Hi everyone,
For those of you with kids at ASL, I hope you had a nice break!   I look forward to hearing about it on Thursday’s run.

It was so great to get together last week. I hope you enjoyed hearing from some of last year’s beginners about their experience. Thank you to Melissa for hosting!  I will send out links next week to some of the equipment we mentioned during the coffee to help stave off injuries and aches. 

We have a few new runners who may be joining us this week. If there is a group running on Tuesday, can you reply all to this email so they know there will be a group going since they are not on the WhatsApp yet?  I know you will all look out for them!  This should be the last week we add anyone new – our run times are increasing and it will be difficult for a new runner to catch up.   Sunita, Dawn and Natasha – here is the link to the group WhatsApp – 

So – this is the week we’ve all been waiting for!  Believe it or not, you are all ready to run to Big Ben, our first destination run. Don’t be intimidated – it is really not much farther than you have already been running. In addition, there are a lot of traffic lights along the way that will give us some extra breaks.  We are so excited to do this run with you!Please remember to bring your Oyster card with you since we will be taking the tube home from Westminster.  We will take a photo in front of Big Ben (well, what you can see of it given the scaffolding…)  and maybe grab a coffee at the Nero across the street.

If you aren’t able to join us on Thursday but want to do the run at a different time and/or repeat it next Tuesday, here is the route:Start heading west on Circus Road and turn left on Grove End and follow south as it becomes Lisson Grove.  Cross over Marylebone Road and continue on Seymour Place until the end.  Turn right and cross over Edgware Road and then left to enter Hyde Park at the intersection with Stanhope Place.   Turn left to run along the eastern edge of the park to Hyde Park Corner, under Wellington Arch and down Constitution Hill.  Run past the Victoria Memorial down the mall and enter St. James Park.  Run over the pond and out of the park, turning left onto Birdcage Walk and down into Parliament Square to Big Ben.

And here is the route we ran this past week, in case you’d like to run it again. 
Walk down Circus, begin running either at Grove End or maybe just after Cavendish? Run straight down Hall Rd which becomes Sutherland Ave.  Right on Shirland Rd. Cross Elgin Ave and take the next right onto Essendine Rd.  At the end, head into Paddington Rec and run through it, exiting basically straight across so you end up on Randolph Ave.  Turn right on Randolph and then left on Abercorn.  Cross Maida Vale and turn right onto Hamilton Terrace. Check the time – if it’s almost done, turn left onto Hall Road.  Otherwise, continue down Hamilton Terrace to the end and turn left and then turn left onto Grove End and back to Hall/Circus Road.