Hello Runners! I hope you are having a fabulous bank holiday weekend! How great is it to have nice weather finally arrive for this long weekend, along with more relative freedom to travel and hang out with friends? And even though we had to contend with some rain and even hail earlier in the week, our beautiful photos only highlight the great destination runs our pace groups chose– so be sure to take a moment to cycle through the rapid-fire slideshow below! Running this week. We have a super short ‘official’ running week, as Monday is a bank holiday and Friday each pace group is on its own to plan a breakfast run. On Monday (and all holidays), we usually move our start time to 8:30, and whoever shows up at SJW Church Gardens to run chooses a route. It’s a good idea to check your WhatsApp chat for running buddies, though, as we’ve moved more toward making arrangements ahead of time over our last year+ of running socially distant. For Friday, hopefully everyone who wants to be is dialed in with plans and reservations for the pace group destination breakfasts. If not, please check in on your WhatsApp group, or give us a shout here at [email protected], and we can get you connected with one group or another! For anyone not doing the breakfast run, we suggest either a Hyde Park loop, or a Borough Market run for a Friday treat! Which leaves us with Wednesday– the annual Sights of London/Leavers’ Run! This short run we’ve done as a big group in the past, with photo stops at some iconic London sights. This year we will do this in pace groups, so we can stay below the 30-person rule in our photos. Stop for a photo at each of the designated spots (see route description below). Finish at the Benugo in St James Park, where there should be adequate space inside and outside for us to gather in appropriately sized groups for a goodbye coffee. Please do try to keep some separation between groups as necessary– we never know how restaurants are going to respond to our separate groups but collectively large presence, especially if many of us happen to wearing our WRW kit! Announcements and Shoutouts. A big shoutout goes to our founder and friend, Paula Mitchell, who last weekend ran the Jemez Mountain 50-miler race in New Mexico. Not only was it a high altitude endurance challenge, but she also had to contend with bears on the course and a close encounter with a rattlesnake! Congratulations to Paula, and glad you are safely through it! Meanwhile, last weekend in the Pacific Northwest, some of our Seattle alumnae ran their Spring half marathon! Congratulations to Kim Stone, Ann Sharma, and Molly Johnson (who was on injured reserve but still showed up to cheer on her group and bring the shirts and medals!). Well done to all! And I have a feeling I may be missing some shoutouts as things open back up– do keep us posted if you are ‘off to the races!’ And finally, a shoutout to our friend Phil, who took a tumble on Monday’s run– we are thinking of you and looking forward to you rejoining us when all healed up! 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.
Looking ahead. The WRW End-of-Year Celebration is set for next Friday, June 11, beginning at 1pm in Regents Park (arrive from 12:30 if you can to help secure spaces for each group!). The rain date is Monday, June 14. And sadly, our last official run of the year will be Wednesday, June 16! A happy, relaxed remainder of the bank holiday to everyone. Let’s have a great run together Wednesday, as we squeeze our group meet-ups and memories into these last few weeks of the year! We’ll see you out in the gardens and on the pavements! xx Micki
ROUTES Monday 31 May – BANK HOLIDAY – meet at 8:30 and choose your own route, or consult your WhatsApp chat for group plans!
Wednesday 2 June – Sights of London/Leavers Run – Big Ben and back to St. James BenugoRunGo: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/0BRroh4Wm4 This is a great run! Even if you haven’t run in a little while – come along! We run as a (BIG!) group, although will need to keep it to no more than 30 of course, and we wait for everyone at the lights so we can stick together. (If we get separated we’ll wait for everyone at the photo points.) The total distance is 4.75 miles and we stop often. We’ll stop for group pictures at:– the silver sphere fountain as we enter Hyde Park– Buckingham Palace– Big Ben (or the London Eye from Embankment if you prefer)– Trafalgar Square
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. We’ll stop at Speaker’s Corner for the first picture! Run along the eastern edge of the park to Hyde Park Corner, under Wellington Arch and down Constitution Hill. We’ll stop in front of the gates of Buckingham Palace for the second photo! 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 for our third photo! Turn left on Whitehall and run to Trafalgar Square for our fourth picture. Then we’ll make our way back to The Mall and the Benugo in St. James Park for some celebratory coffee.
