Hello Runners!
Once again, what a fun week of running!  I love how the “Crazy 8’s” perfectly captured the joy and energy we all felt last week coming off the race and back to two favorite runs in sunny London! (Some serious leaps in that bunch, too!).  Don’t forget to send any great photos you take– it’s so fun to see what each pace group gets up to when they’re turned loose in London…
Running this Week.  We’re going to try to keep the fun vibe rolling this week with a (dare I say ‘bright’?) idea brought to us by the 11s Whatsapp chat:  First Race Hat Run.  On Monday morning, don your first WRW race hat– or some other bright and interesting hat if you haven’t yet done a race with us– for the run through Sloane Square and Westminster to the Benugo in St James Park.  It will be slightly less than 7 miles if you stop at the cafe, or right at 7 if you go straight on to Green Park tube, and there are options to stop at 3.75 (Sloane Sq) or just over 6 at Westminster.  We should be a pretty neon group, given that we always choose hats we hope will help us find each other in a sea of runners!  

Wednesday, let’s try to stop and smell the roses in Regents Park gardens as we run the Inner/Outer Regents Park loop and end back in St Johns Wood. Instead of sticking with the pavements outside the park, try running inside the fences and taking in all the flowers blooming, especially aiming for the rose gardens inside the Inner Circle.  And Friday we head back up to the Heath for the route of your choice.  As always, please do see below in “Routes” for maps and instructions.

Shout-outs and Announcements.  A belated set of congratulations for all the ladies who ran other half marathons while some of us were in Milan.  Heather Davenport, Sarah Nicoli, and Katherine Grieg ran the London Landmarks Half– well done, ladies!  And congratulations also to alums Yianna Xenakis and Vicky Timbers (and Vicky’s daughter, Chrissie), who ran the Napa Half on the same weekend!  Please let me know if I’ve missed anyone, and do keep us up on races you’re running– shout-outs are free, and we love to give them!!

Our routes team deserves a huge shout-out for all the hard work they’re doing this spring in creating some new routes for us– Thank You!!  Here’s a look ahead so you can get some of the not-to-be-missed runs on your calendar during this busy time of year.  Anything we call an “Adventure Run” is one that requires a tube or train ride to get us to the start.  Those usually mean you need to plan a little extra time compared to a regular run, so we will also offer alternate runs for those who can’t carve out the time on one of those days.

SAVE THE DATE
Monday 8 April – NEW Adventure Run – Ally Pally to Finsbury Park
Friday 26 April – Borough Market
Monday 29 April – Adventure Run – Hampton Court
Wednesday 8 May – Covent Garden
Friday 10 May – NEW Adventure Run – Dollis Hill to Hampstead
Monday 13 May – NEW Adventure Run – Windsor
Wednesday 22 May – Sights of London/Leaver’s Coffee
Friday 31 May – Borough Market
Monday 3 June – Brick Lane

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend.  Happy Mother’s Day to so many of you!  Whether you light up the world for your little people, are tolerated by your teens, or treasure the days you get to spend with the fun and interesting young adults you sometimes can’t believe you raised– you are amazing, giving, loving people!  And mothering or not, I can say that last bit about every single person in this group for the way we treat each other.  So thankful for you all… and looking forward to seeing you (in neon hats!) at Barclays!
xx  Micki

ROUTES
Monday 1 April – Sloane Sq/Westminster/Green Park, 3.75 or 6 or 7 Pick whichever distance suits you but most will end at Benugo in St. James Park.
Everybody starts out to Hyde Park, taking the usual route: west on Circus Road, left on Grove End, all the way down to Seymour Place to where the road ends. Right on Seymour, across Edgware, left on Stanhope and enter the park. At the silver orb, turn left and run down to the southern edge, following the path to the right before it leaves the Park. Run to the large gated exit (Albert Gate) before the tall ‘One Hyde Park’ complex, cross Knightsbridge and turn right on Knightsbridge, then a left onto Sloane Street after Harvey Nichols. Follow Sloane St until it ends at Sloane Square.
3.75’ers: at Sloane Sq, take the Tube home!

