Hi,Well, this is it – the week of the Lights run AND your last week of running with a walk break!!  Can you believe it?  We are so proud of all of you and we are excited to run the shopping district with you when we are the only ones on the street.

I know a few of you can’t make it early on Thursday – hopefully you can get together and run.  We will miss you!

Pacing
A quick note about pacing.  You may have noticed that we were a bit more spread out last week although truly the groups weren’t much different in pace, just a little.  We did push the pace a bit for part of the run.  We will soon start being a little more formal about this by having people choose to go in the front group or the rear group (although we won’t break it up this week because we will want to stay together for group photos with the lights) and there will be plenty of opportunity for you to try out various paces to see what is most comfortable for you.  In addition, there will be some weeks when you’re feeling great and ready to roll and others when you’re not feeling it – it is completely normal to switch around.  You are the only one who knows what is right for you.

Winter 10K
I mentioned a week or two ago about the London Winter 10K.  Apparently, the race registrations close on Wednesday night.  I encourage you to consider running it.  https://www.londonwinterrun.co.uk

Milan Half-marathon– next steps… 
We sent the e-mail with hotel reservation information a couple of weeks ago.  Please let us know if you have any trouble with the link or with getting a reservation!  If you have made a reservation outside the WRW block, either at the Hilton or elsewhere, please e-mail [email protected], so we can include you in our head count.  We are going to do the race registration process in January, so don’t worry about that for now (I promise I will nag when the time is right!).  For now, just take care of your flight and hotel reservations.

Careful Crossing Streets
Last week, a few of you had a close call with a car on the way into Hyde Park.  I just want to reiterate to be extremely careful when crossing streets.  It is very easy to just follow your fellow runners into the street and that can be very dangerous.  Pay attention not only for yourself but for those around and behind you to make sure you’re not the one doing the leading into traffic 🙂  We are a big group and it is worth the extra time to wait for a signal or a large gap before crossing. 

Holiday Lights at 6 am
This week we will be running two 30 minute segments but there will be many extra stops as we take in the holiday decorations.  It will be important not to start out too fast as the first half of the run will have few stops. We will meet at 6 am and plan to start out ASAP so please be on time.  In order to make sure we are back to get the kids off to school, we will do a quick warm up, walk to Starbucks/the High Street and then we will start running. When we’re waiting at Barclays and when we walk or run by the houses in town, be VERY QUIET. No talking or only whispers. Our group is very loud and we don’t want to wake up the entire neighbourhood at that early hour! Since it will be so dark, please wear bright or reflective clothing and maybe even carry a bike light or head lamp if you have one. And be extra careful of the cars! The map below is the one used by the MWF group and it has it going to Baker Street.  To get home by 7:15, you may need to stop at Bond Street and that is fine.  However, we have found the last couple of years that to finish the full 30 minute segments, we need to run to Baker Street.  So those of you that can do that, that will be our destination if Bond Street doesn’t do it for us.  Please remember your Oyster card! 

Starbucks donation
There is still time to give a donation for Starbucks staff if you are so inclined.  Micki will give the gift to them next Friday. 

See you all bright and early on Thursday! 
Amy