Friday 4 June – Choose your own breakfast spot destination runGather your pace group to decide on a great place for breakfast and then run to it! The sky’s the limit! Let us know if you’re not connected with a group for this event!
Hello Runners! Nothing could rain on our parade this week– not even, um, rain— as we finally reconnected and ran in our larger pace groups, rode trains to take on the glorious Windsor run together, had lunch and coffee together, and even sat inside at Starbucks like in the old days! It’s weird that the word “joy” might be the most overused word in my vocabulary right now, but I don’t know a better way of describing the feeling of being together without constantly counting numbers, revisiting our happy places (and finding new ones), and generally getting back to our WRW community live and open and in-person! Some runners even toed the line for an actual, live race this week. So, a little cold? A little rain? No big deal as long as we can run through it together!
It’s worth mentioning for these last few weeks together, now that we don’t have to carefully maintain six-packs anymore– this is the perfect time of year to mix it up pace-wise. On the one hand, it’s totally understandable that we’re all keen to just get back to our larger pace groups. But from a training perspective, it’s also a great time to run with friends– or make new friends!– in other pace groups, and to experiment with how a little faster or a little slower pace feels to your body. We’ve all been in our small silos so long, in some cases we may find we’re actually running pretty close to the same pace as a different group. And if you’ve been contemplating a pace change for any reason, now (or maybe after Monday’s run) is a great time to try it.
Running this Week. Monday is the Choose-your-own-adventure Run by pace group! Though I’ve heard some previews, I can’t wait to see photos and hear about the adventure runs this week! We have resisted the urge to suggest a local route for those who aren’t able to go off on a Monday adventure further afield– because adventures are not just things you do away from the local! So even if you can’t make it far from St Johns Wood, choose-your-own-adventure is still the challenge, and don’t forget to share it with your other WRW friends afterwards.
Wednesday’s Five Gardens run is another unique one in that we’re suggesting the touchpoints, but leaving it to you to freestyle your route. Regents Park is so familiar to most of us– or is it? We have our routes we follow, but how well do we know the park off our beaten paths? The map names four gardens in Regents Park: The English Garden, Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden Island, and St Johns Lodge Garden (we call it the ‘secret garden’ because you really have to be looking for the entrance, off the inner circle near Chester Road). We also start our run in a garden– the beautiful space next to the St Johns Wood Church (if you generally enter and leave the church grounds from the St Johns Wood High Street side, it’s worth crossing the park to visit the maintained garden at the corner near the roundabout). On this short run, connect the dots to the various gardens in whatever way seems most fun to you and your group. (And yes, just because we don’t want you to think we’re just being lazy, we have made a cheat route you can use if you don’t feel like being spontaneous!)
Finally, Friday we have slated a last Finsbury Park run for this year– up around the far side of the Heath to Highgate, and onto the Parkland Walk to finish at Finsbury Park for some Happenin’ Bagels. You can grab a coffee at Costa on the way to the station, OR if you walk around the back side of the station (I think I was the last to discover this), there are more coffee and pastry shops!
Announcements and Shoutouts. Last Sunday morning, several runners did the Royal Windsor River Trail Half Marathon. Congrats to Kate Ballbach, Jess Brown, Marigold Dooley, Roni Fransis, Janelle Meyer, Erin Roth, Meredith Snizek, Emily Turner, Theo Yardley, and…me, on the finish. What a treat to run an actual, real live race!
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.
An almost-final reminder to let us know if you are planning to leave London at the end of the school year! Also, if you are a leaver, please send a photo for Janelle to use in our end-of-year festivities (or I promise we will find your most embarrassing snapshot in our archives;). Looking ahead. Our annual Leavers’/Sights of London Run is already coming up next Wednesday, June 2. This is a short run taking in some of the most iconic London sights, with frequent photo stops and a coffee at the end. Mark your calendar to join us that morning if at all possible. We will all want the chance to have a proper send-off for our friends who are leaving.
The WRW End-of-Year Celebration is now on the books for Friday, June 11, beginning at 1pm in Regents Park (arrive from 12:30 if you can to help secure spaces for each group!). The rain date is Monday, June 14. More details to come, or feel free to get in touch with any questions!
