Orpington Road Runners offer a range of different organised runs, as well as access to a large and active network or runners who organise their own runs. Whether you would like to join our regular Tuesday club runs, which cater for a range of different abilities through multiple groups, improve your racing with our track sessions or explore the countryside on a Sunday morning there will be a session for you.
Tuesdays - Club Night
7:55 pm on the Green in front of the Buff Pub (FROM 30th JANUARY 2024 OUR START TIME WILL BE 7:30 pm)
The Tuesday night club run has up to 9 groups of runners leaving from the lamppost near The Buff public house every week. The Group A will typically run 4 miles at the pace of the slowest, whereas Group H will typically run over 8 miles at 7.30 pace. In the summer the club runs explore the fantastic trails and countryside around Orpington, Halstead and Knockholt, whereas in winter they keep to the well lite roads.
Wednesday - Track Sessions
7:50pm Norman Park Running Track
A running track may look like a daunting place, but it is a fabulous place for all runners to develop. Whilst elite runners have long recognised the importance of mixing in regular hard track sessions to their workout schedule, many recreational runners rarely do so. Whether your goal is to break 2 hours for a marathon, or 30 minutes for a parkrun, adding bursts of high-intensity work followed by brief rest periods to your training helps you to build your top-end speed.
We cater for all levels of ability at these sessions, which have been run in one form or another for many years. Everybody is welcome and we have runners with a wide range of abilities attending regularly. You do the sessions at your own pace (that's the beauty of it) and they are adapted depending on pace in various ways. For example, one runner could do 8 x 800 while someone else might do 6 x 800. You will be surprised how easy it is to keep going when you’re only running short distances. Remember you will not run any faster if you run at the same pace all the time.
The ‘leader’ will set a session designed to allow everyone to push themselves to go that little bit faster than they do normally. Running in a group like this is very motivating and with plenty of friendly help from your fellow runners, you will find it inspiring.
Thursday - ThORRsday
6:30pm by the Buff Pub
Trail running all year round in the winter with head torches, muddy and great fun. Meet at the Buff pub
Friday
9:30am by the Buff Pub
Trail run all year round often two groups of 6ish and 8ish miles, followed by coffee in the bakery. Meet by the Buff pub
Saturday - local Parkrun
Goddington, Hobbingwell or Bromley are normally ORR favourites, with once a month a bit of Parkrun tourism
Sunday - HEROS
8:30am Cuckoo Wood Car Park in High Elms
HEROS stands for High Elms Runners On Sunday!
There are numerous possibilities to get away from the traffic and the hard road surfaces and enjoy a scenic run through the glorious local countryside Orpington has to offer. We are usually out for end hour and a half to two hours, sometimes longer. The pace is dictated by those present but being off-road with stiles and gates to negotiate it will be slower than Tuesday night.
Most Sundays there are 3 groups that head out. The first is around 6 miles at a gentle pace, the second an 8-10 mile group at around a 10:30 to 11 min mile pace with the 3rd group around 12-14 miles at around a 9:30-10 min mile pace. Regular updates are provided on the club members’ Facebook group which details the plans for that week.
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