Hi everyone,

We’ve had a great start to the running season!  It was wonderful to see so many of you gathering in front of Barclays.   Did you notice that in a week with some bad weather we had beautiful sunshine for both our runs?  I think that is a good omen for the year!

To the new runners, we’re so glad you’ve joined us!  To the returning runners, thanks for being so friendly and welcoming to our new runners- keep it up!  We have more new runners starting this week.  To everyone, if the runs last week were too slow/fast or too short/long – Don’t give up!!  It often takes a few sessions to find the smaller group of women that run the right distance/pace for you.  (If you need some help/guidance linking up with someone, just let me know.)

This week we return to some of our favourite routes – Hyde Park, The Wall and The Heath.  In each route, there are lots of options for mileage.  As always, don’t be tempted to do too much, too soon.

T-Th Beginner Group

The first day for the new beginner group is this Thursday 4 September.  If you have any friends who are interested in joining, please have them email me.

Stay Tuned – Spring Half-Marathon Trip

We’re hard at work behind the scenes trying to find a great race for our spring half-marathon. Please remember that we have to balance many factors in choosing a race including timing, travel and finding a race that is appropriate for our beginner runners.  A few races have just been announced that may work for us.  We’re in the process of getting our questions answered.  We’ll be back to you as soon as we can with the details for the race.

Fall Half-Marathon?

Please let me know if you signed up for a fall half-marathon race and you are still planning to run.  We want to make sure that we have your longer runs built into the weekly routes.

Oyster Card

One last reminder, bring your Oyster card.  Sometimes our routes loop back home, but often we stop along the way and take the tube home.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES THIS WEEK

Monday 1 September – Hyde Park – always versatile! (2-8 miles)

Click here for all of the Hyde Park interactive route maps

Start:  Everybody starts the same way… head west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End Road 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 take the first left on Stanhope Place to enter Hyde Park at the intersection with Stanhope Place. Cross into the Park—you’ll see a silver orb just inside the park.

2 Milers:  After entering the park, turn right towards Speakers’ Corner, then finish at the Marble Arch Tube [or take the 82 bus] to head back home.

3 Milers:  Continue south through Hyde Park, past the Serpentine and at the Carriage drive, make a left and head back toward Hyde Park Corner.  Take the Hyde Park Corner tube home.

5 Milers:  At Hyde Park Corner continue back up/north on the carriage drive.  Exit the park at the Animals in War memorial and follow Upper Brook Street.  Turn left on Park Street which becomes Gloucester Place and then Park Road back to St. John’s Wood.

6 Milers: upon entering the park, turn right at the silver sphere and run until you meet N Carriage Road where you turn left.  Run down to the Serpentine, crossing over the bridge then left to run along the Serpentine. At the end of the Serpentine, turn left again and make your way to the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit.  Continue along Upper Brook Street to Park Street, turn left, take it to Park Road and into SJW.

8 Milers: follow the 6 mile run but do not turn left at No Carriage Rd, instead cross over [this is tricky, be careful] and follow until you reach the large broadwalk where you turn left.  Run past Kensington Palace (on your right) and take a left to run along the southern edge of the park towards Hyde Park Corner, then turn left on the eastern edge and exit at Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit as above.  Take Upper Brook Street to Park Street [left] to Park Road and home to SJW.

Wednesday 3 September – The Wall (3 to 6 miles)

We head down towards Regents Park, then enter the canal at the Charlbert entrance and run east [left] cutting through Camden Lock Market until we run out of canal path at Islington.  Since the canal is blocked here, we call it “The Wall.”  At The Wall, we turn around and head back to St. John’s Wood.  This is a great route to do a tempo run because there are no traffic lights.  But please be careful and aware of the bikes on the path.

If you run all the way to The Wall and back it is 6 miles.  But it is very easy to run half the distance if you want and turn around and head home.  As a marker, if you run to the Camden market (where we have to exit the canal path and run past the food stalls for a minute) and return home it is a 3 mile round trip.

Friday 6 September – The Heath (4-8 miles)

We run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition! It is hard, but you’ll feel great when you are finished.

If you are not up for a hill run yet, no problem, just let us know.  Every week there are a group of women who prefer to do a flat run.  We can help make sure that you find each other.

4 miles:  A great way to ease into running the hill.   Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back. If you have trouble running up, think about how easy it will be running down!

5 miles: The Betsy Route

6-7miles:  The partial Heath route

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

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