Hello Everyone,

What a great job you all did last week!  You are all doing so well!

For the benefit of those who were not there last week, plus those new additions to our list, I will recap a bit.  We will be following a walk/jog schedule which will keep building up over the next few weeks, following a program which is designed to have us ready for the half marathon in the spring.  You are all welcome in the group, regardless of whether you plan to run the half marathon or not – some of you simply want to learn how to run long distances, and that is fine.  Others may not even want to run long distances, but simply want to learn how to run, and that is fine too.  As I told you last week, the information about the planned half marathon will be coming to you sometime this week or next.  It may seem far fetched to you at this point that you could possibly run it at this point, but believe me, if you stick to the program, and continue to run on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and eventually add a 3rd run) you will be able to do it.  All your coaches have been through the beginner group in some form and are a great resource for you.

Now that we are running slightly longer intervals, you are developing a running style, so if you are looking to buy running shoes, now is the time to do it.  At Runner’s Need (they have several locations around London) they will watch you while you run on a treadmill and assess your running style and recommend shoes based on that.  A pair of running shoes will last you roughly 400 miles so it would be a good idea to write the date of purchase down (maybe on the inside of the shoe).  In general it is recommended that you go up 1/2 to 1 size in running shoes as feet tend to swell when running.

We will also be running rain or shine so at some point, you will need a good rain jacket, although those can be bought in lots of different stores, not necessarily Runners Need.

For the first few weeks, we will be staying local and running a loop back to St John’s Wood, but starting sometime in mid October, we will start to mix it up, running some loops, and some destination runs, so for the latter you will need to carry an Oyster card, but I will let you know when we will be doing that.

That is all for now – I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday!

Syma