Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun

This parkrunday I visited Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun for the first time. I guess I decided to go all in on the summer bucket list parkrun tourism and drove 45 minutes down the A3, after a brief return to London events last week at Beckenham Place parkrun. I think I will be back to a London event next week, but that’s a story for the future.

This week I did not have a clear plan. So, on parkrun eve I picked the trustworthy 5K app and screened through challenges to see which nearby events would give me some progress on one of the many parkrun challenges. And my attention was grabbed by Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun running a prime number event. What a great opportunity to drive down to Hampshire and check quite a few objectives. A prime number, finally connecting Queen Elizabeth parkrun to my Voronoi map and visiting this intriguing event.

Why intriguing? Because here you will have to run on real sand for several stretches, even if you are in a forest and definitely not seaside. I had been curious to visit for a while and finally it happened.

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

Trip to Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun and parking

Hogmoor Inclosure is in Bordon, East Hampshire. Not far from Farnham, if you are familiar with the area. Coming from London, driving is probably the most convenient way to reach it, but the official event page obviously lists a few other options, with special focus on local bus lines.

According to the event site, the closest stations are Liphook and Farnham. The former is served by SouthWestern and it is on the London Waterloo to Portsmouth line. The latter is also served by SouthWestern, with connections to London Waterloo and Alton. Neither is within walking distance, with Liphook at a push potentially being a start point for a long run that will include parkrun. But your warm up will be more than 5 miles! This is where the local buses suggested by the event page will come useful, I suppose.

If you are driving, things are much more convenient. Farnham is on the A3, so convenient for people coming from London or the South East. Once you leave the motorway at Farnham, the local drive will take less than 10 minutes. If you use Waze, you can input Hogmoor Inclosure Carpark as a destination and you will be directed to the right location on the long road siding the park.

The car park is free and fairly big, but the team recommends to get here before 8:40/8:45 to be sure you will find a spot. I got there at 8:30 and there were still a few available parking spots in the main car park area by the cafe, while the overflow area was still pretty much empty.

Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun: start and briefings

If you arrive by the car park, you will see the familiar parkrun banners and high-viz vests just by the side of it. Once you leave your car, walk towards the barriers with the parkrun signs. Just before the barriers, turn right to the cafe if you need toilets, if not walk through the barriers and enter the park. Here, walk up a short climb to reach a clearing. This is where the parkrun meeting point is, just next to a very big and impressively set up children play area.

The clearing is not huge in itself, but there is plenty of space to walk around and stretch around the play area or along the two main trails hailing from it.

Once it is time, the First Timers briefing is called on the edge of the clearing. While it obviously gives the usual basic information and course hints, I was pleasantly surprised by how thorough they were here in noting down milestones and locations tourists came from, to make sure everyone got a shout out during the upcoming main briefing.

The Main Briefing was then called, this time taking advantage of a good sound system. Which was needed, because I could not see the RD, but I could at least hear him clearly. After all info has been shared, everyone starts walking up one of the trails to reach the start line. It’s not a long walk, less than 50 metres, so be ready to seed yourself and get going.

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

Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun course review – star ratings

Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 250 parkrunners on the day of my visit to Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun. It was a cloudy but warm summer day, pretty good running conditions after a short period of strong rains that topped off a couple of weeks of painful heatwave. 250 is kind of in the lower quartile when it comes to the usual 220-300 range I can see for this event. Some recent events went above 300 and I have no doubt higher attendance did not make it less enjoyable. There are a few segments on narrow paths and one short bridge crossing, but it is never overly crowded.

There are no major problems along the route. Assuming you don’t see running on sand as one. Then there will be substantial ones! In terms of quirks along the course, there are several short segments that are particularly narrow. However, they are never long and the field spreads out enough that they might slow you down a bit, but never bring you to a forced walked. There is one 270-degree turn on a slope, but it is neither steep nor too narrow. The short bridge I mentioned above is truly short and fairly wide as bridges go. Finally, there is one long straight connecting the two loops where parkrunners run both ways alongside each other, but this is one of the segments where the path is widest. So it’s cool actually, the opposite of a problem.

Surface-wise, it’s a tale of two terrains. Most of the course is on forest trails and, as far as trails go, they are actually pretty good. Not many roots or rocks, you can enjoy a safe run, even on the downhills. And then there is the sandy parts. It is real sand, the kind that swallows your foot and requires more effort to run on. They are never long stretches, but there is more of them than I expected. It was fun and, certainly, fairly unique outside of the seafront events.

