I’ve missed you all so much!  It’s been a productive trip here and the house is coming along well, but I’m ready to be back in London.  Many of you may be away for the ASL break, but I’ll be running.  I hope some of you are interested in joining me.  I realize also that some of you will have run the London Half-marathon on Sunday so may not be terribly interested in running again on Monday????  Think of coming by Starbucks for the post-run coffee – we would love to help you celebrate what I’m sure will be a fabulous race.

Monday (10 Oct) –  I need to do a 20-22 mile run on Monday or Tuesday.  Would you mind letting me know if you’re planning on running Monday?  I’ll come up a suitable route(s) when I know who will be out there.  I’ll be at Starbucks at the regular time – 8:15.  If we push back the time, it always seems that someone doesn’t get that message and they end up running solo.  I hope that’s OK with you.  I’m happy to push my long run back to Tuesday if that ends up working better – no worries.

• Fast Group – I’m not sure what you’ve been doing for your mid-distance run each week, so I’m hesitant to offer a suggestion.  You may be bored with the regular routes?  Notting Hill?  The Wall?
• Mid-level Group –  I would encourage all of the mid-level runners to try the Finsbury greenbelt route.  It’s a 7 mile run with a good bakery at the finish.  For those of you who haven’t done this route, the greenbelt is an old, dismantled railway line – beautifully wooded and the path is dirt and gravel.  It’s a lovely, quiet spot in the middle of north London.  We do have to run up to Hampstead then on up to Highgate to get to the entrance of the greenbelt.  It’s a challenge getting up there, but well worth it.  We’ll tube home from Finsbury Park so bring your Oyster card.  Could someone from the “core” of the mid-level group let me know what you think about this?  If you don’t feel ready for a 7 mile run, we can come up with a different route idea.

• Fast Group – How about we try the new route in the heath?  Hopefully this time the gates will be open and we won’t have to trail-blaze.  I’ll throw my machete into the backpack just in case!!!
• Middle-level Group – You may want to do something other than “the hill”, particularly if you ran the Finsbury greenbelt on Wednesday.  I would suggest a 5-6 mile flat route like the shortened Hyde Park route (run to the park, turn right/west and run to the road that divides the park, head south over the Serpentine bridge, run back/east along the Lido and wind your way back to SJW).

Good luck to everyone running the half-marathon tomorrow!  We’ll be thinking of you.

See you soon – yay!,

Paula