Completing all Essex parkruns

Essex parkrun banner.JPG

There are currently 27 parkrun events in present-day Essex of which I have done 6. The first was Gunpowder which started on October 22nd 2011 and the newest is Thorney Bay Beach which started on May 2nd 2026. Hatfield Forest was also an Essex event but has now closed. The name for having completed all parkrun events in the county is “PIED (parkruns in Essex Done)”.

The Historic County of Essex has a further 9 events. These are now part of Greater London. Completing these is “Completely PIED”. Victoria Dock, which was part of Greater London and within the Historic County of Essex, has been permanently cancelled.

For the absolute completists there’s also the “Completely PIED +” which includes the 12 parkrun events in Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Suffolk whose Voronoi area extends into Essex.

Numbers exclude any events that are not open to the general public such as prisons or armed forces facilities.

All of the Essex parkrun events …

Below are each of the Essex 5k parkrun events in alphabetical order. A few things to note:

  • The interactive maps below take you to the approximate location for the course, typically the centre of the park. See the course instructions in the parkrun page for each event for specific directions to the start.

  • Course maps and elevation profiles show the route at the time that I ran it and may have changed since then. See the Course page in the event’s page on parkrun.org.uk for the current course outline. Note that course outlines are from Garmin data during a specific run and may vary from the officially measured distance.

  • Please contact me if you spot an event that doesn’t have a course map and elevation profile and you would like to donate one from your own run. I’m also interested in maps and elevation profiles for courses that have changed or where there’s a regular alternative route (e.g. Horsham). I’ll need a GPX file from your run plus the date. I’ll include a credit for you and will donate £1 to parkrun.

ARU Writtle

  • I have not yet completed this event

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • Inaugural: December 6th 2025

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page

 

Basildon

 

Billericay

  • I completed this event on: New Year’s Day 2023 with a finish time of: 26:57

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • Other routes touched: None

  • Inaugural: June 24th 2017

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page, blog7t write-up

 

Brentwood

  • I completed this event on: November 16th 2019 with a finish time of: 28:53

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • This event is also part of LonDone ++

  • Other routes touched: None

  • Inaugural: December 6th 2014

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page, blog7t write-up

 

Burnham-on-Crouch

 

Chalkwell Beach

 

Chelmsford Central

 

Clacton Seafront

 

Colchester Castle

 

Great Dunmow

 

Great Notley

 

Gunpowder

  • I completed this event on: December 27th 2014 with a finish time of: 25:47

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • This event is also part of LonDone +

  • Other routes touched (cycle): NCN 1

  • Inaugural: October 22nd 2011

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page, blog7t write-up

 
elevation_profile - Gunpowder.jpg

Hadleigh

 

Harlow

  • I completed this event on: Christmas Day 2019 with a finish time of: 26:54

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • Other routes touched (cycle): NCN 1

  • Inaugural: November 8th 2014

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page, blog7t write-up

 

Harwich

 

Hatfield Forest

  • This parkrun event has been permanently cancelled. I did not complete this event before it was closed.

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • Inaugural: March 21st 2015. Final event: #131 on September 23rd 2017

  • Reason for cancellation: The venue couldn't sustain the growing event, mainly due to a lack of all-weather parking, leading to difficult conditions in winter and limited space

  • Replaced by: Castle Park

  • Links: Event Home Page

 

Highwoods

 

Hockley Woods

 

Maldon Prom

 

Markshall Estate

 

Mersea Island

 

Roding Valley

  • I completed this event on: September 22nd 2018 with a finish time of: 27:08

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • This event is also part of LonDone +

  • Other routes touched: None

  • Inaugural: January 14th 2017

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page, blog7t write-up

 
elevation_profile - Roding Valley.jpg

South Woodham Ferrers

 

Southend

 

Thorney Bay Beach

 

Thurrock, Orsett Heath

  • I completed this event on: March 12th 2022 with a finish time of: 25:59

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • This event is also part of Kent ++

  • Other routes touched: None

  • Inaugural: October 10th 2015

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page, blog7t write-up

 

Walton Promenade

  • I have not yet completed this event

  • Historic County: Essex

  • Ceremonial County: Essex

  • Inaugural: February 28th 2026

  • Links: Event Home Page, Course Page

 

Wickford Memorial

 

PARKRUNS IN HISTORIC COUNTY OF ESSEX BUT NOW IN GREATER LONDON(“COMPLETELY PIED”)

See the LonDone blog post for maps and stats for these:

*Hackney Marshes starts and ends in Historic Essex but most of the course is in Historic Middlesex

COMPLETELY PIED+: The Voronoi overlappers.

Once you’ve completed all of the parkrun events in Historic Essex the icing on the cake is to complete the 12 parkrun events in Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Suffolk whose Voronoi area extends into Essex. Note that different parkrun apps have slightly different calculations for their Voronoi maps. For this page I’ve used the Voronoi map from the Running Challenges Chrome Extension.

In the images below the light blue polygon is the non-Essex parkrun event whose Voronoi area extends into Essex. The red line is the county border.

More parkrun posts

parkruns are free, weekly, community 5k events all around the world. I started in December 2012 and have been obsessive about it ever since. See my parkrun Collection page for details.

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Richard gowerRun, parkrun, Essex, England8 Comments