Hello Runners!
I hope the photos above aren’t too dizzying, but I wanted to begin this week’s note with all the happy photos we received this week. Even as we work to observe Covid guidelines and we watch national and community developments with regard to the virus, it’s nice to take a moment to appreciate the runs we’ve had together so far, the perfect weather we’ve enjoyed, and this beautiful city we get to run through!
You are doing a great job with social distancing and the Rule of Six at meetup in the park, and at post-run times. Please keep paying attention to this, especially when we are meeting our sixes at St Johns Wood Church Gardens. In order for us to stay legal, each of us must be aware of numbers and make sure we are not pushing a grouping over six. We also have to intentionally create larger spaces between groups. From across the park (where people are walking their children to school on the pavement and looking into the park at us!), a 2-meter space between groups looks like no space at all– so we have to make sure our ‘six-packs’ are separated by several meters. And, of course, keep remembering your masks for our time in the park. Thanks to all, for doing the right things so that we can hopefully keep running in our small packs! For a refresher on how we are operating right now, here are the links to last week’s guidance e-mail and our Covid-19 statement. Please also feel free to reach out to [email protected] (or to me personally) if you have any concerns, questions, or even if you just need to talk!
Running this Week. On Monday we are staying with our new standard Hyde Park runs, with the 8s and 10s taking the Hyde Park via Westbourne Terrace route, and the 9s and 11s taking the Hyde Park via Regents Park route this week. Directions and RunGo links are in the Routes section below. There are infinite ways to run once you hit the park, or you can follow one of our routes from the website. In the last two weeks many of us ran to destinations beyond Hyde Park, and those routes to Westminster/Green Park are always an option as well. Wednesday we will reverse the two routes we offered last week, the Camden/Mornington Crescent loop (8s and 10s) and the Notting Hill loop (9s and 11s). Remember we are now running those in reverse, so we hit the canal later, when there is less traffic. And finally, on Friday we have the two new Heath routes, as well as the ever-tempting Borough Market option. This week the 8s and 10s have the Elsworthy Rd route and the 9s and 11s have the Belsize Lane/Thurlow Rd route. All directions and the new RunGo links can be found below.
Announcements. Jess Browne (pace leader, Beginners coach, and lovely person in general) has come up with a brilliant and generous idea! I’ll pass it along in her words:
“I believe that running is great for life, for mental health and for bonding with yourself and others. During this difficult time many teenagers and recent graduates may be stuck at home without local friends as Covid disrupts everything, so I want to offer them running coaching. Let your kids know that if they want to run with me I can take them with up to 4 friends for 30 minutes. No set pace and no experience needed, just the will to go out and meet outdoors. If they are new to London they are also welcome and I’ll group them up so they can meet new friends. Just tell them to email me. It’s free and I promise they will love it and I promise you I’ll take care of them. Thanks! Jess”
Jess has been a WRW Beginner’s group coach for three years, and she has coached many other women as they have started or resumed running (including many of our regular runners over this summer!). She knows what she is doing, and she is both kind and fun. If you have young adults or teens at home in a holding pattern, her idea might be just right for them! You can reach her at the email link above.
We have had a few inquiries from runners who can’t make our regular meeting times, looking for groups running at alternate times. We’d love to help connect people! Please drop us a note at [email protected], or better yet, use this link to join our existing Whatsapp group– “WRW Alt. Times”– kindly created by Janelle Meyer, and used by runners to self-organise.
Watch your inboxes in the next week or so for our 2020-21 WRW Kit Order! Our kit guru Marissa O’Malia, along with race boss Sue Wheeler, has been hard at work organising an order for our annual shirts and some other WRW-logo goodies. We’re not sure exactly when the form will drop, but keep an eye out, as it will have a quick turn-around time. In this crazy year, we have to get the order in much earlier than usual, as everything everywhere is operating in a delayed fashion. Also… we are now taking nominations for the shirt slogan– six words or less to sum up our group or our year?? Here’s a sample of 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”, “Anytime, Anywhere, Any Pace,” and “Another Run Stronger.” Looking forward to your ideas! Send them to [email protected].
Just another reminder… The Royal Parks Half has a ‘surprise lottery’ open through this Wednesday, Sept 23 at 5pm, for places in their rescheduled race, now planned for Sunday, April 11. It’s a free entry! This race, usually held in October, has been popular with our runners through the years, so we wanted to make you aware of this opportunity, even though it may fall quite close to any possible WRW race. If we are able to take WRW to a destination half marathon this year, it will likely happen at the end of March or beginning of April.
Okay, all that remains is to wish Shana Tovah! to those of you celebrating. I imagine it has been a different kind of holiday with the Rule of Six in place, but we hope that it has been a meaningful celebration, and that it is indeed a sweet new year ahead!
I look forward to seeing many of you this week. Though we are carefully staying at an appropriate distance, I still feel– and I hope you do, too– the WRW camaraderie in our community. Even at several meters apart, it is a joy to run this life alongside you!
xx Micki
ROUTES
Monday, September 21 – Hyde Park via two Routes (4 – 7 miles)
8s and 10s pace groups – Hyde Park via Westbourne Terrace
https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/j7nkmylery
Options – your choice in Hyde Park to increase or decrease distance! See here for all of our old, familiar Hyde Park routes!