Elevation-wise, at 60m elevation gain over 2 laps, this is not a terribly hilly event. However, there is pretty consistent elevation change and, coupled with the sand segments requiring additional effort, I did feel the climbs more than I thought I would. The occasional short climbs come with a couple of long downhill segments that feel glorious, but you pay for them. And in a special touch of sadistic evil, the finish funnel is just after one of those climbs. Evil, reminds me of Westpark parkrun in Munich that I visited a couple of weeks ago.

In terms of course layout, it is two loops connected by a 2-way flow segment. All done twice. Pretty simple but beautiful and always fun.

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

Once it is time to go, everybody gets going on a woodland trail, with mature trees on both sides, but decent terrain. The course designers were kind, or so you will think now, because at Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun the first few 100s metres are downhill. Eventually, things flatten out and it is time to cross the first sand pit. This is literally just the bottom of a short hill, or maybe the crossing of a water overflow/little river, who knows. For us, it means that we cross if fast and then we climb a bit again to be back on a woodland trail. Sand here was also not very deep and pretty hard pressed, so you can run through it quite easily.

As you get out of that little sandy clearing, the short ramp leads into another section of woodland trails. Eventually, you reach a small wooden hut where a marshal shows everyone it is time to turn 90 degrees right. The same marshal will mark the beginning of the two way flow straight on the way back. Anyhow, as you turn right, go up a short uphill and immediately turn left again. Now you will run along a narrower path, with trees on your left and high grass separating from a bigger sandy depression down on the right.

The path is lightly ascending for a little while until it eventually starts a gradual descent and it becomes progressively more sandy. Then suddenly you see the grass on the right opening up and the path takes a gentle right turn heading towards the end of the sandy valley. We cross it again, this time going a little longer on deeper and softer sand. Then we again climb back up onto a path. This is again a narrow path surrounded by grass until we reach a 150 degree turnaround point. Not on a cone, but along a sharp corner on a downward slope. It is tight, but not hard.

Now we start the return section of the bigger loop. A nice segment on a narrow path sided by high grass, then a longer segment on open terrain, with some sand but mostly compacted gravel and trail. Another sand crossing and a short segment sided by high grass. It sounds repetitive, but while you do it, it is definitely not boring. Eventually, you climb back into the woods and run a segment surrounded by tall mature trees and a slight positive gradient until you reach the wooden hut you met before again. This time you approach it from the opposite direction you were coming from before, with no need for a sharp turn. You reach the hut, pass it and keep going, on a downhill this time. Runners coming in the other directions might be there, if you are around the middle of the pack. As you go down, you eventually reach the bigger sand crossing we had met before and this time cross it and take a right turn at the end, re-entering the woods from the rightmost path here.

We then enter the woodland again and take a long, wide semi-circle that feeds into a little bridge and a straight downhill after that. At the bottom of that hill, turn 90-degrees left for a short straight on a narrower path and then again 90-degrees left for the final narrow path crossing high grass. This eventually reaches the car park gate where we had originally entered and you need to turn left, for a last climb back to the meeting point clearing. This is where the finish funnel is, but turn towards the start at the end of the first lap and be brave. Do it all once again!

At the end of the second lap, dig into your last energies and tackle that last climb. Because after that it will be just a few metres of sprint before you are in the funnel.

Congratulations on completing Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun!

Facilities at Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun

The main hub is around the big children play area. This offers a lot for kids, including a zipline! And a lot of seating areas for parents to enjoy their parkbreakfast while the little ones run around. The cafe and toilets are between the play area and the car park, easily reachable from both sides.

Toilets are open before the event and they are clean.

The cafe is not huge, but it offers an impressive selection of sweet pastries and service is friendly and fast. I had a pistacchio croissant and it was lovely.

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 Malling Rec parkrun, I ordered a replacement Diet 7UP, a massive pistacchio croissant and an espresso. This cost me £8.6.

Hogmoor Inclosure 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

This is a pretty unique course. You don’t often get to run 5K and experience both a beautiful woodland and sand at the same time. And it is all set within a beautiful park with great facilities, a nice cafe and a very friendly local team. I really enjoyed it, even if it was tougher than I expected it to be.

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, Hogmoor Inclosure parkrun team for your hospitality!