This was one of those big milestone Saturdays’ of my challenge, not only was I running currently London’s newest parkrun in Beckenham Place (26 weeks old) it was also the 50th parkrun event that I have run!

I have converted myself from a happy stay at home parkrun volunteer at Luton Wardown to as the jargon says I am now a uber-tourist climbing up the parkrun UK most events leaderboard! Who would have thought it back this time last year 🙂

Now for Beckenham Place is another great story of a large beautiful park that is in transition, with Lewisham Council having a draft masterplan to regenerate this park, which includes incorporating the now closed golf course into the final vision!

I love to see that even with the pressures on building new homes in the capital that councils like Lewisham see the need to develop its parks for the health and well-being of the local community. Top stuff!!!!

Another great aspect of this challenge is making new friends and bumping into old ones! Good to meet you today Dave Hooker (on the picture left, please can you give me this lovely ladies name in the group shot), Benjamin Sowden and one of my dearest parkrun tourist friends in Robert Kidd (picture right)!

Dave I hope you enjoyed your first parkrun and get smitten enough to become a parkrun regular! For the record Dave is a county football referee, could have done with your knowledge next week mate as I am at Canons Park parkrun near Wembley on FA Cup final day 🙂

Course

The course is flat 2 clockwise laps of the eastern section of Beckenham Place park with the course being a mixture of grass, tarmac and tarmac surfaces!

Points of Interest

• The two main parts you run around are Summerhouse Field (start/ finish area) and The Common
• About 50% of this course is on the grass, so be careful of footing in wet weather!
• Finally this parkrun course could move to the mansion side of the park when the redevelopments kick in

So if you like to run on a flat multi terrain course then Beckenham Place is the parkrun course for you!!

Personal Stats

Ideally should not have been running today with a bit of a chest infection, so reflected in the time of 34:55

Important Info

There is free parking at this venue and I decided to use the street parking option of Ravensbourne Avenue Sat Nav BR3 5HG that is near to the start of the parkrun!

Need to warn car drivers that about the last 50 metres of this road as it is not in great condition and I would recommend parking just a little further back!

I nice feature I found is they have developed in this park is a natural path set back to walk beside the River Ravensbourne, very nice tranquil touch.

Finally there are no facilities in this park at the moment but to be fair this park is in great transition and still looks beautiful in its current state!

Final Verdict

I would like to personally thank run director Peter Hanslip and his team of volunteers for making us all feel extremely welcome today! Special mention to Lou Black for kindly sending pictures of me attending this parkrun, much appreciated!

So Beckenham I will look forward in coming back in a few years in seeing the transformation of this park that is already a lovely park to visit!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner

Run on 20/05/2017