Karori Park: The Glorious, Glitchy Field of Dreams
Karori Park has long been the playground of Wellington’s distance running community. Every Saturday, rain, shine, or northerly gales, you’ll find clusters of 1-inch split-short-wearing pseudo-elites threading their way around the loop, sharing the dual limestone and asphalt path with footballers in oversized jerseys, tiny cricketers in oversized pads, and the occasional rogue dog chasing a rogue ball.
I’ve personally logged thousands of laps there, and even that’s probably an understatement. The overwhelming majority have been run clockwise, as is tradition for those doing workouts or generally running fast. I didn’t make the rule, but I obey it like gospel. Anti-clockwise is for cooldowns, walkers, and contrarians.
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of running with an amazing cast of characters. Wellington Scottish legends like Matt Dravitzki, Rees Buck, and Dougal Thorburn. Olympians Hamish Carson and James Preston. Even two-time Olympic medallist Nick Willis. Yes, that Nick Willis! I once saw Nick do more damage during a warm-up than most of us do in our peak race of the season. It’s inspiring. It’s also deeply upsetting.
But my favourite moments aren’t about names or even times, they’re about shared purpose. Nothing beats those long sessions when a large training group is fully locked in, charging around the loop, stripped to the waist despite the frost, striding in perfect rhythm. There’s a kind of unsaid understanding in those moments. We all know it, but no one says it out loud, “we’re in seriously good shape, and this is glorious”.
And yet, not every session was a picture of cohesion. Over the years, many a workout at Karori Park has quietly escalated into an unspoken race, sometimes less about fitness, more about pecking order. There have been plenty of times when athletes left it all out there. Not at Road Champs or Relays as you might expect, but right there at K-Park at 9am on a Saturday, surging like madmen up the “Karori Park mountain” as though the only prize was bragging rights on Strava. And actually, maybe it was.
The Great K-Park Distance Deception
Now, let’s clear something up. Something that catches out even experienced runners...
Karori Park is not 1 kilometre around. Not even close!
I know. You’ve probably believed it was. You’ve probably told others it was. You might have even seen the little distance marker in front of the café that says “1000 metres.” But I can assure you, it is not.
Here’s the reality:
If you’re running around the main limestone loop, approximately 1.0 m out from the inner edge, you’re covering 965 metres per lap. (This was measured a few years back by super-coach Evan Cooper, using a calibrated measuring wheel).
Even if you go around the cricket nets, you only add about 10 metres.
So if you're doing 4:00 laps thinking you're running tempo pace (4:00/km), you're actually running closer to 4:09/km. That’s 9 seconds per kilometre difference, and from a training perspective, that’s a lot.
Over a 10-lap tempo, you think you’ve done 10 km in 40:00, but you've actually only run 9.65 km. That kind of gap can derail pacing plans and leave you wondering why you blew up at the 6k mark of your next 10k.
Strava Glory, Strava Deception
And here’s another twist, one that always gave us a bit of a laugh (or a tactical advantage).
Our competition would sometimes follow our Karori Park sessions on Strava. They’d see those blazing 3:00–3:05/km rep splits and start getting nervous. The assumption? We were flying. The reality? We were probably still moving well , but not quite that well.
In reality, those “3:05s” were more like 3:11s. Still solid, but not the jaw-dropping numbers the file made them out to be. Strava doesn’t correct for a 35m-per-lap shortfall, and when you're doing 10–12 laps, those errors compound fast.
It became unintentional psychological warfare. Our rivals would gear up for races thinking they were about to get smashed… only to realise it was just "K-Park maths".
Sometimes they still got smashed.
Coaching with a Lap-Time Lens
This is all why, as a coach, I’m very particular about how we interpret training at Karori Park, and it’s not just about the distance problem.
I get my runners to focus on lap time, not pace per km. Why?
Because:
GPS signals bounce around K-Park more than my mood after a Chiefs loss
Pace readings are notoriously flaky over short loops
And most importantly, we need consistent benchmarks, and lap time delivers that.
I tell my athletes, K-Park is a fantastic training venue but to use it effectively, we need to respect its quirks, not ignore them. As long as we’re assessing progress week to week using the same metrics, we’re doing it right.
Respect the Space (and the Nets)
A final note on etiquette. Karori Park is a shared space. We train there, but so do hundreds of young footballers and budding Black Caps, often right in the middle of their weekend routines. Our limestone path cuts straight across the cricket nets’ astroturf run-ups, and during summer, this can be a problem.
There was a memorable moment a few years back when the great Ruby Muir caught a group of us, myself included, absentmindedly (arrogantly) barrelling straight through the nets while kids were mid-session. She didn’t miss a beat. Calmly but firmly, she told us:
“The best runners don’t just run well, they don’t act like dicks.”
She was absolutely right!
Yes, it adds a few seconds to go around the back. Yes, it throws off your rhythm. But it’s a small price to pay for a bit of respect. And let’s be honest, if you can’t handle a slight detour mid-run, how are you going to handle the chaos of race day?
Want to Train Smarter at K-Park (and Beyond)?
If this kind of detail, structure, and experience is what you want more of in your training, I’m now offering running coaching services for runners of all ages and abilities. Whether you're preparing for a 5K, your first marathon or a trail ultra, I’ll help you make the most of your training, and avoid the common pitfalls (like thinking K-Park laps are 1 km. They’re not).
Visit https://www.awruncoach.co.nz/coaching to learn more, or get in touch directly via andrew@awruncoach.co.nz
Let’s run smart. Let’s run well. And let’s go around the bloody cricket nets.