Our Save-the-date list is getting so small! It’s hard to believe the end of the year is rushing up on us so quickly: Wednesday, June 2 – Leaver’s Run/Sights of London Friday, June 4 – Destination breakfast with your pace group. Which Dishoom… or Eggslut or other tasty breakfast… suits your group? It’s up to you to decide your route to breakfast this week! Friday, June 11 – WRW End-of-Year Celebration, 1pm, Regents Park (arrival from 12:30- 1:00). Wednesday, June 16 – last official WRW run for the 2020-21 running year!
May and June are always such a busy time! And coming out of months of lockdown, it may feel extra frenetic this year. Some of us may even be struggling a bit to re-adapt to having a social schedule– as great a pleasure as that is, it’s an adjustment! One way to help yourself is to carve out the time for your WRW runs. For many of us, running was a lifeline throughout the last year-plus, so keeping it in our schedules now is a really good way to make sure we are maintaining balance and staying healthy as our lives begin to fill up again with some of our pre-Covid commitments. Just because things are seeming more ‘normal’ doesn’t mean we should stop doing the things we’ve gotten so good at in the past months– keep taking care of yourselves and of each other! Even now, reach out if you need a hand. And as always… keep running! xx Micki
ROUTES Monday 24 May – Choose-your-own-adventure Run – Pace Group Choice! Pace groups will run the destination route of their choice today– we can’t wait to see the highlights! Please reach out to your pace group via whatsapp, or email us, if you are not in the loop on what’s happening with your group!!
Wednesday 26 May – Regents Park, Five Gardens in Five Miles, Freestyle (+/- 5 miles) Okay, we could give you a route; and sure, we’ll include one just below. But the real idea of this run was for everyone to chart their own way around the park, taking in all five of the gardens in a freestyle run– however seems logical and/or fun to you! Grab a snap at each garden to prove you made it– or send a funky running app imprint if you don’t want to slow down for photos. But hey, there’s neither a prize nor a penalty involved– it’s just a good time of year to get out for a great run around the best of Regents Park. Enjoy the morning on our home course!
We start in the St Johns Wood Church Grounds (with the lovely gardens right next to the church!). In the park, can you find Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, the English Garden, the Japanese Garden Island, and St John’s Lodge Garden (aka, the Secret Garden)? The 5-mile route below does cover them all if you’re not feeling creative, but trust us, you’ll be happier navigating your own way through familiar territory, than trying to follow the turn-by-turn instructions on this RunGo route!
Here’s that ‘cheat sheet’ route if you really want it…
Friday, 28 May – Finsbury Park/Happening Bagel (7 miles) RunGo: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/OqSvoVYSBa 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. Bear right onto Highgate High Street. 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 Sisters 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).
Other Heath routes offer a variety of options for hill runs: 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! We’ve made it! For the first time this year, we don’t have to think about keeping ourselves in groups of six or fewer! From Monday, we can pretty much go back to our old pace group format, in which we start off together and naturally fall into whatever groupings we fall into along the way. If we have an amazing turnout, we might have to make sure we are not ever in a group of more than thirty women, but that should not be a problem! You have been amazing through all of this, runners of WRW– getting through this time with grace and patience, learning to adapt, and looking out for one another through all the restrictions. I am proud of this community!
But first, a word about our last week in six-packs, because it was a good one! The Race Hat run in Hyde Park on Monday was a great way to show our varied colors, with everything from the Lisbon light blue to the Nice orange, the Milan pink and this year’s white. Our first official race hat debuted 11 years ago, for a race on an island in Lago Maggiore, Italy. But the oldest hat we have in the group still running in London is the Lisbon 2012 edition, worn by Amy Grace, Jane Novak, and Darcy Fautz. Alumna Maureen Fossum (Budapest), who comes to run with us at every destination race, is the only person we know of who has all 11 hats! It’s pretty amazing to see people sporting all those different colors and realize that this group is made up of women who’ve joined us at different times through the years, but have each run their way into the story of WRW! Which leads to the next highlight of the past week– our Ex-beginners group made their first trip up to the Heath on Friday! Well done, ladies!
