Hello Runners!
It was a short week for us with the bank holiday, but we packed in all the iconic sights and some good breakfasts, too!  Wednesday’s Leavers’ Run through the sights of London could not have been more beautiful, and some of your photos are stunning!   

Running this Week.  Monday we will head to Brick Lane via the canal to see what’s new in the local street art and maybe grab some bagels to bring home.  Wednesday we’ll start on the canal again, but it’s worth the repeat to run down Farringdon to Embankment and then back up to Whole Foods Piccadilly.  And Friday we can either head up the hill for a Heath loop of your choice, or run to Borough Market (for treats before our end-of-year celebration in Regents Park that afternoon).

End-of-year Celebration this Friday!   We will gather by pace groups in Regents Park at 1pm Friday for a picnic.  Your hardworking pace group leaders will let you know how your group will be organising the food part of the celebration, whether brown-bagging, potlucking, Deliveroo-ing, or white-glove catering!  Bring blankets, beverages, and plan to spend some time just hanging out together and toasting this really unique year, and most especially the friendships and running partners who helped us through it!  Though we still have to keep our groups to the 30-person threshold, we’ve scouted and planned five different but adjacent spots where all the groups will be able to see and visit each other, while keeping to the rules, of course.  There is a restroom nearby, and hourly paid parking on the Inner Circle (see the map below).  There will be no formal programming or speeches, but the annual WRW video, produced by creative mastermind Janelle Meyer (who is, sadly, also a leaver!), will drop during the event.  And finally, our rain date is Monday, so if it looks dubious, we will decide by mid-day Thursday and let you know!

Announcements and Shoutouts.   Though none of us want to think about our friends leaving, we do have over 20 WRW runners leaving London this year (a few have already gone).  Look for a separate e-mail this week with links to cards for each of them, so that we can each send with them our love and good wishes, not to mention any great photos to help commemorate our time running together!

Thanks to our kitmaster Marissa, for staying in touch with Lululemon.  They have given us early access to a big Lululemon sale at the Marylebone store.  From 9-10am Friday morning (June 11), WRW runners and SJWWC members will have first pick before the sale opens to the public– some may want to build that into their run plans Friday morning!  

Though we are out of time for planning an official run of it, Tamar has passed along info on the Mayfair sculpture trail, which opened this month.  The site includes photos and maps, so it could be a great motivation to get out there right away next week after official WRW runs end next Wednesday.

If you hear of anyone who would like to join the Beginner’s class of 2022, please connect us or pass along their contact info to [email protected].  As anyone who has been through this program knows, it can be an amazing, life-changing experience!  The program is for people who have truly never been runners before.  It starts out with one-minute intervals at a very slow jog, so is not appropriate for anyone who is able to run even a mile or two.  Our regular M-W-F group can help people who have been runners before ease back into it and work up to joining our M-W-F runs.

I’m trying, really I am, to rein in the long e-mails, friends!  So I will leave the sappy stuff for next week and sign off now just asking for fingers crossed for good weather Friday!  In the midst of all kinds of end-of-year craziness– moving, graduations, kids with exams, goodbye gatherings– I hope to see you out taking some time for yourselves on our London runs together.  Have a great week!
xx Micki

ROUTES
Monday 7 June – Brick Lane Art Tour – 6.6 milesRunGo:  https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/JtJprR11K2
This route is a slight variation of the Brick Lane route we’ve run in the past.  It takes you down several streets known for their street art.  Street art is constantly changing so there are no guarantees, but chances are good you see something spectacular!
We will head out in the same way as though we are running to The Wall. Take the Canal east to the Wall—go up the ramp to Muriel Street, take a right and then an almost immediate left up a path that winds between the apartment buildings. Here’s the entrance to the path:

Keep going straight on the path and it will become Maygood Street. When you get to the intersection of a main road (Barnsbury Road) turn right.  Run until you make the second left onto Chapel Market. (There is a metal archway saying Chapel Market and a zebra crossing at the intersection.) Follow Chapel Market until the end. Turn right at Liverpool Street to the major road Upper Street. Cross Upper Street and turn left, then make your first right at Duncan Street. Follow Duncan Street to the end and there will be an entrance to the canal directly in front of you. At the canal path, continue running straight about a mile and a half, the water will be on your right. Follow the canal until you reach the Kingsland Road Bridge, Number 45. See the photo below.

Run up the ramp at the side (on the left) to get up to Kingsland Road.  Turn right (you’ll be running back over the canal). Follow Kingsland Road– you’ll see the Gherkin building in the distance in front of you, and Kingsland Road will become Shoreditch High Street at Old Street and you will turn right shortly after onto Rivington Street.  Turn left at Curtain Rd, run a couple of blocks and turn left on New Inn Yard.  You should be seeing some art by now!  Make your first right onto King John Court and left onto Holywell Lane.  At the end, cross the road and bear slight right onto Bethnal Green Road. Take your first left onto Ebor St, right on Redchurch St, right on Chance and then left on Whitby to see some more popular art areas.  Turn right onto Club Row, cross over Bethnal Green Rd and turn right and then the first left onto Sclater St.  At Brick Lane, turn left and run up to Beigel Bake and Crosstown Doughnuts on your left.  
For the journey home, you can take the Shoreditch High Street Overground to Canada Water and then take the Jubilee Line home. Or you can walk through Spitalfields Market to get to the Liverpool Street tube station.

Wednesday 9 June – Farringdon/Piccadilly Whole Foods – 6.5 milesRunGo:  https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/wO9FZTEsoH
How can you resist a fun destination route that ends up with delicious and healthy food options to bring home?  We start out heading east on the canal and run to the Wall. We’ll exit the canal there and turn right onto Rodney, which will turn into Penton Rise, then King’s Cross Road, and eventually Farringdon, which we will stay on until we reach the embankment. We then turn right and run along Victoria Embankment to Northumberland (just past Embankment Tube Station). Turn right onto Northumberland and run through Trafalgar Square onto Cockspur and then turn right onto Haymarket. Take Haymarket into Piccadilly Circus and turn left onto Coventry. Run through Piccadilly Circus, across the street and onto Glasshouse Street, where you will see Whole Foods Market.

Friday 11 June – Heath/Borough – 6 milesWe have our celebration picnic at 1pm today.  Why not run down to Borough to pick up some goodies for lunch?  Or do a loop in the Heath so you’re back home in plenty of time to prepare.I think we all know the way to Borough by now so no map this week!
Heath Options -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 Route6+ miles:  The partial Heath route OR the Reverse Heath route OR Pergola route7.5 miles: The Highgate route8 miles:  The full Heath route
Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.