The beauty of this challenge is the different kinds of courses London offers you and Roundshaw Downs was no exception! The weather had a biting cool wind this morning but I would not wanted to be anywhere else today!

Roundshaw in a lot of aspects is like it’s sister parkrun Riddlesdown a few miles down the road that is grassland space of significant importance for the local natural wildlife! It is great to see these park grasslands survive to give pleasure to both the local community and protect endangered wildlife/plants!

Course

The course is 2 anticlockwise laps of the parameter of Roundshaw Downs that is run entirely on grass! There are 2 main areas to raise and they are

1. The grass paths that you run seem well maintained and you can trust your footing on them
2. There are two pronounced steady uphill slope sections, but to compensate this it’s all downhill to the finish funnel 🙂

I would recommend checking the course conditions before you travel in terms of running foot ware or put a pair of road trainers and trail shoes in the car to decide when you get there! Today I run in trail shoes but the ground was firm enough to run in either!

Personal Stats

Bit annoyed with myself today walked a bit of the uphill section that I hate doing, time 33:59

Important Info

There is free on street parking near the start along Imperial Way that is close to the start, Sat Nav CR0 4RR. Be aware that toilets are not seem available at this event!

The locals retire to the local MacDonald’s for the post run coffee that is just across the road!

Final Verdict

Very well done to my fellow parkrun tourist and RD for the day Tim Gray and his team of volunteers for making us all of us visitors very welcome at Roundshaw!

Definitely recommend Roundshaw as it great to test yourself on an undulating grassland course!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner

Run on – 25/02/2017