Running this week. Monday is our run to Windsor Castle from Virginia Water! We will be taking an 8:50 train from Waterloo (one-way fare is £11.20), which will get us to the start at around 9:30. Please communicate within your pace groups if you are wanting to travel together (in groups of fewer than 30!!). You will need train tickets (paper or mobile), as contactless will not work! Plan to either purchase your tickets on your mobile device ahead of time (www.thetrainline.com), or be at the train station early enough to purchase them before departure. Please plan well for this, as the rest of the group cannot wait if someone misses the train! For the return, there are trains to Paddington from Windsor and Eton Central at 5 minutes after the hour (47-min journey) and 25 minutes after the hour (29-min journey). This fare is another £11.20. There is also a train from the other Windsor station– Windsor and Eton Riverside– to London Waterloo at 23 and 53 minutes after the hour, taking just under an hour. *Please note: there have been major train disruptions recently, and so there is a possibility of delays. You can monitor the status of return trains on the Great Western Railway website (https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/live-network-updates) or on thetrainline.com. Also, as the weather does not currently look ideal for the day, be sure to dress well for the rain. And you might consider carrying a running backpack with some dry clothes (in a plastic bag!) to change into after the run.
Full route directions are in the Routes section below, so please take a look and try to familiarize yourself with them– RunGo will have directions, but it won’t have the photographs to help show the details. Routemaster Erin Roth deserves huge credit for creating the run a couple of years ago, as well as for going out and taking (and annotating) all those photos!
Wednesday we are stalking (get it?) the Chelsea Flower Show, which has been postponed to September. Though the gorgeous flower displays we’ve enjoyed running through on the Sloane Square streets will not be there, we thought it would still be fun to explore the area we usually just run through on our way to Westminster or Battersea. This time, instead of running straight through, we’ll hang a right on King’s Road, just after the square. You then have the option of stopping for a coffee in Duke of York square, or running on another kilometer to circle by the gate to the Chelsea Royal Hospital, where the Chelsea pensioners (retired British army veterans) reside, and then turning back up to run alongside the Saatchi Gallery and finish back in Duke of York square. And finally, Friday. We are heading for coffee at the Benugo in Hyde Park, via the canal west, Ladbroke Grove, and Holland Park. It’s a great 7-mile run, with a little of everything– stretches along the canal, on city streets, in the park and over a hill.
Announcements and Shoutouts. Several runners are taking on a half marathon in Windsor on Sunday morning. It will likely be a wet and muddy one, so good luck to all!
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.
And do please let us know if you are planning to leave London at the end of the school year! Goodbyes are sad, but it’s even sadder to miss the chance to say goodbye and give our friends the WRW send-off they deserve!
Looking ahead. Don’t forget to make plans in your pace groups for the Choose-your-own-adventure route next Monday, May 24! Have fun brainstorming and planning, and let us know if you need any help. We’d love to hear your plans this week, so we can include them in next week’s note for anyone not connected by Whatsapp, who might want to join an adventure.
The WRW End-of-Year Celebration is now on the books for Friday, June 11, beginning at 1pm in Regents Park (arrive from 12:30 if you can to help secure spaces for each group!). The rain date is Monday, June 14. More details to come, or feel free to get in touch with any questions!
Save the dates. Here are the highlights for the rest of the year, just so you can mark your calendar to not miss them!! Monday, May 24 – Choose-your-own adventure (by pace group). What will your group decide? Ally Pally to Finsbury Park? Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park? Brighton? Seven Sisters? Let us know if you need ideas or are wondering what routes we might have in the areas your group is interested in running. Wednesday, June 2 – Leaver’s Run/Sights of London Friday, June 4 – Destination breakfast with your pace group. Which Dishoom… or Eggslut or other tasty breakfast… suits your group? It’s up to you to decide your route to breakfast this week! Friday, June 11 – WRW End-of-Year Celebration, 1pm, Regents Park (arrival from 12:30- 1:00). Wednesday, June 16 – last official WRW run for the 2020-21 running year!
