Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all the great feedback on our Christmas lights run! We had a big group for such an early start. You have amazing spirit! I especially loved having a few daughters join us as well!

This week we’re keeping things simple with Hyde Park on Monday, Kensal Rise on Wednesday and The Hill on Friday. There is no school at ASL on Friday so we’ll gather for an 8:30am start.

THANK YOU to Starbucks – Last chance! We need your help!
The holiday time of year is here and we’ll be organising a gift for the employees at our local St. John’s Wood Starbucks. We’re suggesting a £5-10 donation but feel free to give whatever you would like. I’ll be collecting money on Monday and Wednesday before the runs. We’ll also be donating some baked goodies. We really need some people to volunteer to contribute cookies etc to the gift basket. At the moment we only have one volunteer! Jacki Van Wagner has volunteered to assemble the cookie basket. Please email Jacki ([email protected]) or [email protected] if you would like to contribute. Jacki will gather the baked goods on Tuesday Dec 15 and we’ll give the gift to Starbucks on Wed 16 Dec. before we start our run so please get your gift to us soon if you would like to participate.

Running over the holiday
We aren’t setting official routes for the weeks of 21 and 28 December. We’ll be back training as a group the week of 4 January. For those of you in town over the holidays, there’ll be a group meeting at Barclays on MWF at 8:30. If you need some route ideas, scan back through the weekly emails on our website. For everyone, those staying in town and those travelling, feel free to take it easy over the break. There is no harm in giving your body a break. Running 2-3 times a week for 30-40 minutes will allow you to maintain fitness. For those of you training for the half-marathon in the spring, we will start back in January with 6-7 miles then our long-run mileage will increase over the weeks leading up to the race.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday!
Keep running,
Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 14 December – Hyde Park  – always versatile! (5 – 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.  After entering the Park, turn right and run towards Speaker’s Corner.

5 Milers:  follow 3 mile run. 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 SJW.

 

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.  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 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 of the traffic] and follow until you reach the large broad walk 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 of the park.  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 SJW.

Wednesday 16 December –  Kensal Rise (4-5+ miles)
The beginning of this run takes us along the canal to the west.  Please be aware of bikes along the canal and move into single file whenever you hear a ‘bike!’ shout.

Start out heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, turning left on Cunningham then right on Aberdeen to work your way to the canal entrance on Bloomfield.  Enter the canal heading west and run to the Ladbroke Grove exit.  Here we turn right and run over the bridge along Chamberlayne Road to Harvist Road. Turn right on Harvist, which turns into Brondesbury Road, and take that to Kilburn High Road/Maida Vale.  Turn right and follow Maida Vale to Hall Road where you turn left and run back to Starbucks. If you want to shorten this route, run west on the canal and turn back at your desired half-way point.
(The two mile mark is at the point on the canal when the Westway highway is over our heads.)

Friday 18 December – The Heath 4-8 miles

It’s Friday [again!], so everyone up Fitzjohn’s. Plan to meet for 8:30 since school is on holiday. You can pick your distance and whatever you choose, there will certainly be someone else interested in running that distance.  All of these routes are on the website. If you are not up for a hill run, ask around at Barclays;  every week there is a group who prefer to do a flat run and you can decide together which flat route to tackle.

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
7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route
Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.