The Course

The course is 5000m (5K) long. This has been accurately measured by us with a professional measuring wheel. The course is in Thames Valley Park, next to the river in Reading, and entirely on varied surfaces, although some sections of the course do accumulate mud, leaves and puddles after rain. Dependent on availability, marshals will be at key sections of the course, or temporary signs in place.

Please remember that the parkrun uses shared paths. For the continued success of the event, please give way to other park users. This won't hurt your time, it won't stop you from getting a PB and it will make sure everyone continues to to enjoy the event.

Please, wherever possible walk, jog, cycle or use public transport when attending the event. If you do have to drive, please consider car-sharing to reduce our impact on both the environment and other park users.  Please also watch out for other park users when arriving and leaving. Parking is limited so try to arrive early.

Course Safety

The Reading parkrun is a fun, free event organised by volunteers for the benefit of everyone. We wish to make the run as safe as possible, so runners, spectators and helpers are asked to take care about the following:

  • Please be considerate to the park and other park users at all times.
  • Please arrive by foot, by pedal-power or by public transport if you can - your efforts help to reduce our impact on the park and the planet.
  • Please consider volunteering to help occasionally - this event survives only because of your generosity - please vist the volunteer page for more information.
  • Take care near roads and car parks - some vehicles drive very quickly. Please congregate away from the cars and be careful in particular if you have children. If you’re driving to the run, please drive carefully even if you’re late!
  • When running, take care on uneven surfaces - whether on grass or on tarmac. Watch out for cyclists, other runners, pedestrians, children, deer, dogs, vehicles, park maintenance work, falling branches, bollards, posts and other obstacles around the course.
  • Runners with dogs are welcome, but please keep dogs on a short lead and under control throughout the event.
  • Runners pushing buggies are also welcome, but please take extreme care of other runners around you. If possible start from the back of the field and try to keep to one side of the main body of runners.
  • Please make sure you’re fit enough to run 5k (3.1 miles) – if you’re in any doubt, please consult your doctor.
  • Remember to warm up before the run.
  • If you see a runner with a serious problem, please stop to help them out and get help as soon as possible.
  • If you’re watching, keep clear of runners on the course, and look after any children and dogs you may have with you.
  • While rare, Lyme Disease is present in areas where deer live, and occasionally passed to human’s through infected ticks. See NHS Choices website for more about Lyme Disease, and how to deal with ticks.
  • This is a free training event, so all run and attend at their own risk.

We hope these tips help to ensure that Reading parkrun is fun and safe for everyone.

Age Grading

All UK Time Trials use Age Grading to help athletes compare results.

Age Grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your sex and age group to produce a score (a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people's performances even though they might be a different age and a different sex to you - the higher the score the better the performance. The scores can also be compared across different race distances - to allow you to, for example, compare a 5km time against a marathon.

For more information, please see the Running For Fitness website.

Course Map


View Reading parkrun in a larger map

About the Course

The Reading ParkRun route takes in a long opening and home straight along the Thames Towpath from its start adjacent to Wokingham Canoe Club. It consists thereafter of 2 laps around a well maintained gravel footpath around the nature reserve, across the meadows and the towpath again, ultimately taking a final left turn and a sprint to the end!!! Its very flat, on varying surfaces and regular road running shoes should certainly suffice in most weathers.

Route Description

From the start follow the wide grassy towpath along the nearest path to the riverbank; at some points there will be paths filtering right, just ignore these and carry straight on ahead. After 500 metres the route will narrow briefly as you run over a small concrete bridge, but is still wide enough to run two abreast even here, so be patient, you’ll be able to make your moves soon anyway!!

Stay next to the river all the way until turning left as you reach the woods, then turning right after 10 meters onto a gravel footpath you’ll follow around the nature reserve. Continue along this path, turning left at the first junction you meet and then swinging around with the pond on your right. At the next junction of paths, turn right for 200 metres and follow ahead, before turning left near the distinctive David Lloyd Lesiure Club on your left hand side. Shortly turn right onto a grassy path to run alongside a tall hedge and tree line on your left.

This path takes you directly back to the river. TURN RIGHT TO COMMENCE LAP 2 HERE and retrace your steps from earlier back to this same point again. Second time around, TURN LEFT FOR THE FINISH. Cross over the narrow concrete bridge again with 500 metres to go and give it everything you’ve got left all the way to the end.