I can’t wait to see you all out there this week! Rain or shine, it will be so great to celebrate running together again with a few less restrictions! Enjoy our running adventures this week, try to stay dry, and keep smiling (and running)! xx Micki
ROUTES Monday 17 May – ADVENTURE ‘COUNTRY RUN’ – Virginia Water to Windsor – 7.4 miles RUNGO: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/t1z5f9cjgT Travel: SJW Jubilee line to Waterloo (10 minute journey), Waterloo train to Virginia Water (8:50am, 41 minute journey), total outbound travel about 1 hour. Return from Windsor & Eton Central Station to Paddington (30 or 45 minutes journey). Pricing: tube fare + £22.40 (£11.20 one way to Virginia Water + £11.20 one way from Windsor to Paddington) Exit the Virginia Water train station and turn right, taking the stairs up to Christchurch Road.
CAREFULLY cross the road and turn left. Stay on Christchurch Road (be sure to take the correct exit off the roundabout at .8 miles) until you come to the T-junction at a traffic light. Turn right and immediately cross the A30 at the traffic light. This is a very busy road so please use caution!! Continue right down the A30 for a very short distance and turn left into the Virginia Water Lake car park, then follow the walkway through the Visitor Centre.
Turn right at the lake on the paved path and follow this paved path along the lake, past a totem pole and across an intersection.
You will see Obelisk Pond on your left, and as you come up the path past the pond turn off at the dirt path on your left.
Stay on the dirt path, over a bridge with stone benches, and then up a straight, grassy path with a huge field on your left. Continue to the end of this path and turn right through the large white wooden Cumberland Gate.
Continue on this paved path, past houses on your right, and past other paths turning off. Continue through the intersection with pink buildings on your left. Go straight to pass through the black metal gate into Windsor Deer Park.
Follow the main path here as it winds through the park. You will come to a low stone bridge (see below); just after the bridge you will run up the grassy hill towards the grand statue of King George III, known as the Copper Horse. King George III was monarch during the American Revolution and father to 15 (!) children, who later in life suffered from mental illness. His dissolute son George IV commissioned this statue and inscribed on it “the best of fathers” despite the fact that father and son apparently despised each other.
Take in the view then head straight down the hill for 2.5 miles until you reach the gates of Windsor Castle. On the way you’ll pass through a large wooden gate and cross a busy road — take care! At the castle gates, turn left onto Park Street and continue onto the High Street. You’ll pass a statue of Queen Victoria, see the castle walls on your right, and on the left is a passage called Jubilee Arch which leads you to the train station.
Lots of options for food and drink – your choice! If you prefer a longer run, there are many options once you reach Windsor Great Park. Take your phone and explore! Here is a link to the park website with more information: http://www.windsorgreatpark.co.uk/en Wednesday 19 May – Sloane Square – 5 – 5.75 milesRUNGO: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/jlOYEUSV7B Despite The Chelsea Flower show being postponed until September, we still think a springtime visit to this beautiful neighborhood is worthwhile. Start out the regular way to Hyde Park. At the silver orb turn right and run along until you reach the Italian gardens where you’ll turn left. Run along The Serpentine until you reach the end. Cross over the South Carriage Rd and exit the park by the French Embassy. Cross over Brompton Rd, turn right and run towards Harvey Nichols (on your left).Turn left on Sloane Street and run all the way down to Sloane Square. At Sloane Square turn right and run along The King’s Road and The Duke of York Square will be on your left. From here you may choose to have a coffee and meander around the neighborhood, or continue exploring by running on to take a left on Smith Street. This quickly turns into Durham Street, and then you take another left on Royal Hospital Road. You will see the Chelsea Royal Hospital on your right. Just after these buildings, take a left on Franklins’ Row and then continue onto Cheltenham Terrace, run past the side of the Saatchi Gallery, and finish in Duke of York Square. When you are ready, you can take the tube home from Sloane Square.
