The Lon-DONE Adventure

Currently a work in progress, 20 venues completed so far.

Only 31 more to go.

Beckton parkrun - A great, little parkrun, and I mean little. The day we visited, there was 67 runners taking part. Run on path and grass, it was very sticky around the football pitches, but not quite enough to warrant full trail shoes, even though these would get ruined on the tarmac paths. The paths in some areas are a bit uneven. 

Excellent volunteer team, just a shame there is a lack of cafe for a post run breakfast and coffee. Toilets also available. There is a car park for the park. 

We arrived via DLR at Royal Albert Station. A nice 7 minute walk from the station to the start line.

Bedfont Lakes parkrun

This is going to be a bit biased. This is my homerun, so far I've completed 40 runs at the lakes. A slightly undulating course of two laps (one longer than the other). Can be a bit soggy in the winter. Actually, it's soggy for about 9 months of the year, then once the course has dried out, you can enjoy a Bedfont tan, thanks to the orange dust kicked up from the paths!

Toilets in the visitor centre near to the start. No cafe on site, but there is a water fountain at the visitor centre. The post run cafe is about a 10 to 15 minute walk from the park, one of the volunteer team will be able to give you directions. 

There are two car parks at Bedfont Lakes. At the moment (February 2018), the main car park off Bedfont Road, is being used by contractors, and a quarter of the car park is fenced off. There is an overflow car park at the Bedfont Road car park. It is about 1km from the car park to the visitor centre and start area. 

I still enjoy this course, but I did cut my parkrun teeth on this course. The first lap is shorter than the second lap, and the Railway Straight  on the second lap, always seems to go on forever! Very open to the weather, especially during a (very rare) hot summers day. 

Great volunteer team, and most events have cake, hence the nickname Bedfont Cakes parkrun.

Burgess parkrun 

I was just trying to remember Burgess parkrun. And I just did! Great transport links to this one, as we feel off of the bus, right onto the start line.

The run is all on tarmac paths, and also, run on the old site of the Surrey Canal. Look out for the Bridge to Nowhere, it literally does go nowhere!

The day we visited, there was around 200 runners, and the toilets were in the process of being upgraded. Not sure if the work has been completed yet. As I said above, the transport links are excellent, but then again, this is the closest parkrun to Central London, so it should have excellent public transport links. I wouldn't bother driving to this one. The Elephant & Castle station is not to far away, and we travelled up to Waterloo via main line trains, changed on to two buses, and was at the park within 20 minutes from exiting Waterloo station.

Now, even better than running 5km for free in a London park, the post run cafe is EXCELLENT. Kirsty says they made the best boiled eggs ever! It's quite a small and cozy cafe, but the food is excellent, and there is seating outside for the warmer seasons.