Hello Runners!
It’s always nice to pause at the weekend and think about the miles we covered together in the last week: an old favorite route (Finsbury Park), a fun new route to Victoria, and a Remembrance Day route that has to be one of the best themed London tours out there. And such is the magic of running with you all, that I didn’t even remember it was rainy on Wednesday until I noticed wet pavement in the photos!
Running this week. This week we get to start with our run to Hampton Court Palace! Please note: We do NOT meet at the St Johns Wood Church Gardens for this run! We will meet at the Finchley and Frognal Overground Station (not the Finchley Road Underground Station!) at 8:30 to catch an 8:44 train. See the “Routes” section below for full directions. Please communicate on your chat so that Pace Leaders know who to look out for, and please be prompt, as the group can’t miss the train to wait for an individual. We will arrive in Richmond to start the run at 9:25, so if you are thinking about timing you can figure your run time for 8 miles, whatever time you spend in the Tiltyard Cafe, and plan for a 35-40 minute train ride back to London Waterloo, plus time to tube home. Trains from Hampton Court depart at :24 and :54 each hour.
But now for the fun part– with this run, not only do we get to relive half-marathon glory on a portion of last spring’s route, but we also have a new feature this time. Erin Roth has struck again, tweaking the Richmond start of the run to make it ‘Ted Lasso Style!’ We will run by the pub, by Ted’s house, and past some other locations from the show. Maybe we’ll all be inspired to tell the people we’re running with what we appreciate about them! All credit to Erin for the fun idea and theme! And if that’s not enough, Dinae Norris forwarded info on the Standing with Giants exhibition taking place on palace grounds at the moment: it’s an art installation that includes more than 100 specially commissioned silhouettes of WWI soldiers, including Indian soldiers who camped on the grounds in 1919, when they traveled to the UK to participate in the victory parades.
After that eventful Monday, we will come back to being more local on Wednesday, with a loop in Regents Park. And Friday we are finally headed back up the hill to the Heath! Come on, you know you have missed it!
Shoutouts and Announcements. Francesca Rangheri and Rebeca Ehrnrooth ran the Milton Keynes ‘Enigma Millenium Falcon’ Marathon Saturday (isn’t that a great name for a race?!). Stephanie Gladis is running the Ravenna marathon on Sunday. Abby Khatiblou, Clare Missin, Marigold Dooley, and Meredith Snizek are running the Grand Union Canal Half Marathon on Sunday. And I believe Miki Neant is also running the Abbot Global Marathon locally on Sunday, after having competed in another Surrey League Cross Country race on Saturday. Cheers for all of these runners, kudos for getting out there, and apologies if I’ve missed anyone (let me know)!
Please bear with us as we repeat here the Covid-related note you may have seen on your chats this week:
As Covid cases are on the rise in our community, we wanted to send around this reminder from the first WRW email of the year: Please do not run with the group if you are experiencing covid symptoms or if someone in your household has tested positive.
While UK guidance does not currently require a fully vaccinated person to isolate if a member of their household has Covid, we are asking this additional courtesy to help prevent widespread exposure in our community. Though most of us should no longer be at great risk of serious illness from Covid, we cannot assume others, or their family members, are not vulnerable. And with the holidays upon us and a myriad of plans hanging in the balance, we need to be mindful of how great an impact an exposure and a positive test could potentially have on another family– or multiple other families– if we are careless with our choices.
This reminder is prompted by the rising number of cases in the local community, and the possibility that this trend may continue and even accelerate throughout the winter. As always, we want to be here to support one another. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any concerns or additional thoughts. And if you do find yourself caring for a household member with Covid, and thus not running with us, also know that we will miss you during that time, and we are happy to support you in any way we can.
Looking ahead. The Christmas Lights run is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 1 (a 6:00am start!). It has been brought to our attention that the lights on Regents Street will be switched off from midnight to 2pm this year, so the angels will not be lit up in all their glory for our early morning run. We think that was also the case last year, and the run was still great and there were lots of lights to see! We’ll be doing a test run, however; and will let you know of any adjustments to the plan. Also, start looking for your crazy tights! The date is not officially on the calendar yet, but we traditionally have a colourful, crazy tights run around this time of year!
It’s going to be another great week for running together. All of you showing up for yourselves and each other week after week is literally what makes WRW work, so I think I’ll get a head start on the Ted Lasso Style run and tell you all that ‘I appreciate you!’ Enjoy your Sunday!
xx Micki
ROUTES
Monday 15 November – Richmond to Hampton Court: Ted Lasso “I appreciate you” Run (6 or 8 mile option)
RunGo: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/hoLSzRNtLbMapMyRun: https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/4735532848
We will meet at the “Finchley Road and Frognal Overground Station” at 8:30 for the 8:44 train to Richmond. We will arrive in Richmond around 9:25 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 just out of the station at the light and turn left. Turn right onto Duke Street (Sweaty Betty on the corner), then left onto Richmond Green road along the edge of the park. Follow straight along the Green (where scenes of pupils playing football were filmed) and you’ll come to a familiar sight from Ted Lasso: the two red phone boxes, the benches, and the pub (Crown & Anchor in the show, The Prince’s Head in real life). Go straight onto Paved Court and look for 11a, Ted’s home address. At the end of Paved Court turn right and turn left 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. Shortly after the 2 mile mark you can look to the right and see Eel Pie Island, where some scenes from the show were filmed (and where Roy’s niece Phoebe tallies up of the number of curses he uses). Eventually we 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 under the bridge and turn up the stairs and cross the river. 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 and gather for coffee at the Tiltyard Cafe on the Palace grounds with lovely outdoor space (and indoor too in case of inclement weather!). Just 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 17 November – Regent’s Park Inner/Outer Circle (5 miles)RunGo: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/BoeFK1Khvv
From the Church Gardens head down past the church and turn left onto Prince Albert Road. Run to the pedestrian crossing where we will cross and head to the Outer Circle. Turn right and run on the inside of the circle past Winfield House which will be on your left. Continue around the OuterCircle 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 the High Street for a stretch before heading to Starbucks or Pret.
Note – you can make this a 4 mile run by cutting out the inner loop.
Friday 19 November – Hampstead Heath (4-8 miles)
It’s Friday, so we’re heading up the hill to the Hampstead Heath! Choose your route with your group– the standard 6 miles, the Pergola, Highgate, the Betsy? If you choose to run the 8-mile route around Kenwood House, be aware that a lights display is going up and it’s possible part of our route will not be accessible. You can find all of our Heath routes here, but for convenience we’ll include one of the standard 6+ mile routes below.
4 miles: A great way to ease into running up 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.