parkrun ranking : fastest hardest busiest quietest

A little bit of parkrun motivational fun.

In a perfect world all parkruns would be the same, but that would be very boring. Part of the appeal of parkrun is the variety of the different courses all across the land and this inevitably leads to questions about which parkrun courses are the fast ones and which ones are the most challenging.

We answers those questions. Each and every week.

Ranked and rated parkrun venues

Green indicates the fastest parkruns, yellow/orange in between, and red the hardest ones.
Grey venues are not rated - we need more data: more parkrunners needed!

Click on a venue to view the speed ranking and recent average attendance.

Find your next parkrun

From the Top 20 tables below these are high ranking parkruns near you.

Please do support unrated parkruns. When their attendance rises and we can then rate and rank them.

Fast or Hard?

We rate and then rank every qualifying parkrun so you can quickly find the fast ones, and the hard ones. Cutting to the chase here are the top ranked parkruns in over recent weeks.

Note that some parkruns are not rated - there simply aren't enough people taking part each week. So why not visit one of the 'grey' venues on the map to get the numbers up so we can then rate and rank it.

Top 20 Fast parkruns

Top 20 Hard parkruns

Busy or Quiet?

As well as ranking parkruns by speed and challenge we also take the average attendance at recent parkruns around the country. The averages are taken over the past 3 months so that any highs and lows due to parkrun birthdays, takeovers or poor weather are smoothed out.

If you like the crowds you know where to go, or if you want get to know every other parkrunner at a venue you know where to go.

Top 20 Busy parkruns

Top 20 Quiet parkruns

parkrun Ranking Explained

There are many reasons why all parkruns are different:

Terrain: Some parkruns have almost perfect running surfaces, others are challenging underfoot to say the least. Some may have sections over muddy fields whereas others have hard, compacted trail surfaces and nearly all parkruns have a varying mixture of surfaces along the route.
Undulations: From the perfectly flat to the gently undulating to the huge climbs, parkruns have them all. Some may have an uphill start which gives a great downhill finish, not to mention those that start quickly downhill but end with an energy sapping climb.
Prevailing weather: The wind and temperature can vary greatly around the land. High exposed parkruns will be a different challenge to a low and secluded course, and those sea breezes at the coast can make such a difference.
Layout: Athletics tracks are built for speed. In general parkrun courses are not. Those with many twists, sharp turns, and switchbacks at the cones really make you work hard after slowing down and getting back on the pace again.
Seasons: Throughout the year the weather can make a huge difference to the conditions underfoot and in your face. A winter run could be freezing mudfest and the same course in summer is a beautiful warm trail.
Distance: parkruns are 5k long, but it is to be expected that there will be some variation around the country adding or taking away a few metres here and there which all make a difference to the finish times.

With these factors, and others that haven't been considered, it reasonable to suggest that some parkruns are going to be fast 5k PB events and others are going to be serious 5k challenges.

So we looked at a way of ranking each parkrun so that they can be compared side by side to find the faster ones and the harder ones. We do this by selecting results from recent events and rating each venue by the speed of the first finishers. Using a few weeks of data from each venue we get a reliable measure of just how fast or hard a venue is.