

Do it all again to get through your second lap. At the end of it, once you reach the central area once more, turn hard left onto the tree-lined path you came down from at the very beginning. Yes, this is an evil uphill finish. Fight for your life uphill for about 50/60 metres and the finish funnel will be there waiting for you.

Congratulations on completing Swanley parkrun!

Facilities at Swanley parkrun

Swanley Park is not huge, but it packs a lot in it. Besides the obvious, it has a working train line for kids, a splash pool, kiddie karts and an impressive outdoor play area. It definitely can keep you busy for a little while after parkrun.

Toilets are 20 metres past the cafe. They are clean and plentiful, but bear in mind the little walk from the start line. Especially if you have not parked your car by the cafe.

The cafe is fenced off, but easily accessible and it offers decent choices, both sweet and savoury. It also offers a lot of outdoor seating, which will be great when spring and summer also start featuring that alien yellow ball in the sky we rarely see in this country.

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 Swanley parkrun, I ordered a brownie, a diet coke and a single espresso. This cost me £7.1. God bless events out of London. Just a couple of years ago I would have considered this expensive, but these days we have started seeing 10+ bills for similar orders in town

Swanley 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

My first visit to Swanley parkrun was definitely a surprise. I found a very attractive location with a great, large local team and a quirky course that combined a lot of different good thinks in one cohesive whole. I think this is definitely an event worth visiting if you like parkrun tourism, it is unique in its own way.

I would love to come back and who knows, maybe something in the future will bring me to the area once again.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Swanley parkrun team for your hospitality!