Friday 21 May – Holland Park to Hyde Park Benugo – 7 milesRunGo: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/uKxwpqhOoZ We start out the same as our traditional Notting Hill Route: Circus Rd to Grove End, to St Johns Wood Rd to Cunningham, to Blomfield to the Canal, going west past the Westway to Ladbroke Grove. Once on Ladbroke Grove, run south all the way until it ends at Holland Park Avenue. Cross Holland Park Avenue, take a right and then a left on Holland Walk, just past Aubrey Road. Holland Walk is a pedestrian way. Run up Holland Walk until the first entrance into Holland Park on your right, opposite the Duchess of Bedford Walk. Run into the park and then turn left on the Broad Walk which goes the length of Holland Park. Just before it ends at Kensington High Street take a left onto the quiet Phillimore Walk. Follow Phillimore Walk, which runs parallel to Kensington High Street, until you reach Hornton Street, where we take a right and then a left onto Kensington High Street. Continue on until you reach Kensington Gardens, where you enter it at the junction with the Broad Walk, just before Palace Gate Road. Take the Broad Walk to the first path on the right which turns into South Carriage Drive. You’ll run past The Albert Memorial and cross West Carriage Drive at the light. Continue on South Carriage Drive but make a left at Albert Gate (just past where the Serpentine ends) and run across the path and over to Serpentine Road. Turn left and you’ll see the Benugo along the water. NOTE – the RunGo route continues on to Green Park although there is a comment at the place where you should turn.
Isn’t it exciting?! We have a half marathon on the calendar!! We are so lucky to have– right in our ‘neighborhood’– this beautiful race that would be worth traveling to from abroad. While we will miss the element of travel in the race, we can all acknowledge that this is not the year to make elaborate flight, hotel, and dinner arrangements. Thanks to Sue’s great scouting and strategising, we get to run in a unique and historic location, with the maximum chance that the ‘show will go on’ if at all possible! If you didn’t receive the half marathon announcement this week, you can get all of the information on our website by clicking here. And be sure to follow the linkand get yourself signed up for the race before it sells out!
Just a reminder to continue to mind the social distancing in the park during meetup (especially keeping space between our groups of six), out on the streets when running, and wherever we may land for coffee/drinks after the runs. You can review our Covid-19 guidelines here. Thank you for being so conscientious about this!
Running this week. This week we are sticking with loops again, but trying to mix it up a little bit. Monday we will head to Hyde Park, which is looking gorgeous in its autumn glory right now, for a 7-mile loop created during lockdown– The Hyde Park Statue Parade! If you aren’t comfortable with that distance yet, no worries– it’s easy to improvise to shorten the run by doing less in the park. On Wednesday we will do an older route, the Kensal Rise loop– if you’re up for it, try running it in reverse! One group did that with Notting Hill last Monday, and it was really fun to get to greet the other groups along the way. And Friday is our 7th annual Halloween Run, with costumes encouraged– I can’t wait to see what you all come up with! This year we will run a loop to Hampstead Cemetery instead of our usual destination through Brompton Cemetery (so we aren’t having to use public transport to get home). The route is 7 miles, with some hills, but not as much as our usual Friday Heath runs. If you prefer, you could shorten it by running to the cemetery, limiting how much you run inside it, and then returning to SJW the same way you came up.
Training Plans. As long promised, now that we have a race date on the books, we have tweaked our training plans and can share the overview with you. Below are the full calendar plans for a standard training approach and a gradual training approach (apologies in advance if these show up either enormous or tiny in your e-mail– gmail gives us very little control over our graphics-shares!). We will have these up on our website shortly as well under the Training Plans menu. Our Routes team will continue to consider the standard training plan when choosing routes each week, so if you are following the emails, you’re automatically following the program. And we do try to offer routes with flexible mileage options if you are following the gradual plan. Please keep in mind that we are not experts, and you should customise these plans to your own fitness and goals (and, of course, be sure you are healthy enough to undertake the training in the first place). What we can say, though, is that many, many women have completed half marathons over the years using these basic plans created by our founder, Paula Mitchell. We will continue to share training notes, as well as any plans to incorporate optional tempo training, and perhaps some special tip sessions for anyone running her first half marathon. Stay tuned.
