Hadleigh parkrun

Last parkrunday I visited Hadleigh parkrun for the first time. Reaching the Northern side of the Thames Estuary in Essex was quick a trip from my base in Wimbledon, a change from my usually touristing grounds in the South and South West. I had not been parkrunning in Essex since my visit to ARU Writtle parkrun a couple of months ago.

However, this weekend was supposed to be a sunny, clear one and I wanted to find a location where I could relax and bask in the views. There is a custom challenge on the parkrun app (former 5k app) called ‘Scenic splendour’. Someone put the effort to collect what he thought were the most beautiful parkruns in the UK. I used to be a supporter of the app, so I can still subscribe to custom challenges and went to it to find the closest ‘splendid parkrun’ to me. And this was it!

I have not visited many events in Essex, only 5. But all the time I circumnavigated London to come to this side of the country, I have found beautiful, green events. I think I will have to pace it, because distance and lazy man, but I will try to come over more often.

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

Trip to Hadleigh parkrun and parking

Let me bring you into some heart shattering knowledge: Hadleigh parkrun takes place in Hadleigh Country Park. It is a gorgeous, large green space sitting just North of the Thames in Benfleet. The location in Essex is not far from London, just out of the M25 and South East of Basildon.

According to the official event site, if you decide to come by public transport, the closest available train station is Benfleet. This small, local train station is operated by C2C and if offers regular connections to London Fenchurch Street, Basildon and Southend. The station is about 2.5 miles away from Hadleigh parkrun’s meeting point, a good distance away. The event site calls it ‘a pleasant walk’, so maybe it could add to the scenic value of this event, but it will still take you nearly 1h, at least according to google maps.

Using local buses, google maps suggest you could cut this leg of your trip to 40 minutes. Still substantial. Since I was coming all the way from the other side of London, I drove to Hadleigh parkrun.

Proximity to London means that road connections to the area are pretty good. As you leave the M25, you will be transitioning onto the A13, getting past Basildon and eventually to Benfleet. When I left the motorways network, I found myself driving through local residential areas for shorter than 10 minutes. This is where I stopped doubting my GPS was bringing me to the right place. Even 1 minute away from final destination, I was driving through small residential streets. I was wondering how a major park could suddenly appear after the next corner.

But it did. Eventually I took a right turn, and saw signs pointing to the Hadleigh Country Park. Keep driving through the gates and turn right to reach the local car park.

Hadleigh parkrun: start and briefings

The car park is fairly substantial and I think definitely more than enough to accomodate numbers at Hadleigh parkrun on a normal day. However, if there ever were reasons for a larger field day, bear in mind that this Country Park offers a lot of activities to non parkrunners too, so it could get busy.

I was there around 8:40, and on the day of my visit there was still plenty of space in the car park. The car park is not free and you can pay for it at machines or using one of the parking apps. Once you leave the car park, walk around the Hub buildings and you will see volunteers and parkrun flags on top of the hill right in front of you.

Climb the hill and take a few minutes to bask in the gorgeous views of the Estuary. Then, if you have something to leave before the event, walk another 200m to the finish line, where you are supposed to leave your stuff. Yes, at this event the start line and the finish line are not exactly in the same place.

Both the New Joiners and the Main Briefing are held on grass, on the hill. It was slightly windy and very open, so while I could follow the small New Joiners briefing, I could not follow the main briefing properly. After the briefing, everybody walks just a few metres to the main path crossing the hill and wait for the start.

After a short countdown, the time came. Parkrun.

Hadleigh parkrun course review – star ratings

Hadleigh parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 121 parkrunners on the day of my first visit to Hadleigh parkrun. A sunny June day after a couple of weeks of persistent rain, this was an ideal day to visit this gorgeous hilltop location. However, attendance levels did not seem to be affected by lucky weather: I guess the event is known locally for being a remarkably hard one and not one for every parkrunday. Looking at historical attendance levels, this seems to be exactly in the middle of average attendance: depending on the week, anything between 100 and 180 seems to be fair game. The event could definitely take a larger field, it is one lap after all, but it’s not one that would cope well with huge attendance levels. There is a lot of downhill in relatively narrow paths, so too many people could make it a bit cumbersome. With these number of people, the meeting point on a green hilltop is glorious and the run is a pleasure.

Congestion is never a problem, but you do feel a bit of it after the first couple of turns. The path is decent enough, but it starts going downhill, with plenty of twists and turns quite soon. If you are in the middle of the pack, you will find overtaking and finding your own pace group a bit difficult for 1/200 metres. However, after that, it is never a problem. Some bits might be on the narrow side to overtake further on through the course, but it’s never consistent not impossible. It’s a great route and you will have a pleasant run here. At least as far as congestion is concerned

The course crosses several gates. In all cases, there is a wide gate to the left with some weird metal bars (a drainage system? Or something to stop cows from wandering around? No idea) and a normal door-shaped opening to the right. Everyone will be invited to go through the door opening to avoid tripping up, creating a series of potential bottlenecks. They were never a problem on the day of my visit though.

