Dear Beginners,

What an amazing run last week.  We were a big group and everyone managed to finish.  It was a tough run, but there is nothing easy about running 11 miles.  Us coaches and Chris, as well as Jane (who emailed us afterwards to see how the run went) got goosebumps when you all came through – I know I keep saying it, but it is inspiring to us to see how far you have come in the last 6 months.  You make our jobs so much easier!

Next week, you should be running about 60 minutes on Tuesday, and 45 on Thursday.  As a group, on Thursday, we will run to Big Ben.  This should be a nice fun run, and a piece of cake compared to last Thursday.  You won’t need any gels, just bring your Oyster cards as we will be getting onto the tube at Westminster to head back to SJW. 

You should all have received the email from Jane with the itinerary and details for the trip next weekend.  Let me know if you have not.  As far as we are concerned, we would like you to think about what your goals are for the race.  If you have a specific time you would like to run it in, let me know.  Other than that, we will be running similarly to the way we have been in the past few weeks.  I will run out in front, with Bonnie in the middle, and Betsy behind Bonnie and you should decide which ‘sub group’ you want to run with.  This does not mean you are bound to any group/coach, but it will give us coaches some idea of who to look out for.  We may well all split up, as we did last week so it would help if you could pick one, or a couple of people who you can, and have run comfortably with just so you are not alone if you lag behind your coach, or indeed decide you can go faster.  We will all start off pretty slowly for the first couple of miles – the tendency is to rush off at the beginning, but your coaches will make sure you run at the right pace so that you do not tire early on.  Don’t forget, you will need to take your gels at 70 minutes, and then again at 1:55 or 2 hours.  Please be sure to do that, even if you are not tired – once you become too tired, it is usually too late for the gel to kick in!  The most important thing is to enjoy yourselves.  There is no reason this should be any different to the training runs – you should all be chatting, and running in the way we have been doing all along.  No need to be nervous – treat it like another training run! 

See you all next Thursday,

Syma