Green Park parkrun

Last parkrunday I came back to Berkshire and visited Green Park parkrun in Reading for the first time.

A return home after visiting Vingis parkrun in Vilnius, Lithuania last week and Milano Nord parkrun the week before. And I could definitely feel the succession of heathwaves is taking a break, for the first time in many many weeks! What a pleasant way to come back to formerly tropical South East England: sunny, but we could breath!

The trip to Green Park parkrun had been planned for quite a while. I was one of those obsessed tourists the RD mentioned in her introduction: I was there to grab a 19 for my (golden) Wilson Index. 18 still missing, but when I will hopefully get that one too in a few weeks, the golden index will jump all the way to 20, maybe even 21. It is starting to be hard to wait and visit a new event in the South East only when it reaches a WI number I need: I might have to start doubling up visits.

My last visit to Berkshire was a few months ago, when I went to California Country parkrun and had a great time. I really like this part of the country: I think I will come back a bit more often. One further motivation to do that is that I unexpectedly realised that I have now visited 6 out of 12 events in this county. Might be a near term candidate to add to my newly launched parkrun Regionnaire Hub. For now, detailed data and rankings are only available for LonDone, but LonDone+ and Surrey will hopefully follow soon.

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

Trip to Green Park parkrun and parking

Green Park parkrun takes place in a slightly unusual place, a business park. Green Park Business Park sits on the South Eastern outskirts of Reading, in Berkshire. It is a modern, self contained area with a dedicated train station and close to major motorways.

According to the official event site, the closest station is Reading Green Park. The station is managed by Great Western and it is a local connection hub opened in 2023 on the Reading to Basingstoke line, offering links between the two every 30 minutes. From where I am in Wimbledon, a train to Basingstoke and a connection to Reading Green Park would apparently be faster than going straight to Reading. Once you reach the station, you will still be just shy of 20 minutes walk away from Green Park parkrun meeting point.

I would also point out that Reading station is connected to London by the Elizabeth Line. If you decide to visit from the capital taking advantage of this unusual Tube link, once you get there you will be 2.7 miles from the meeting point. So about 1h walk or 20 minutes by bus.

I drove to Green Park parkrun. Getting to Reading is pretty easy from most places. For me, from South West London, it was pretty much all major motorways until I had to exit heading for Reading Green Park. Once you get closer, things are slightly more confusing, because the business park is quite large and surrounded by an industrial park and the facilities surrounding Reading stadium.

However, keep following the GPS and you will get in the general area of the car park recommended on the official event site. The sprawling business park has a lot of car parks, so a volunteer was there to tell me I wasn’t in the right place when I reached the one indicated by GPS. I had to drive a little further, reach a roundabout and then I saw a yellow parkrun sign in the distance to the left. Once I got there, more volunteers were there to confirm I had found the correct destination.

The car park is part outside, part a multistory one and it is free. Leave the car park with time to spare, because the meeting point is about 10 minutes walk away. The event site suggests a second potential car park, by the cafe. This is, however, further away from the meeting point and the route to it will not be signposted.

Green Park parkrun: start and briefings

Once you leave the car park, plenty of yellow signs will help you reach your destination. You will soon be in the greener core of the business park and by the central lake. Keep following the twisty and turny route, a nice indication of the run route to come. After passing a paddling boats dock and a wooden bridge, you will suddenly reach a clearing around a small hill. This is your destination, you have reached Green Park parkrun meeting point.

Volunteers meet on top of the hill and everyone else roams around it, with the starting funnel set up at the bottom, between hill and lake.

The First Timers Briefing was given just off the top of the hill: it was friendly and welcoming and gave some highlights about the route, but it did not attempt to provide a turn by turn description. Understandably, because this is a really funky route and any attempt to describe it in too much detail would have been forgotten after a couple of minutes.

Once it’s nearly time to go, the RD started giving the Main Briefing from the top of the hill using a good loudspeaker. The main focus was on respecting the pace seeding system at the start and to remind everyone that on this course you need to keep the left. Paths are usually fairly narrow and speedy runners will pop up overtaking fairly quickly. Also, worth pointing out start and finish lines are on opposite sides of the central lake, similarly to Crane Park parkrun. But here there is a bridge linking them: if you want to leave some bags or clothes, you need to leave them by the finish funnel.

When it’s time, with everyone at the start line, a few steps to get closer to the start line and it will be time to go.

Here it was. 3, 2, 1.

Time to go!

Green Park parkrun parkrun course review – star ratings

Green Park parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 336 parkrunners on the day of my visit to Green Park parkrun. At its 19th event, Green Park parkrun seems to have found its long term stable attendance level, after peaking above 600 for the inaugural and above 500 for a few events. Over the last few events attendance seems to be relatively stable in a 3-400 range, even with a consistent flow of tourists still discovering this new, interesting event. Now, let’s bring the elephant in the room into the spotlight: Green Park parkrun is, mostly, run on narrow paths and pavements. So also with a field in the mid 300, it will feel busy at times. I don’t want to imagine what 633 looked like. I think 3/400 could be a healthy field size and, hopefully, it does not grow too much.

