Crystal Palace did not let me down today as one of the toughest parkrun courses to run in London. It was always going to be a battle with me today trying to get over a virus, do I run or not and I am glad the answer was YES!

For the record this is a lovely 200 acres of Victorian park built-in 1854 on a hillside that boosts the National Sports Centre inside it’s boundary! This brings back happy memories for me watching the London Grand Prix two years before the Olympics! Complexes like this deserve to survive, flourish to support the community and future Olympic stars of our country!

It was great having the company of 4 good running friends on my challenge Martin, Alan, Kathy and Adrian. I hope you all enjoyed the parkrun experience today at Crystal Palace!

It was a great pleasure of mine to meet new people on my challenge, great to see you today fellow tourist Robert Kidd, Sam Oliver glad you like reading my blog and yes it is quite a challenging course! last but definitely not least the lovely Carol one of the official pacemakers helping me around today!

Course

The route starts at the Thicket Road entrance to the park, then you proceed to run two and a bit figure of eight clockwise laps of the park which includes a lake which features the dinosaurs and the farm!

This will be the first time that I disagree with the official course description in part, This is a course of two parts, with the first being a steady but challenging climb of 89 metres gain from the start to the back-end of the course, followed by a relieving downhill section back to the start!

Please note as they say the gravel section could get very slippery with prolonged rain and the finish is halfway uphill section!

Personal Stats

Time was slow at 35.59 that did not surprise me how I felt, oh well onwards and upwards!

Important info

The most important facilities were included for the tourist

• Free car park at the Thicket Road entrance
• Toilets were available before the start of the parkrun
• The Crystal Palace park cafe seemed to be closed for the winter, but there were 2 mobile cafe inside the park, we joined the volunteers in the Pride of Venice cafe on the  main road and lovely it was too!

Final Verdict

I would like to thank Daniel Humble and his team of  volunteers for making me and my friends extremely welcome today it was greatly appreciated! Also I would like to thank  Posy Laryea for your kind donation to my charity!

Fellow parkrun tourists if you like a hill challenge Crystal Palace will not let you down, you have been told. Will I run this course again definitely in the future!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner

Run on 07/01/2017