Hi Runners,

I hope you’re all recovered from our amazing race and ready to get back to some fun runs in London. Monday is a bank holiday so for anyone who wants to run we’ll meet at 8:30 and decide on the route in the morning. Wednesday we’re doing one of our standard routes – The Wall! Feel free to turn before the wall if you want a shorter route. On Friday let’s do something fun and head to Borough Market. For anyone who isn’t up for a destination run, you can always do the Hill.

Good Luck WRW Racers!
Good luck to the US WRW crew that is gathering in Nashville this weekend for the Half Marathon. Good luck to Jody Adams, Colleen Crescenti, Linda Dolan, Tania Grade, Catherine Henson, Julie Hersh, Lisa Hill, Emily Hillsman, Lynne Hodge, Michele Mandel, Carol Mark, Dorrie Marks, Paula Mitchell, Ariadne Petrucelli, Danja Roberts, Sue Rushmore, Diane Schlinkert, Malu Tan, and Kim Ursery (sorry if I forgot anyone). We hope you have a great race and most importantly, have fun!

Save The Date – Sights of London Run and Leaver’s Coffee Wednesday 25 May
Please mark your calendar for Wednesday 25 May for our annual Sights of London run and afterwards our coffee gathering to say “good-bye and best wishes on the next adventure” to some of our dear friends. (Sigh, I hate saying good-bye.) For anyone who is new to this, we run to Big Ben and stop along the way for some group photos at key London landmarks. Then we take the tube home to St. John’s Wood for coffee upstairs at Richoux. If you are leaving, can you let us know?

Save the Date – Running to See the Queen Wednesday 18 May
On May 18 the Queen officially opens Parliament and there is a whole splendid royal procession as she travels from Buckingham Palace to Westminster. Last year we ran down to the Mall to watch the festivities and we saw the Queen in her carriage drive by and wave to us. It was great fun! For those who want to go see the Queen, we’ll meet at Barclays at 9:45 that day. We’ll also have a regular route for those runners who want to meet at the normal time.

Save the Date – Night Out June 13
We’re planning an end-of-year evening social with spouses on Monday June 13 probably at Crocker’s Folly pub. Stay tuned for more details.

Keep Running
I know it’s tempting now that our big race has finished to take a break from running. Especially as life gets increasingly busy as the end of the school year approaches. However, the best thing you could do for yourself is to keep running over these last few months and over the summer. You’ll hang on to the fitness level you built for the race and you’ll start the fall ready to run.

Spring, Summer or Fall race?
One of the best ways to keep running is to sign up for a race. Having that race on your calendar will motivate you to train. Even a short local race can make a difference. Or you may want to consider signing up for a half marathon in the fall. We have a group that is doing the London Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday 9 October. The lottery spots for that race are full but there are still charity openings if you want to commit to raise money for a charity. The Windsor Half Marathon is on 25 September. This is supposed to be a beautiful race, but it is a bit hilly.

Thanks for reading a long email!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 2 May – BANK HOLIDAY
Meet at Barclays at 8:30 and decide as a group where to run!

Wednesday 4 May – The Wall (up to 6 miles)
Run South on Finchley/Wellington Road to the SJW Church Roundabout, follow the sidewalk to the left and cross Prince Albert Road at the crosswalk just beyond the SJW Church.  Continue east and enter the canal at the Charlbert entrance.  Run east [left], cutting through the Camden Lock Market until you run out of canal path at Islington. Touch the canal boat tunnel wall—this is The Wall!—then turn around and re-trace your steps back to SJW.  When you come of the canal at Regents Park, take Charlbert to Allitsen to SJW High Street to Starbucks. You can turn around before the wall if you want to have a shorter run.

Friday 6 May –

Option 1 – Borough Market via Westminster Bridge-6 miles

We head to Hyde Park via the usual 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. 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. Continue past Big Ben and cross Westminster Bridge. After the bridge turn left to run along the Thames until the river path ends after Southwark Bridge. Borough Market is under the railway bridge near the London Bridge station. The official address is 8 Southwark Street SE1 1TL.

Option 2 – The Heath (4-8 miles)
Even after the ½ marathon we run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition!

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.

Hi Everyone,

Love those orange hats! I’m still floating on a happy cloud about the weekend and feeling very grateful to know all of you. The group dynamic was very positive, supportive, welcoming, fun, appreciative and happy! What a beautiful city to spend the weekend and run a race – I LOVED jumping into the ocean after the race. (I may try to make that a requirement for future race locations!) Some women had a great race and some women had a difficult race, but I hope you see that the race is really just a small part of the whole group experience. WRW is mostly about the friendship and on that metric we totally rocked it! Thank you so much for my amazing gifts! I just love my bracelet and scarf. They are so beautiful and will always be a wonderful reminder of you and our weekend together in Nice. THANK YOU.

