After realising how (relatively) simple it was to get to various London parkruns by train, and deciding to work on Lon-done, Tooting Common was on my radar. I’d previously been to Clapham Common whilst in London, and Tooting was the next stop down, so I had thought it might be left for when I was in London. However, Branka noticed that she had completed her 221st parkrun last weekend, and thought that doing her 222nd at Tooting would be a great idea. Holly and I were free for touring, so off we went!
It happened to be their 9th birthday too, so extra celebrations. I’d seen them post a photo of a huge puddle, so decided to pack spare shoes and socks for the journey home. I don’t mind getting wet feet while I run, but the thought of cold wet feet for the journey home was not appealing at all.
Engineering works meant that the Hatfield line was out of action, although it meant a slightly easier train journey with only one change rather than two, so I drove to St Albans and met Branka and Holly on the train (they got on the same train at Luton)- we were glad that we had factored in extra time, as they managed to miss their train due to the platform being changed at the last minute- this has happened to me before at St Albans so I could very much sympathise.
Anyway, the journey to Streatham all went to plan- we had to change at Blackfriars (could also change at Farringdon)- this was the same platform and the train was a few minutes later- and then travel around 5 stops to Streatham. It was then about a mile walk to the start. The park is close to the train station but the parkrun starts at the opposite end of the park. As we walked through the park we took a little detour as the maps tried to guide us through a huge puddle. We didn’t think this could be part of the course as it seemed so narrow, and Tooting gets several hundred runners, but we were wrong!
We got there just as the first timers welcome was happening, so it was perfect! Branka had time to put on her tutu (of course she wore a tutu for her 222 run) and we left our bags on the tarpaulin of trust. We got a few photos by the purple pop up but it was busy and the main briefing was about to start so thought we’d do some more at the end.
The course starts close to the cafe- you immediately head out to the perimeter of the park, do 3 laps and then return to the start/finish area. On Strava it’s a very pleasing triangle shape:
(Also check out our splits- a fab royal flush negative split)
I ran with Holly and we had a lovely chat on the way around. I can’t think of that many three lap courses, but I knew we’d be overtaken in our second lap by the front runners (by the way, the first finisher was female- girl power!) as if it’s a two lap course I’m doing well if I’m not lapped. As the laps were so short, we soon reached the huge puddle. It was deep and very long, then just as you thought it was over and you were out, more puddles would appear. I tried at first to keep my feet dry but it just wasn’t happening, so just had to tell myself that like a wet suit, my body would warm the wet water in my socks and I would be OK. Of course, by the time we reached the puddle in the second lap my feet just just warmed up, only for them to be plunged into cold water again. That lap had the added “fun” of being splashed by the faster runners as they ploughed through the puddles.
A few pics of parts of the puddle, finish line zig zag and post parkrun pop up
The course is flat and there were loads of cheery marshals en route- lots of had on party hats and one was celebrating her birthday too, although when we shouted “happy birthday” to her she said “you too”- probably thinking that we were celebrating Tooting parkrun’s birthday and not hers.
I had to stop and retie my shoelace at one point (even the double knot had worked it’s way undone), but other than that we kept running and it didn’t feel like long before we were heading into the finish funnel. They had a long zig zag on the grass, but despite us coming in during a bit of a rush, it kept moving and there wasn’t a traffic jam in there. A few minutes after we had finished when the rush had died down, they began taking down the zig zag to make the funnel shorter.
After finishing, we took more photos and I changed my shoes and socks (not that easy to do while avoiding the muddy grass) and then we headed back to the train station (after initially going the wrong way out of the park as we got distracted while chatting…). We passed the cafe, which was a really pretty black and white building, and decided to get a hot drink to take with us. Inside the cafe was a lovely painting of the cafe- it was such a classic old style park cafe and was tiny compared to the number of runners (548 participants on that day). I’d packed a croissant in my bag to have on the way home so our parkfaff could happen on the train.
The ‘after’ and ‘before’ map (can’t switch them somehow)- a nice square filled in close to Richmond Park
The return journey was super easy- around a ten minute wait at Streatham for the train to Blackfriars, and then a 4 minute wait for the fast train back to St Albans. Of course we had a chat about our next touring plans, and checked out the 5k app as we were on the train- Brockwell was close to the train line that we were on so that’s on the list now (and it’s tarmac apparently so no wet feet either…).
So that was parkrun number 389, 123rd venue, and if I use the 5K app to track Lon-done it’s the 26th one (out of 65 on there but of course that number is going to keep on going up). Fingers crossed that the next few weeks are free from storms or engineering works so I can visit a few more new events.