Another week, another parkrun review. I hope you’re enjoying these and/or find them helpful! I love parkrun so for me I love hearing about other ones around and I hope people find the information helpful – especially as they’re written from runners who have a good knowledge of that particular parkrun.
Anyway, this one, Burgess parkrun, is written by the lovely Gemma (@peeriegemgem), an avid runner and Twitter friend.m
Location: Burgess Park is in Camberwell, South East London and is the Southwark boroughs largest park. Along with Southwark parkrun it can claim to be the most central of London parkruns. The easiest way to get there on public transport is to head to Elephant & Castle tube station (on Bakerloo and Northern lines) and walk about fifteen minutes down the Walworth Road or get a bus. On bus, locate Citymapper to stop on Camberwell/Albany Road as this is the nearest entrance to start/finish of the run. (pic shows entrance)
Parking: Being in Central London, parking is on the limited side although the website does note there is some spots available in Addington Square and on Albany Road and this is free for up to four hours.
Amenities: There are toilets available in the tennis court centre which should be open just before the run begins. These are just as you head into the park on the right hand side.
After getting an absolutely drenching visiting a friend for their 50th parkrun (see Wally – dressed for the occasion!) we headed over for warm mugs of tea and avocado on toast where the results are processed at Fowlds Café, Addington Square. It is very small on the space front so head over promptly once you’ve finished your run to get a seat!
Course/Elevation: The course is an out and back with two laps of a lake in the middle. (See pic) Note the start and finish are not at exactly the same point as the start was moved further back to ease congestion. Most participants wander up, leave their belongings at the finish on a waterproof sheet and head to the start. 
The course starts with a long straight of about a kilometre before turning back on itself, out towards the lake, twice around, and then heading back to the finish (but cutting short the full kilometre straight!). It is well marshalled at each turn so the only thinking required is remembering two laps of the lake! There is a slight dip where you go through the underpass on the final straight and this is about the point where you want to consider kicking in for that final sprint.
I may be slightly bias as this is my first parkrun and where I have done the most runs, but it remains one of my favourite runs. It is a very friendly parkrun and I have made many friends after running Burgess over fifty times.
It is a fast flat course (see elevation!) that doesn’t get too congested once you are out of the start.
It is ideal for pram/buggy runners – one flew past me as I headed onto my second lap of the lake. The volunteer team are very enthusiastic and there are usually post run goodies on offer. I tucked into fruit and homemade brownies as post run fuel – yum!
Number of participants: This parkrun has really grown in size since my first days of attending two years ago. Back then a hundred was average but the record attendance has now hit nearly 300. As the Saturday I picked to return was the worst monsoon rain I’d ever done a parkrun in, there were 149 brave souls facing the rain.
Other: Check out the Burgess Park Facebook/Twitter as they post updates fairly regularly. Sometimes people take photographs which will appear on social media and there tends to be socials organised a couple of times a year.
Do you enjoy doing parkrun in fancy dress?
What’s the funniest fancy dress you’ve seen for a runner?
Are you a fair-weather parkrunner?