Finally another gigantic thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this year at WRW and the race weekend in Nice such a huge success! We are all so appreciative! And because we want to capture all those wonderful memories, Amy is in the process of setting up a photo sharing account for us so we can download and share the photos from the trip. More details on that to come soon.

This week is about enjoying WRW and doing a bit of running if you are up for it. We have an easy and fun run for tomorrow Wednesday. We’re taking the short route to Whole Foods in South Kensington. Plan on a slow, easy 4-mile run (and if you cut through the park, it could probably be around 3.5 miles – I won’t tell on you). It might feel good to get your legs moving again and shake out some of the post-race rust. Upstairs at Whole Foods, there is a big space for us to have coffee and you can do some shopping afterwards. If you are really not up for a run, you could also come meet us at Whole Foods.

Friday we’re back up the hill but if you can’t face the hill, come meet at Barclays and you can organise a group to do a flat run.

Welcome Ex-Beginners – Class of 2016!
Love that name! We’re excited to have the ex-beginners join our MWF group! As a reminder, we have five pace groups (8s, 9s, 10s, 11s, and 12s) but the groups are really just a simple way to organise folks who run at roughly the same pace. Most beginners start in the 11s or 12s. There is a big group of ex-beginners, so wherever you end up there will be other ex-beginners with you. We all know that joining the big group can be intimidating at first, but please know that the first day is the hardest. Everyone is so friendly that you will quickly fit right in. The beginner coaches also help you to get settled into the MWF group. If you find that on the first day the group that you are in is too fast or too slow, don’t worry. It may take a few tries to get a sense of where you should be. (It’s easier to join the MWF group in the spring, because in the fall there are many new runners that just moved to London.) As a reminder we meet at Barclays at 8:15, and we try to start running at 8:20. Let me know if you have any questions about the pace groups or the MWF group. We know that leaving the beginner group and joining the MWF group can feel a bit scary, but we’ll help you make the transition. I promise!

We’d love your help!
Please let us know if you’d like to help in any way with WRW next year. There are lots of jobs, both big and small.

That’s all for now – except to keep running!

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 25 April – Travel day back from Nice ½ marathon

Wednesday 27 April – Wholefoods S. Kensington thru Hyde Park (4 miles)

This route heads to Hyde Park in the usual way, heading down Lisson Grove to Seymour Place, taking a right at the end of the Seymour Place to cross over Edgware Road, then taking a left on Stanhope Place to the park entrance. We will then run to the left, heading towards Hyde Park Corner, but before we get to the corner we will head off to the right and run along an inner path towards Carriage Drive. Here we cross the road and continue on Flower Walk until we reach the south west corner of Kensington Gardens. We can cross Kensington High Street at Kensington Church Street to get to Whole Foods, which will be directly in front of us, where we can enjoy a coffee together and do a bit of shopping!

Friday 29 April – The Heath (4-8 miles)

Even after the ½ marathon we run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition!

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.

Hi Everyone,

This is our last week of training before the race! Well done to everyone who ran to Kew Gardens last week. On Monday, we have a 5-6 mile loop through Hyde Park and on Wednesday we have a 4-mile loop through Regent’s Park. Most of us will be gone on Friday and next Monday, but if you’re not going to the race please meet as usual and you can decide a route on the day. The next weekly email will go out on Tuesday April 26 after the race.

Nice, France details

Please look out for a series of emails with details about the trip including an itinerary, flight list and the famous photo book (THANK YOU AMY!). Let us know if you have any questions.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 18 April – Hyde Park (5 – 6 miles)
It is race week so the run in Hyde Park is a shorter loop than previous runs.

5 Mile:  Everybody starts the same way and by now you know the way to Hyde Park.  After entering the Park, turn right and run towards Speaker’s Corner. Continue south through Hyde Park, past the Serpentine and at the Carriage drive, make a left and head back toward Hyde Park Corner and 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 Mile: 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.

Wednesday 20 April – Regents Park loop (4 miles)
Head down Grove End Road as though going to Hyde Park BUT at Marylebone Road, turn left and follow Marylebone Road, past Madame Tussauds, then turn left at York Bridge and right at the Outer Circle.  Follow the Outer Circle counter clockwise, all the way to the crosswalk by the US Ambassador’s House. Cross out of the Park and head to Starbucks.

Friday 22 April – We leave for Nice!
All others – up the hill or whatever you would like.