As per above, this is a course of many bottlenecks. Paths are generally narrow while in the green centre, with a tight 120-degrees turn onto a public pavement very soon after the start. Then, within the green core, you will have to cross 4 bridges throughout your run. They are not super narrow, but they are still bridges. To top it all up, one unusual bottleneck is provided by a bus stop: fun feature, but try not to board a bus by mistake! Congestion is a real thing around this course: do not come here thinking you will hit a PB, just come knowing this one is about enjoying an unusual and quirky experience.

Surface is quite consistent. The green core of the course is run on hard paths and the escapades around the business park are on tarmac public pavements. Generally, surface is pretty good and a pleasure to run on. I don’t think mud will be a major concern on this course and I got the feeling these new paths will also drain pretty well keeping puddles relatively at bay. I ran in road shoes and I think they should be perfectly fine for Green Park parkrun all year around.

Elevation-wise, at 20m elevation gain over one and a half laps, this is a flat course. Most elevation changes are ramps onto higher pavements or paths. There is a little ramp soon after the start, before going out onto the public pavement. Then there will be another similar short ramp onto the path at the end of the section through the core green area by the lake. After a longer detour on pavements, after a tight turn, there is a short but fun downhill going back towards the lake. All these are short enough not to be a material problem, but they keep the course interesting.

In terms of scenic value, Green Park is neither stunning nor mediocre. It is unusual. The central green core is beautiful and it offers a few, short views of a nice lake. However, you are nearly always running by office buildings. These are modern, well maintained and elegant, so they blend well with the natural area. Then you have some sections of pavement: the first one is quick, but the second one all around the Southern section of the park benefits from wide views over green fields. Or yellow, now, but that’s temporary, I guess. It’s a novelty parkrun, well worth a visit.

This course is easier to understand while you are in it than from a description. You start with a short sections leading to a path and then go back to the green core circuits. Then complete a long lap within and outside the green core. Once you are half way through the inner circuit, you cross a bridge and turn left to run half of the loop again. The second time you cross that bridge, you turn right for another inner segment leading to the finish funnel. As said, start and finish lines are on opposite sides of the lake.

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

At the start, the funnel is seeded by expected pace, with clear signs laid out by the team. And it is needed: I am not sure what part of the walking start was due to the pack coming closer and what was due to a slow congested start. I guess a bit of both. Nothing comparable to Fulham Palace where you can have a picnic while you wait for your turn to go, just a few seconds. You then run on a path alongside the lake in a straight line for 2/300 metres, before it starts a gentle climb. As a general rule, when I say ‘run around the lake’, here it means running alongside it, but with a line of vegetation in between, with obstructed views over it. When the climb starts, you quickly see it will be short and it will feed onto a public footpath.

You will quickly reach the top and turn hard left. Here the footpath runs alongside a road with sparse traffic, but the team have set up a ribbon to make sure nobody strays on it. The pavement section is not long and soon you reach another hard left turn, where after a steeper downhill you are again in the green core of the park. Now, a flat, irregular segment starts. You will run roughly alongside the opposite side of the lake from the start, wiggling along a series of office buildings and a lot of twists and turns.

After a short while, you will pass a larger bridge on your left. This is where you will reach back into the loop after the first long lap. Keep going now and turn left to face the lake in all its beauty for once. Then you quickly turn right again and keep running along the front of the office buildings for a while more. At the end of this segment, a hard 90-degrees turn right along the side of a building gets you to the end of the built up area. Turn right, run up a short incline and then along the pavement on the side of the building. At the end turn right again and climb a short ramp towards the next pavement section. When up, turn nearly 180 degrees and get onto a long pavement straight.

This will be a very large semicircle. Go straight for a decent segment and pass the marshalled bus stop. Do not hop on the bus. Proceed through the wide turn left. This whole section is in the open, with meadows on your left and an internal road on your right. Once you start having trees on your left again, you only have 100m to go before another very sharp left turn allows you to leave the pavement again.

Enjoy the short downhill after the turn and you will soon be at lake level again. Here, more of the sneaky path next to office buildings, but this time trees are bigger, more even more atmospheric. After a few twists and turns, a slight longer straight with grass on your right leads you to a path where you turn right, heading for a substantial bridge. Cross it and on the other side you will have to turn right to run the ‘little loop’ again.

The second time you cross that bridge, turn right for the final segment towards the finish line. I expected it to be short, but you will have to run another little while along green paths before reaching another bridge. This is narrower and as you cross it you will be less than 10m away from the finish funnel. Climb the little hill separating you from it and it’s done.

Congratulations on completing Green Park parkrun!

Facilities at Green Park parkrun

Facilities available for parkrunners are fairly limited at Green Park parkrun. There are no toilets near the start and the cafe is on the opposite side of the site.

Green Park 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

Green Park, latest addition the the Berkshire parkrun family, is a very different course. And it works. It will never be fast, but it is a beautiful flat route making the most of its area. It feels urban and green at the same time and it was a very nice run.

It’s very well worth a visit if you are in the area, you will enjoy it.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Green Park parkrun team for your hospitality!