Rushmoor parkrun

This parkrunday I visited Rushmoor parkrun for the first time. An East to West geographical jump in my parkrun tourism explorations of the South East after spending a few weeks visiting new events in Kent. Kingdom, Dartford Heath and Swanley were my last escapades, with a brief pause for the Danish special event at Amager Fælled parkrun. All wonderful in their own way, but switching around is what makes parkrun touring interesting, so it was time for Hampshire. Out of the Home Counties technically, I guess.

I didn’t really have a target event until late on parkrun eve this week. Then I noticed that Rushmoor parkrun was having a prime number event, so why not take this opportunity to go? Rushmoor had been on my target list for a while because it caused an annoying hole in my Voronoi map. Now it’s filled and London is basically connected all the way to Queen Elizabeth parkrun. My mild OCD tendencies have been placated.

For some reason I had been procrastinating a visit to this event. I had only given a quick Look at the map and thought this event would be a rather dull 2-lapper around bare playing fields. And it kind of is a 2-lapper around playing fields, but dull it is not. It is a busy, vibrant event with a course that manages to combine several different environments. It is quite beautiful, actually. I can accept I was very very wrong: thank you, pointlessly prime numbers parkrun challenge.

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

Trip to Rushmoor parkrun and parking

Rushmoor parkrun takes place in the playing fields across the road from the Army rugby stadium, alongside Queens Avenue, in Aldershot, Hampshire. I had heard Aldershot being described as the home of the British Army and as you drive to this event, you can definitely see it. All along the playing fields you can see massive barracks and military installations with barbed wire all along the length of wide, straight roads. One consequence of that is that the village proper is quite a walk away from the event.

If you are not local, reaching this even by public transport might be challenging, but not impossible. According to the official event site, a bus connects Queens Avenue to two local stations, Aldershot Railway Station and Farnborough Main Railway Station. The former is about 2.5 miles from the parkrun meeting point and it is served by Southwestern and the latter is also about 2.5 and it is served by Southwestern. Both stations offer connections to London Waterloo. If you don’t want to look for the recommended bus, it will take about 50 minutes to walk from either to the meeting point. Or a substantial warm-up jog, I guess.

If you drive, things get a bit more simple. Not far from the A3, once you have left the motorway, you have about 10 minutes along local roads before you reach Aldershot. Then it is time to drive along the military barracks and reach Queens Avenue. There seems to be a lot of car parks around here. I did not use a postcode for my GPS: I had Waze aim for Car Park 6 as recommended by the official event site. No idea if I ended up parking in the right place, I stopped at a car park along Queens Avenue about 5 minutes away from the meeting point. The car parks appeared to be free. If I get unpleasant surprises in the mail, I will sadly update this.

The event site recommends to cross Queens Avenue using dedicated pedestrian crossings because it can get pretty busy. Sensible suggestion.

Rushmoor parkrun: start and briefings

If you have parked where I did, you are just across the road from the main playing fields. Get out of the car park and survive crossing Queens Avenue, then enter the park from an opening in the fence just by the crossing. You will be on a tree lined path that leads straight to the event meeting point. This is also the final stretch of the course, leading to the finish funnel.

Once you reach the meeting point, you will find the funnel sitting by the trees and most people congregating in the green area between the tree lined perimeter path and another path departing towards the centre of the fields. The pop up sign is there, about 50m in. That’s where the start line will be.

This is a busy event, with much higher attendance levels than I expected. But most people tend to come closer to 9am, a bit like at Clapham Common parkrun. So things will look quiet until you are done with the First Timers Briefing and then you turn around and see a sea of people have appeared. Like parkrunning mushrooms.

At the right time, the speaker system called tourists and first timers to the First Timers briefing. This was efficient and welcoming, with a fairly easy course to explain. Then everyone lines up on the path behind the pop-up sign getting ready to get going. It is not a very wide path, so many people spread out on the dry, soft grass to the side. The Main Briefing then gets started, with a fun RD giving the usual welcome and quickly transitioning into the countdown.