6.33’ers: continue past Sloane Sq down Lower Sloane St/Chelsea Bridge Road to the Thames. Turn left on the Thames side of Grosvenor Rd and run along the embankment to Westminster Tube – you’re done!

7+’ers: continue left on Birdcage Walk, running up the eastern edge of St. James Park and cutting in at Horseguards Parade to end at Benugo for coffee.  

Wednesday 3 April  – Inner and Outer Regents Park – 5 miles
From Barclay’s head down Wellington Road to the traffic circle at Lord’s Cricket Ground and bear left onto Prince Albert Road. Run to the pedestrian crossing where we will cross and head to the OuterCircle. Turn right and run on the inside of the circle past Winfield House which will be on your left. Continue around the Outer Circle until you reach the traffic light at intersection with York Bridge. Turn left and proceed to the Inner Circle. Run one complete loop of the Inner Circle and back out across York Bridge where we will take a left and continue on Ulster Terrace which is part of the Outer Circle. At the next large intersection take a left and continue on the Outer Circle, heading north back towards the Zoo and Camden. Pass the entrance to the Zoo on your left and continue to the bridge at North Gate which we will cross to reach Charlbert Street. Run up Charlbert Street until St John’s Terrace where we turn left and run back to Barclay’s for a stretch before heading to Starbucks.

… and don’t forget to stop and smell the roses!

Friday, 5 April – The Heath!  It’s Friday again, so everyone up the hill! 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+ miles:  The partial Heath route OR the Reverse Heath route OR Pergola route
7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route
Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

Good morning, Runners!  
Bravi to all of our Milan ladies!!  What a wonderful, spectacular, crazy weekend!  There is simply nothing like running with you all… I was so proud of everyone in a pink hat this weekend– (even the two or three who weren’t part of our group but still got a probably-terrifying “WOO-HOO!” from me when I saw them on the course)!!  There are loads of gorgeous, creative, inspiring pictures in circulation, and I’m sure there will be more in days ahead.  But the unofficial “finish-line flash mob” photo above is an instant classic, as it shows how everyone hung out at the finish to support and cheer for one another– which is one of the things we do best (besides running the world)!

Meanwhile, here’s the link to the brilliant race video:  https://youtu.be/KoI2XHMcznI !  The video writers/directors/producers/editors Megan Marine, Vicki Renner, and Carol Bertolino are wonders– so clever and funny!  

Running this week.  A special congratulations and big welcome to our Beginners Class of 2019, who rocked the 13.1 on Sunday and are now officially on the weekly e-mail distribution list!  Please come out and join us Wednesday or Friday– it’s the perfect time, as this week we’re running a couple of favourite routes and making sure we end with good coffee and breakfast options.  Wednesday we’ll take the 4-mile route around Hyde Park to Whole Foods Kensington (btw… they now have Crosstown Donuts in the downstairs pastry/coffee area).  And Friday we’ll give the hills a miss and run 6 miles to Borough Market via Westminster.

Can’t wait to see you all for some fun runs this week.  Coming back to real life after our race weekends together can be a bit of an adjustment, so let’s ease back into it with a little bit of running together!  See you at Barclays…
xx Micki

ROUTES
Monday 25 March – Travel day back from Milan!
All others meet at Barclays for a route of your choice.

Wednesday 27 March – Whole Foods S. Kensington via Hyde Park (4 miles)This route heads to Hyde Park in the usual way. 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. 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 March – 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.

