At this moment in time with Rio 2016 games almost coming to an end it is great to run in Avery Hill park Eltham that has benefited from legacy money from our own London 2012 games!

Excellent to see legacy money spend on projects that help local communities 🙂

One of the most striking buildings is the famous University of Greenwich Winter Garden a hothouse that has many species of plants from around the world with this magnificent building perched beautifully on top of the hill!

Today it has been another great day of running with friends, great to have you onboard as always Martin and love the t-shirt Cool Runnings, Ellie one of our clubs top young runners and her boyfriend Sam, good to meet you mate!

Also bumping into Lynette and Richey who I first met last week at Peckham. Hope you both enjoyed todays event!

Last but definitely not least I met Francis Lee Greenwich parkrun director legend who retired today. Top service sir and from the applause you got you will be very fondly missed!

Course

The course is run over almost 3 anticlockwise laps, starting by the cafe and finishing in front of the Winter Gardens. The running surface is almost a 50/50 split between grass and tarmac paths, the first section is run downhill on grass followed by an uphill tarmac around the back of the course with the small section to the finish back on grass again! Overall my watch says there was a noticeable steady rise of 36m gain around its entire length!

Today the wind made it difficult to run with strong gusts what seemed permanently head on! The challenge I see from my point of view is what running footwear would you use if there was a prolonged period of rain on the course leading up to the event?

Personal Stats

My parkrun time 40:49 (pacing Martin)

Important Info

There is parking available inside the park that is very close to the start, excellent post run cafe and you can use it’s toilet facilities before the race!

Final Verdict

It is very good to run  on this very interesting multi terrain course that will test you! Special thanks to Francis, Connor and all the volunteers to make me and my friends extremely welcome, top work guys!

Francis enjoy your retirement as Connor says go for that 200 parkrun target, been a pleasure to meet you and commitment you have shown to your parkrun community is one of the main reasons why I love parkruns so much, sir!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner

Run on 20-08-2016