9s and 11s pace groups – Hyde Park via Regent’s Park
https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/WV7sVAqTR5
Options – your choice in Hyde Park to increase or decrease distance! See here for all of our old, familiar Hyde Park routes!
Wednesday, September 23 -Reverse Camden/Mornington Crescent OR Reverse Notting Hill
8s and 10s pace groups – Reverse Camden/Mornington Crescent (5 miles)
RunGo link: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/2wR1WTbGbe
Run south on Wellington Rd, cross at the zebra crossing and turn left onto Prince Albert Rd. Enter the park at Charlbert and turn left to run around the Outer Circle. Head out of the park at Park Square, turning left onto Marylebone Rd. Turn left onto Osnaburgh St and then right into Triton St. Take the second left to connect through to Stanhope St. Continue on Stanhope and turn right onto Varndell St. Then take a right onto Hampstead Rd. Turn left onto Mornington Crescent and then left onto Arlington Rd. When it ends, cross the street and go straight to get to the canal. Cross over the bridge to the left and run straight on the canal. Exit the canal at Charlbert and head to St Johns Wood, or take a detour in the park if you want to extend your distance.
9s and 11s pace groups – Reverse Notting Hill (6.5 miles)
RunGo link: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/G4FcjiR2h9
Run down Circus Road and turn left on Grove End. Turn right on St. John’s Wood Rd and then left on Cunningham Place. Make your next right onto Aberdeen, cross Maida Vale and continue on Blomfield Rd. Turn left onto Westbourne Terrace Rd to cross the canal and immediately turn left to enter the canal, keeping straight. Just after you pass under the Westway, turn right and then left into Sheldon Square. Head out of Paddington Basin, going up the steps, and turn right onto Bishop’s Bridge Rd. Run for about a mile and turn right onto Ledbury Rd. Make your second left onto Colville Terrace. Turn right onto Ladbroke Grove and run to the canal, entering where we usually exit. Turn right and run on the canal until Westbourne Terrace Rd, exiting to cross the bridge and turn right onto Blomfield. Run back the way we came – left onto Cunningham, right on St. John’s Wood Rd, left on Grove End and right on Circus Rd.
Friday, September 25 – Reverse Heath Routes (5-8 miles)
8s and 10s pace groups – Hampstead Heath via Elsworthy Rd
RunGo link: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/OGdOHtpFkK
Exit the church gardens at the gate on the St Johns Wood High Street side, cross the street, and run a short distance to make a right on Allitsen Road. Make a left on Townshend Road and follow it to its end, then make a right on Acacia Road and a quick left on Avenue Road. Cross Avenue at the first crossing to run down Elsworthy Road. At the end of Elsworthy, turn left onto Primrose Hill Road and follow it until you turn right onto England’s Lane. At the end of England’s Lane, cross Haverstock Hill and go right just to take a left onto Parkhill Rd. Follow Parkhill to its end, then take a right onto Mansfield Road and a left on Roderick Road. At the end of Roderick, you will see the Heath entrance across the street.
Elsworthy to Heath Reverse 6 – 6.4 milesOnce you enter the Heath, turn right and run along the path above the track. Turn left after you pass the cafe on your left. Run straight along the path until you reach the end of the second pond. Turn left and run straight along the path until it reaches a T. Turn right and follow the path as it curves gently and then joins up with the path we take to enter the Heath on our standard 6-mile route. Exit the park at Spaniards Road and turn left to run down Heath Street and Fitzjohn’s Avenue to Swiss Cottage. From Swiss Cottage take St Johns Wood Park to Ordnance Road and turn right on St Johns Wood Terrace to end on the High Street.
9s and 11s pace groups – Hampstead Heath via Thurlow Rd
RunGo link: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/i8RgRtOTQE
From the Church Gardens, cross SJW High Street and take either Greenberry St or Barrow Hill Rd to Bridgeman St. Turn right onto Allitsen and left onto Charlbert. Take a quick left and then a right onto Ordnance Hill and run up to Swiss Cottage. Pass the tube and turn right onto Belsize Lane. Take the first left onto Daleham Gardens, keeping left onto Akenside Rd. Turn right onto Lyndhurst Rd and then the first left onto Lyndhurst Terrace. Turn right onto Thurlow Rd and run straight until you enter the park. Take the first path on the left and follow the curve to the right between the two ponds. Then… follow the directions below for your distance/hill preference.
Parliament Hill – 6 miKeep running straight to go up Parliament Hill the way we normally do. At the top, take a left on the dirt path and veer to the left at the second path and then turn left at the next path. Veer to the right and shortly rejoin the path we usually run down (turn right to go up the hill). At the entrance to the Heath, turn left and run back via Fitzjohn’s and to SJW via SJW Park/Ordnance.
Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.
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Website: https://womenrunningtheworld.com/
COVID-19: https://womenrunningtheworld.com/covid-19/
Facebook Group: Women Running The World (request to join)
RunGo Group: WRW London (https://routes.rungoapp.com/group/wrw)
Email: [email protected]