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

Rushmoor parkrun course review – star ratings

Rushmoor parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 621 parkrunners on the day of my visit to Rushmoor parkrun. Looking at historical results, this is on the higher end of attendance levels for this event, but not a rare occurrence. A lot of parkrundays are in the mid to high 500s, but 2025 has seen several week in the 600s and even a special NY day event above 800. I have to say the course did feel pretty busy at times, but never terribly busy and even the congested start got going pretty quickly. At these attendance levels, people can definitely enjoy a great event: the buzz is worth wasting a few seconds when trying to overtake every now and then.

There aren’t any real bottlenecks around this course. After the first two segments crossing the fields, you need to get past a gate to join the pavement across the Western side of the fields. This is along a busy-ish road and the gate is not very wide, but there is also the option to run an inner path along the fields. Also, at the end of the canal segment there is a tight left turn with a positive climb which might be a bit tricky if you approach it in a big group, but again, all perfectly ok.

Surface-wise, this is a mixed path. Most of it is either tarmac paths or clear hard paths with very few rocks or roots. A few bits here and there are on grass, but most of it can be avoided in winter using the other path on pavement. When I visited it was a very dry day, so running it wearing road shoes was a pleasure. I can imagine a bit of mud will appear in winter, but I suspect this course should cope pretty well.

Elevation-wise, at 28m elevation gain over two laps, this is definitely a flat course. The cross-field segment is on a very mild positive incline and there is a little bump when you leave the canal segment, but that’s about it. Elevation and hills will not be a concern when tackling this fun, beautiful flat course.

In terms of course layout, it is pretty simple. Cross the fields, go along the long west-side edge, come back down alongside the canal and reach the mid crossing point again along a tree-lined path. Twice. Simple, but surprisingly interesting.

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

As said, everyone lines up on the path before the Main Briefing. Once the briefing approaches the end, people pack up a bit more and then the countdown arrives. From my position mid-field, there were a few seconds of walking and then slow jogging. By the time I reached the pop up sign, it was back to running, with a bit of wiggling to overtake when needed. A first straight segment soon reaches a right 45-degree bend that will head towards the trees at the edge of the fields. There is a very light positive gradient here, but nothing that should materially affect effort. Especially this early in the run. Once you reach the edge of the fields, time for a sharp left turn and we will start running with trees and a fenced area on the right. Here there are two parallel paths, one on tarmac and one on grass as overflow to be able to overtake more easily. Roughly half way through this segment, turn left and go through a gate to join the outer path on pavement.

As both groups have now joined up again, both sets of parkrunners will have to run on the other pavement for a few 100 metres. Eventually, time to turn 90-degrees left and go down a very short downhill under trees. This exits onto a canal side path, starting the next segment of this course. This bit is quite beautiful, with the canal on the right and mature trees on the left. There were a few metres of ovegrown grass between the path and the canal on the day of my visit, hindering the view a bit. Every now and then, a little spot of bigger tress provided small covered transitions breaking up the segment in a nice way. At the end, just before a beautiful bridge, you reach the end of this segment and turn hard left. This is on a small slope and it leads to a short straight crossing the tiny forest.

Once you exit it, you will join a tree-lined path running along the SE side of the park. The same path you had walked from the car park to the meeting point. Go all the way back to the meeting point and turn left to rejoining the crossing path for lap 2.

At the end of the second lap, keep going straight rather than turning left towards the crossing path. No more than 20 metres and you will have reached the finish funnel. A long one, given numbers here.

Congratulations on completing Rushmoor parkrun!

Facilities at Rushmoor parkrun

Pretty simple section to fill here: very limited facilities next to Rushmoor parkrun.

The official event site says there are available toilets near the start. They point to the Army Rugby Stadium, which is just across the road from the meeting point. I did not have time to go check, but I am sure if you arrive with a bit more spare time you can go there if you need to.

For parkbreakfast, they say most parkrunners go to the Tesco Cafe in Aldershot. I walked 10 minutes in the recommended direction and did not find it. I guess it I must be a bit further away and totally fine, but I preferred getting back into my car and stopping on the way. Maybe it’s a big Tesco Extra and most people drive to it, I don’t know.

Rushmoor 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 really enjoyed my first visit to Rushmoor parkrun. Don’t be fooled by the basic look of the course map as I was, this is anything but a boring run around the fields. Plenty of different sections and environments to run through and a big, buzzing community. It is a great event!

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, Rushmoor parkrun team for your hospitality!