Good Morning, Runners!
Here we are at race week already– how did that happen?  We had some wind and mud to deal with this week on our run to Kew, but Monday was a beautiful day for running 11 miles!  Hope you all enjoyed it!  And HUGE congratulations to our Beginners group, who also did their Kew run on Thursday (in nastier weather than we had).  This is an amazing achievement for women who were never runners before September!  Immense credit to Beginner Coaches Amy Grace, Megan Marine, Melissa Kay, Jess Browne and Vicki Renner– you have been SO generous and wonderful to help these 20 women to reach this goal.

For those running the half marathon, this is an easy running week.  We’re letting our bodies rest and recover, and we’re storing up energy to set loose next Sunday in Milan.  For those not running the half marathon, the good news is that we’re finally going to do this and then things can get back to “normal!”  Monday we will run a 6 mile loop in Hyde Park– please check the route directions below, as it’s shorter than our usual Hyde Park routes.  Wednesday we will do a 5 mile run to Camden and Mornington Crescent, and back through Regent’s Park.  And Friday… many of us will depart for Milan!  If you will be in London, communicate with any in your groups who are not doing the half, and you can head up the hill, or choose your own fun destination!  The next weekly e-mail will come out on Tuesday, March 26, after we return from Milan.  For those in town on Monday, please meet up as on Friday and choose routes together.

Remember that Monday morning after our run (around 9:45), a group of us will head to Pret to hold an info/Q and A session for anyone who hasn’t run a half marathon before.  We will do our best to answer questions and offer whatever experience we can share.  Please join us if interested!  You should have received a lengthy e-mail with an attachment this week if you are running the half marathon.  This includes everything you need to know for next weekend, so please do reach out if you haven’t received it.
That’s it for now, believe it or not.  Enjoy the sunshine this morning!
xx Micki

ROUTES
Monday 18 March – Hyde Park 6 miles
It’s race week so the run in Hyde Park is a shorter loop than previous runs.
We start from Barclays and run down Circus Road and turn left on Grove End/ Lisson Grove. Cross diagonally at the light to be on the west side of the street. Cross over Marylebone Rd (now you’re on Seymour Pl) and run until the road ends. Turn right on Seymour St, cross Edgware Rd, and turn left at the next street (Stanhope Pl). Cross into Hyde Park, cross over the Carriage Rd and you’re ready to go.
Upon entering the park, you turn right at the silver sphere. Cross over N Carriage Rd and turn left just after the Italian Gardens. Run along the Serpentine, past the gardens, swimming pond and cafe. Turn left at the end of the Serpentine, over the bridge at the cafe. Take the diagonal path off to your right across the park and head back up along the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Upper Brook St/Animals of War exit. After crossing Park Lane proceed straight to the next light and turn left at Park Street. Head straight up this street all the way back to St John’s Wood.

Wednesday 20 March – Camden Lock/Mornington Crescent/Regent’s Park (5 miles) We have adjusted this route to keep to the less travelled and less polluted streets. Head to the canal going eastbound to Camden Lock, where we cross the small, cobblestone bridge, exit the canal and turn right onto Camden High Street. Take the first right turn onto Jamestown Road and then the first left onto Arlington Road. Run straight down Arlington Road, make a slight right onto Mornington Crescent, follow it around and turn right onto Hampstead Road. At the first intersection, turn left onto Granby Terrace and the second left onto Stanhope Street. Continue down Stanhope until we reach Trinton Square. Turn right and run between the office buildings at Regent’s Place, past the nice fountains, to the end of Trinton Street. Use the pedestrian crossings to cross Osnaburgh Street and Albany Street. Head left to the intersection of Euston Road, where you take a right and run briefly along Euston Road. At Park Square East, turn right through the gates towards Regent’s Park. We enter the park at the Outer Circle intersection and stay on the path on the far right (east side) of the park, cross the Broad Walk at the ornamental fountain and head along the path with the Zoo to our right. Turn left onto the Outer Circle, past the Avenue Road exit, and right at the second exit (where we usually enter for the canal or park). Run up Charlbert Street to St John’s Wood Terrace, make a left, and head back to Starbucks.

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