Endcliffe parkrun - event 733

On the 10th October 2026 I ran Endcliffe parkrun, which was the 733rd event held at the venue, my 307th parkrun and 218th different course I'd attended.

I had been waiting for a chance to visit Sheffield for a parkrun for some time. My work has an office in the Steel City and so with six parkrun events in the vicinity I have ample reasons to make the commute up to South Yorkshire. 

The problem is, Friday's aren't the best day for office attendance as not many people want to end their working week with a commute. I choose Friday's for accessibility purposes and don't have much choice.

But with Gillingham playing Rotherham and an invite from my line-manager to make the trip north we hatched a plan.

I'd visit the office on Friday for a strategy day, stay overnight and do parkrun. Reaso would drive up on the Saturday morning and I'd meet him with Hayden in Rotherham for the match

The last decision outstanding was which of the six venues should I visit?

I ended up choosing Endcliffe on the basis of geography. My new line manager and colleague live on the West of the city and so going out for a drink on Friday night with them, finding accommodation close by all led to a perfect scenario where I could get a bus after work to the hotel, drop my bags off. Meet the guys at a pub in walking distance before crashing overnight and walking to parkrun in the morning. It was also perfectly located that I could walk to the station as well, or get the bus again if I wanted.

But if course, planning a trip in Google Maps comes with dangers. Google Maps is flat, reality isn't. The trip from the hotel to parkrun in the morning was around a mile, all down hill. Meaning that it was also a mile in return, but uphill. 

After that realisation dawned on me, I decided that the mornings parkrun wasn't going to be particularly full of effort. I wanted to make it around the whole course without stopping , but I certainly wasn't going to be going full beans.

Endcliffe park opened in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Jubilee. It offers a mixture of facilities and covers different types of use. From playing fields, to trails through trees and stepping stones over the Porter Brook. I saw multiple waterfalls, statues and a parkour course. There was even an American WWII memoral honouring the crew of an American Bomber which crashed into the park.

The course is made up of two and a bit laps of the park and stretches out making a long and thin route which crosses over Porter Brook at least twice.

Endcliffe parkrun is an incredibly popular event with nearly 900 people in attendance making for an additional challenge. The course by itself isn't particularly easy, with some mildly undulating sections throughout it's distance. Some trail sections and twisty paths make for plenty of variety. But a thousand people appears to be too many for some areas of the course.

The start begins at walking pace and continues for a good 100m or. Once the pack spreads out and starts to move it reaches another pinch point where the course traverses the Porter Brook for the first time.

A picturesque part of the course, a wooden arched bridge that is almost single file causes people to back up and wait their turn. It was typically British with everyone politely queueing which I was glad to see.

On the way back down the opposite riverbank there's another part of the course that pinches in, as an inconveniently placed tree also reduces the pathway alongside it to single person width.

I was quite happy to stop and walkz slowly queue for my turn to squeeze through both of these points as I was fully aware of the walk up hill back to the hotel. 

My excitement was quite short-lived as by the time the second lap came around the queues had gone and I had ran out of excuses. It meant I had to keep running and couldn't slow down and walk

With a winding, undulating course through little pockets of river and ponds and ornamental gardens the course is certainly a memorable one and can see why it attracts the number that it does. Being closeby to universities it also meant a high volume of younger people which was great to see. The number of different sports teams and societies from both genders on display was certainly impressive.

I finished in 671st position out of a field of 839 participants in a time of 34:03.

My days exercise was by no means over. As not only did I walk back to the hotel, from the hotel to the train station. I also walked plenty the other end in Rotherham from the train station to the pub, the pub to the ground and the ground to the car.

All in all I clocked up nearly 27,000 steps across the full day. Each one was worth it though, another full day of seeing new things, going to new places and even watching Gillingham win away - priceless!