Whether you are planning to do the 5k, the 10k or the full 21k you will be running through the best that Horsell Common has to offer.
The start and finish will be at our race village which will be located in McLaren Park. The route heads straight out to Horsell Common where you will be running through graciously tall Pines and Silver Birches. In no time you’ll be crossing the sandpits which is where the Martians landed in H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and on to Sandy Track, a beautifully broad avenue that bisects the common.
The 5k route splits at this point, but the 10k and 21k routes continue to the very end of this avenue and then through more meandering woodland paths to Heather Farm Wetland Centre. From there the terrain changes to open meadowland and, after an optional “water feature” and some sections of boardwalk, dives back into the woodland. Our favourite section is next, a winding single-track path which broadens out onto some open heath and then rejoins Sandy Track in the opposite direction.
Here the 10k and 21k, join up with the 5k split and more woodland paths. Crossing a small but quaint footbridge and then some open heathland, there’s another section of boardwalk before the final sting of a small hill. Circumnavigating the clump of trees at the top of the hill it is then downhill all the way to the finish which comes into sight as you round the top of the hill. That is unless you are doing the 21k route, in which case you get to do it all over again.
5K Route Map
10K Route Map
21K Route Map
The 21k route will be slightly different in 2024 to ensure it measures up to the full 21k
2K Kids Route Map
Video
Watch the Horsell Running Club as they carry out a recce of the route: