Hello Runners!
I hope it was a great week for everyone.  I have been out of town, but seeing the pictures from Thursday’s run with the Beginner’s Group absolutely made my day.  Thank you to all who went out to meet them in Hyde Park– that first Big Ben run is such a milestone, and getting the surprise greeting from M-W-F runners makes it so memorable!  I’m sure the beginners were feeling the WRW love and beginning to catch on that they’re on to something special!

Running this week.  Monday we have a group favorite– the Richmond to Hampton Court adventure run.  This beautiful run out in the countryside along the Thames begins and ends with a train ride, so plan to give it the entire morning.  Please read the complete directions and maps found below, but it’s also important to note here that WE DONOT MEET AT BARCLAYS for this one! Instead MEET AT FINCHLEY ROAD AND FROGNAL OVERGROUND STATION at 8:30 for the 8:41 train (you can use your contactless card or Oyster).  The station is an easy bus ride up Finchley Road, or two stops on the Jubilee line to Finchley Road and a short walk further up the road to the overground station (not the Finchley Road tube station!).  We will arrive in Richmond around 9:15 and gather at the station entrance to start running, so if you are meeting us there, please plan to arrive by 9:15.  It’s a good idea to communicate amongst ourselves, via Whatsapp, about who is going on the adventure, so we can look out for each other– but please do be on time!  It’s a big time commitment for everyone already, so waiting around at the station is not in the plans!  If you are unable to clear the whole morning for the adventure run, no worries!  Either connect with others via Whatsapp to make your alternate plans, or show up at Barclays at the usual time and there will likely be others meeting up for alternate runs.  Wednesday we are back to our local routes, with the 6+ mile Notting Hill loop.  And Friday we head back to the Heath for the hill route of your choice.

Announcements and Shoutouts.  Congratulations and well done to the five ladies who ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon last weekend:  Laura Beal, Marigold Dooley, Roni Fransis, Katherine Greig and Meredith Snizek!  I hope I’m not missing anything, but I’m not aware of any WRW runners having race plans for this weekend.  Keep us posted on any upcoming races, so we can send out well wishes and kudos!  
A big shoutout to Tamar Brooks for organising and rallying runners to support the Beginner’s Big Ben run last week, as well as for the great photos!
You should have received the Prague Half Marathon “next steps” e-mail this week, with Carolyn’s detailed instructions for race registration and hotel reservations.  Please let us know if you did not receive this, or if you encounter any difficulties in the process.  And meanwhile, keep running to build a strong training base! 

Save the Date.  We have some fun mornings ahead, thanks to our wonderful Routes team.  Here are a few you might want to put on your calendar:
Oct. 30 (Wed) – Halloween Run to Whole Foods Kensington via Brompton Cemetery (start working on your costume!)
Nov. 11 (Mon) – Remembrance Run
Nov. 25 (Mon) – Crazy Tights Run (Holland Park to St James’ Park Benugo Cafe)
Dec. 4 (Wed) – Christmas Lights Run (early morning tour of the city lights before sun-up)

I’m so excited to get back to running with you all this week– especially looking forward to breakfast at Hampton Court Palace, rain or shine!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and see you soon!
xx Micki

ROUTES
Monday 21 October – Hampton Court Adventure Run (8 miles, or 6-mile option)
We will meet at the “Finchley Road and Frognal Overground Station” at 8:30 for the 8:41 train to Richmond. We will arrive in Richmond around 9:15 to start our run. You can take a bus up Finchley Road to the station or take the tube to Finchley Road, turn left and walk up to the Overground Station.

Leave the Richmond Overground Station, cross the road at the traffic lights and go straight through the narrow Old Station Passage. At the end, turn left on Little Green and follow straight past the Richmond Green until taking the left fork onto Friars Lane. Follow Friars Lane as it winds down to the river path.  

Now we stick to the river path along the Thames for the rest of our run. We will pass the grand red brick Ham House on the left, and eventually join Lower Ham Road. Keep right at the fork at Canbury Gardens, staying with the river just to your right. As you approach the center of Kingston you’ll run under a metal railway bridge; continue along as close to the Thames as possible until the next bridge, called Horse Fair Bridge. 

At the bridge you have two options — turn left into Kingston to stop at 6 miles, or cross the bridge to continue to Hampton Court Palace for 8 miles.

6-mile route: Go up the stairs on the near side of the Horse Fair bridge and turn left into town. Follow the road to the Kingston train station.

8-mile route: Go up the stairs on the near side of the Horse Fair Bridge and cross the bridge. Turn left at the end of the bridge onto a very pretty path called Barge Walk, which follows the river all the way to Hampton Court Palace. Once we arrive at the Palace, take a few snaps, and if you can stay for a coffee, we’ll meet at the Tiltyard Cafe, a restaurant on the Palace grounds with lovely outdoor space (and indoor too in case of inclement weather!). Cross the courtyard in front of the palace and then walk past the rose gardens to the cafe; no need to pay the Palace entrance fee.

Head back to London via Hampton Court train station. To get there, cross over the Thames on Hampton Court Bridge and the train station will be on your left. Be sure to check your travel sites to confirm the options for the trip home. There are usually local and express trains that go into London Waterloo.

Wednesday 23 October – Notting Hill (6.5 miles)
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 Blomfield Rd.  Run down Blomfield Rd to Westbourne Terrace Rd, being careful at the crossing at Warwick Avenue.  Turn left to cross the canal at Westbourne Terrace Rd.  Turn right after the bridge, follow the sidewalk along Delamere Terrace, and join the canal path heading west at this point.  Run to the Ladbroke Grove exit then run down Ladbroke Grove to Elgin Crescent and make a left. Cross Portobello Road and continue on what is now Colville Terrace until it meets Ledbury Road where we turn right and then left at Westbourne Grove. Run down Westbourne Grove to the top of Bishop’s Bridge, then left down the steps into Sheldon Square (across from the Paddington Station entrance). Stay along the canal to where you entered, then run back on Blomfield to SJW and Starbucks. 

Friday 25 October – The Hill (4 – 8 miles)

It’s Friday so up the hill we go!  There are multiple mileage options below, and this link will take you to all the Heath route descriptions.  Below is one of the standard 6-mile Heath routes.

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

Hello Runners!

Such an exciting week to be a part of WRW, with the 2020 Half Marathon in Prague revealed, and the annual kit orders going live all within a few days of each other!  It was also so much fun to get back to Brick Lane for the first time this year, and Wednesday’s run around Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park is looking like it will be a new favorite for many runners.

Running this week.  Monday we will head to Hyde Park and then loop around the outside of Green Park to St James Park, where there is a nice Benugo cafe with plenty of room for all of us to stop and have coffee/breakfast together!  This is a 6.25 mile destination run, so bring your contactless card to get back to St Johns Wood via Green Park or Westminster tube stops.  Wednesday we’ll run to Camden via the canal, and then exit to run along the streets and through Regents Park back to SJW.  And Friday we will have a redo of the Finsbury Park run we had planned for last week.  Thank you all for rolling with the weather-related changes on Friday!  Even though it didn’t end up being rainy that morning, the amount of rain over the last week would have made the path we take to Finsbury Park extremely boggy.  Fingers crossed we’ll have more sun and less monsoon this week!  As always, check the maps and directions below so you will know where you are going!

2020 Half Marathon.  I hope you are as thrilled as we are about the opportunity to visit and run a half marathon together in beautiful Prague in March 2020!  A very big thank you to Carolyn Perelmuter for working so hard to make this happen!  If you didn’t receive Tuesday’s email announcing our 2020 Half Marathon in Prague, let us know.  All the information will soon be available on our website, but at this point, the only action item is to book your flight (please remember the race is on Saturday this year, so the official trip is Thursday-Sunday). We’ll send out more details about the hotel and race registration soon, and we’ll also post our training plan, so you can see how we get from here to a half marathon in March. 

2019-2020 WRW kit order.  In other exciting news, the order form link went live for 2019-2020 WRW Kit yesterday.  The deadline for placing orders is this Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 5pm– so don’t miss it!  The thanks for this huge effort goes to Marissa O’Malia!  One clarification from my accompanying note:  I mentioned the race hat coordinating with the annual shirt, but didn’t say that the race hat is not something we order right now.  Instead, each person who goes on the trip will receive a race hat– no one has to wear it during the race, but they are a fantastic way to help us spot each other in the sea of runners!  

And while we’re on the subject of kit, we are still taking ideas for the shirt slogan for this year!  Drop us an e-mail ([email protected]) with your best ideas– remember, it has to be short enough to fit on the shirt and be readable!– and our panel of judges will pick a great one to be revealed when the shirts come in.  Examples from previous years?  “Run Like A Girl”, “We Run London”, “Sorry, Gotta Run!”, “In It For The Long Run”, “This Is My Happy Pace”, “Keep Calm and Run On”, and “Anytime, Anywhere, Any Pace.”

Save the Date:  October 21, Hampton Court Adventure Run.  Mark your calendars for our first adventure run of the year.  This 8-mile run begins with a train ride to Richmond, and then becomes a truly lovely run along the Thames from Richmond to beautiful Hampton Court Palace.  We finish with coffee and a treat in the garden cafe, and then take a train back to Waterloo Station and on to home.  With the extra travel time, you’ll need at least the whole morning to get this one in– but it is well worth it if you can afford the time!

Shoutouts!   One final shoutout to our Ragnar teams now that results are finally in and we can confirm that the ‘Crazy 8’s’ team (with Stephanie, Marissa, Karen, Miki, Asdis, Sarah, Katherine, Bjorg, McKenzie, and Abigail) once again came in first in the women’s category, and shaved over an hour off their overall time from last year!  We are so proud of them, as well as of all the WRW representation in this fairly hardcore event!   

Big congratulations also go out to Stephanie Gladis and Kelly Willis, who both had amazing, strong finishes at the Berlin Marathon last weekend.  Kelly finished 10th in her age group (out of over 1600 women!) and Stephanie ran a strong personal best time!  Well done, ladies.

Finally, I want to end with a huge shoutout to Miki Neant, who ran her first ultramarathon today, the Ultra London 55k, from Woolwich to Richmond… and WON it!  Congratulations to Miki!  A WRW friend who was at the finish line (in a tutu, of course!) sent the photo below.  I absolutely love it, because it captures so well what running teaches us all about how strong we are– whether we are winning our first ultramarathon, conquering a hill, or finishing a two-mile run for the first time.  Running reminds us we can do hard things; and running together reminds us we can find joy in tackling those hard things– together!  Whatever our speed, whatever our distance, I’m grateful to be part of this journey with all of you!

xx Micki   (no, the other one… the one who didn’t run, much less win, an ultramarathon earlier today!!)

ROUTES

Monday 7 October – Hyde Park to St James Park Benugo (6.25 miles)
Run to Hyde Park the usual way, down Circus Road and left on Grove End/Lisson Grove. Cross diagonally at the light to run along the west side of the street. Cross over Marylebone Road, onto Seymour Place, and run until the road ends. Turn right on Seymour Street, cross Edgware Road, and turn left at Stanhope Place where we will enter into Hyde Park.
Turn right at the silver sphere after entering Hyde Park. Cross over N Carriage Rd and continue on straight past the Italian Gardens and along the north side of the park all the way to the Broad Walk.  Turn left and run past Kensington Palace all the way to the end of The Broad Walk.  Turn left and take the one of the outer paths to West Carriage Drive, cross over, and continue along one of the outer paths all the way to Hyde Park Corner.  At Hyde Park Corner, cross the road to run through Wellington Arch and then cross into Green Park and take a left to run along the northwest side of the park, past the RAF memorial and continuing all the way to the Green Park tube station entrance.  Run past the entrance and turn right on the straight gravel path that runs alongside the park’s boundary wall.  Follow it to the end and then cross the Mall at the traffic light to enter St James’ Park.  Run down to the water and turn left, keeping the water on your right until you run into Benugo Cafe.

Wednesday 9 October – Camden Lock/Mornington Crescent/Regent’s Park (5 miles) 

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 11 October  – Finsbury Park via Highgate/Parkland Walk — (7 miles)
For this run we start up Fitzjohn’s as if we’re going to the Heath, but pass the Heath entrance and continue up Spaniards/Hampstead Lane into Highgate. Turn left down Southwood Lane (the road next to Gail’s) and go down the hill, then veer to the right (not a hard right turn!) onto Jackson’s Lane. Continue down Jackson’s to Archway Road and make a right, then a relatively quick left onto Holmesdale Road. Run a short distance on Holmesdale and the entrance to Parkland Walk will be on your left. Follow the path to Finsbury Park, cross over the train tracks, turn right and run along the western edge of the park and exit onto Seven Sister’s Road. Happening Bagel is across the street, Costa is to the right, and Finsbury Park Station is further down on the right (on the Piccadilly and Victoria tube lines).