Surface-wise, most of the course is compacted gravel on trails. The trail part of it is fairly civilised: you will encounter the occasional larger rock or tree root, but it’s nearly never something to be conscious about. The gravel part of it though is worth a mention: more than once I found the downhill segment quite slippery, especially once you have left the initial S curves. At some points, slippery enough to regret I was running in road shoes. Be smarter than me and come wearing trail shoes if you can: I am sure I would have enjoyed the downhill more with them.

Elevation-wise, at 108m elevation gain over a single lap, Hadleigh parkrun is definitely hilly. Very hilly, essentially never flat. The route is quite simple: you start on top of a hill, go down and then, unfortunately, go back up. The downhill is technical enough to keep you alert and the uphill, while shorter, is quite painful. No, you will not get a PB out of Hadleigh parkrun and those last 750m will be burnt into your memory. But it is worth it, even if the final climb feels quite sadistic: at least it is not half down, half up like Wendover Woods parkrun.

In terms of course layout, it is quite simple. Start on top of a hill and go down a short segment with S-curves before starting a long downhill in the woods. At the bottom, turn around to reach even lower level and start a long fake-flat, leading to the final turn. This is where you will start the climb back. Shorter, hence steeper!

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

After the start, everybody starts running on the path cresting the hill. It is roughly flat for a short while, then it turns left and through a small S-section it reaches the woods. As you get here, you pass the area where the finish funnel will be. This first 100 metres will feel a bit busy, especially on the turns, but there is enough room to get off the paths and overtake if you need it. Once you get past the finish funnel, you get out of tree-cover and start a fairly distinctive segment: a series of two wide switchback turns going down from the top of the hill overlooking the estuary and back into the woods.

Those switchbacks are fun and give a nice view on the snake of parkrunners and the drop to the estuary. The turns are fairly steep and this was the first spot where I felt trail shoes would have been better for this event. As you run or stumble back into the woods, the path narrows and the event turns into a woodland trail run. On a long, fun downhill stretch, for now at least. Enjoy it while you can, because payback is coming!

The trail section will last more or less until the mid point. It is mostly downhill, under the trees and on a path that can accomodate roughly 3 people abreast. It alternates deep downhills and false flats, mostly. However, there are a couple of breaks in the downhill profile, peppering in a few steep but short uphill segments. The first one comes after a turn and one of the main unusual gates that you will go through during your attempt at besting Hadleigh parkrun.

Eventually, you will reach one more 90 degrees left turn, roughly half way through the course. You might think this is the bottom of the hill, but not yet. After a short straight you get onto another series of long downhill switchbacks: fun and welcome surprise! At the bottom, you are now at the bottom and at the start of a long crossing to roughly go back towards the area of the start. It’s a long crossing parallel to the the marshes and train line separating us from the Thames Estuary.

This section is mostly in the open, without tree cover, except a few small wooded spots here and there. It was a hot, sunny day and I definitely felt the sun on my back. It was nice when I stopped in a shaded area to take a picture of the cows chilling on a field on the right. After a few long, open turns and crossing of big scenic fields, you will eventually get to a final gate. As you get through it, it is time for a 90-degrees left turn back into the woods. And this is were payback comes. Did you enjoy the long downhill? Yeah, no deal with it, it is time to go back up. The first uphill does not look very steep on pictures and videos, but it is actually painful. Relentless. I walked a big chunk of it, no shame admitting it.

After a couple of longer straight segments, you will go through one more gate and back into a more traily bit. Here elevation change becomes more manageable, with some ups and some false flats. Trails are narrower, trees denser. It’s not long until you came out onto the initial hill switchbacks. Go through two of them before reaching the final left turn heading the finish funnel. Obviously, since you need to pay for the fun you had at the beginning, the last 15/20 metres are again uphill. Because, why not right? 🙂

And then you are finally going through the finish funnel, in a nice tree-covered clearing. Yes, enjoy the shade and collapse, no one will judge you for it.

Congratulations on completing Hadleigh parkrun!

Facilities at Hadleigh parkrun

Hadleigh Park was used for the Olympics mountain bike events. While this could tell you something about the course waiting for you, at this stage let’s just talk about other activities happening in the park. There are facilities dedicated to off road cycling and it still to be quite popular with locals. On top of that, around the Hub Cafe, there are some nice play areas, a skate park and plenty of green fields and wooded areas to hike around.

Toilets are open before the event and they can be found in the courtyard of the Hub area, alongside the cafe and a few other areas mostly dedicated to cycling.

The cafe is well appointed, with nice indoor and outdoor seating areas. Food options are mostly based on a ‘pre-cooked’ cafeteria-style stand. The pastries were warm and good, but choice is fairly limited.

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 Hadleigh parkrun, I ordered a Sprite, a good pain au chocolat and a very mediocre espresso. This cost me around £5.5, very decent considering recent prices around the South East.

Hadleigh 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 will start with a resounding recommendation to come to Hadleigh parkrun. It is a special event, with great views, open spaces and a course that can be a lot of fun if you come knowing what to expect. I think go for one of two extreme if you can: warm and sunny for undisturbed beauty or dark and stormy for a Byronesque parkrun experience. 🙂

It is a tougher course than you might expect, but it’s worth it. And while course design definitely shows some sadistic instincts, they actually did pretty well making the uphill shorter than the downhill. No PB for sure, but a lot of fun.

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