Hi Everyone,
We’ve made it to our longest training run of the season – 11 miles to Kew Gardens! I hope the photo above inspires you. Once again our route takes us to a beautiful part of London as we run along the Thames. Don’t forget your Oyster card, water and gels. Remember, nothing new on race day. Now is the time to test your clothes, gels, water belt or anything else you might use or wear on race day. Please take a minute to read the route and especially note the directions for entering and exiting the Thames path. Please be on time to Barclays and get into your pace groups right away. We’ll do a staggered start since we’ll be a very large group and we don’t want to overwhelm the sidewalks.

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO AND PHOTOS
Thank you to everyone for participating in the filming this week! Please email your video and photos ASAP to [email protected] or Erin Roth  or Kate Worrell. We are also collecting all WRW photos from throughout the year. Please send your video and photos in as large a size as possible, ideally in the actual or original size. Thanks again!

Nice Race Medical Form
Chris Roberts is in the process of following up with everyone who had some sort of issue with their medical form. The Nice race website has a page to confirm that your registration is complete. If there is an issue, there will be a red X next to your name. If you are all set, there will be a green check next to your name. We want to get on the plane with everyone having a green check! If you go to the following link, you can enter your last name and check your registration.
LINK: http://www.sport-up.fr/site/partenaire/inscription/verif-31729.htm

Please make it a priority to confirm your registration is complete this week. The race organisers won’t give you a race number if there is any issue with your medical certificate!

Keep running,
Jane

ROUTES

Monday 11 April – Kew 11 miles

Bring your Oyster or contactless card!

You’ll be feeling exhilarated as we do our 11 mile run to the cute village of Kew. We start out the normal way running to Hyde Park. Once in the park, we’ll turn to the left and run down the main walkway as we regularly do, to Hyde Park Corner. At the end of the walk, turn right to follow the main cross route in the park—beware of the bike lane! When this ends at West Carriage Drive, cross the road at the crossing and continue on the pathway towards the southwest corner of Kensington Gardens. We’ll run out of the park at the Broadwalk, turning right onto Kensington High Street and continue for about two miles until we reach the Hammersmith Tube gyratory. Run counter clockwise towards the left, ending up on Queen Caroline Street which gets you to St. Paul’s Church green. Run along the green to the right, heading to and crossing over Hammersmith Bridge. Exit Hammersmith Bridge Road to your left, go down the stairs and run under the bridge onto the Thames footpath. Now it’s time to enjoy the view as we run along the Thames for almost four miles—it’s beautiful! We will exit at the Kew Bridge, see photo below:

Run UNDER the bridge and then turn left, past a couple of tiny shops and garages. Run through the small parking lot until you see the stone steps leading to the top of the bridge.

At the top of the steps turn right towards town (not back over the river) and run along this road [Kew Road] for about a third of a mile until you reach a 3-way intersection. Here there are two options. Option 1 is on the route map but option 2 may be easier to remember. The distance is the same.

Option 1 – At the 3-way intersection, veer left on Mortlake Road, then shortly thereafter turn right on Cumberland Road, which will merge into Kew Gardens Road. You’ll do a turn to the left onto Station Approach [follow the Kew Gardens Station signs]. There is a Starbucks around the small bend where we’ll all meet up to congratulate ourselves on such a great run!

Option 2 – At the 3-way intersection, veer right and follow Kew Road along the boundary wall to Kew Gardens until you reach the first main pedestrian entrance to Kew Gardens, the Victoria Gate. Across from Victoria Gate, is Lichfield Road (it is only sign posted on the left-hand corner). Follow Lichfield Road straight into Kew village. Starbucks is on the left where we’ll all meet up to congratulate ourselves on such a great run!

Wednesday 13 April – Camden/Morningside Crescent/Regent’s Park Loop 5 miles

We start out on the canal eastbound to Camden Market, where we exit the canal and turn right onto Camden High Street. We’ll run down Camden High Street to Mornington Crescent Tube Station and veer right onto Hampstead Road, which we will take down towards Euston Road. Just before reaching the huge intersection at Euston Road we turn right at the Sainsburys/Itsu and run between the office buildings and past the nice fountains. When we get onto Triton Street stay on the right side, cross Osnaburgh and continue to the zebra crossing to cross Albany Street. Run to the corner at Euston Road, take a right and the next right to enter the park. We make the first left onto Outer Circle and run around the loop to the Charlbert Street exit (where we usually enter for the canal or park). We’ll run up Charlbert Street to Allitsen Road, make a left, and head back to Starbucks.

Friday 15 April – Heath

It’s Friday again, so everyone up Fitzjohn’s. 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.

4 miles: Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back.
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.