Announcements and Shoutouts. We need to send out a BIG shoutout to the Hustler’s pace group this week: On Monday they held their own 5k race, complete with medals and gifts! This is such a dedicated and hardworking group– always one of the best attended in WRW. Under the leadership of Tamar Brooks, with Fernanda Spinelli, Claudia Figueroa, and Carol Osborne, the race celebrated the milestone of ramping from initially running with walking intervals, to doing the 5k nonstop. They will continue to move from strength to strength, and the photo montage is just a peek at the great time they have doing it together! Bravo, ladies!
Another announcement from the WRW Alumnae group, based in the U.S. Ariadne Petrucelli let us know recently about the Run For Ruth – We Dissent racemany of the alums are doing virtually. They have set up a Women Running the World team for the 87 mile “race” and have invited us to join (make sure to select the team if you register). It’s a very flexible race, with participants simply logging in their miles incrementally through Jan 31st. If you’re running with us a few times a week, you will easily get to 87 miles, and this is a great way for us to stay connected with our friends and fellow runners around the world– thanks to Ariadne and the awesome alums who keep WRW going after London!
That’s it for this week, runners… can’t wait to see you out there tomorrow for a beautiful run to Hyde Park! Hope you are enjoying the extra hour of Sunday we’ve received this week (and be sure you don’t show up an hour early tomorrow morning)!
8s and 10s Pace Groups we suggest that this week (because it is half-term!) you follow the old route to Hyde Park, running down Lisson Grove to enter the park at the silver sphere, and follow the statue route from there. Please use the RunGo app for turn-by-turn instructions from the park entrance.
9s and 11s Pace Groups follow the route as shown on the map. Please use the RunGo app for turn-by-turn instructions on the run.
Wednesday, October 28 – Kensal Rise (5.5 miles) Please be aware of pedestrians and bikes along the canal and form a single file whenever needed for social distancing! Some groups may want to try running the route in reverse, to lighten traffic on the canal during rush hour. Start out heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End Road, then right on St John’s Wood Road at the traffic light. Then turn left on Cunningham, right on Aberdeen, and cross Maida Vale to the right side of Blomfield Rd. Stay on the right side of Blomfield Road as you run parallel to the canal. Turn left at the second bridge over the canal (at Westbourne Terrace Road), turn right just 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. Here we turn right and run over the bridge along Chamberlayne Road to Harvist Road. Turn right on Harvist, which turns into Brondesbury Road, and take that to Kilburn High Road/Maida Vale. Turn right and follow Maida Vale to Hall Road where you turn left and run back to Starbucks. If you want to shorten this route, run west on the canal and turn back at your desired half-way point. (The two mile mark is at the point on the canal when the Westway motorway is over our heads.)
From the Church Gardens, head straight out to run up Cochrane St. Turn left on Acacia and cross Wellington Rd. Turn right on Loudoun and run until it ends at a traffic circle. Turn left on Belsize Rd and then a quick right to head onto Fairhazel Gardens. Take your first left onto Goldhurst Terrace and then a left when it curves around. Turn right on Prior Rd and run to the end, turning left onto Broadhurst Gardens. Take the next right onto West End Lane and run about half a mile, taking care to avoid pedestrians as much as you can. Keep West End Green on your right and when the Green ends, turn left onto Fortune Green Rd. When the street bears right, cross and enter Fortune Green Park. Run straight through and enter the narrow pathway that leads to the cemetery. Take the first entrance on the left and run a loop to the left around the cemetery chapel side. Then cross the path to take a loop around the other side, running straight and then turning left just before the street exit. There you will find the lovely Art Deco Bianchi monument as you circle through. Once back on the cemetery road, turn right (you’ll see the chapel) and then turn right again to continue on the path you were on from Fortune Green. Follow this path to the end, between school playing fields, and turn left to follow it out. Once on the street, turn left to get on a path (you’ll see bike entry barriers) that takes you along the far side of the playing fields. At the end of the path, continue straight onto Somali Rd, then jog left and then right to get onto Sarre Rd. At the end, turn right onto Mill Lane (larger street). Take a left onto Fordwych Rd. At the end, turn right onto Maygrove Rd and then a left onto Kilburn High Rd. Again, take care to avoid pedestrians. Run a few blocks and turn left onto Netherwood St. At the top of the hill, turn right onto the aptly named Hilltop Rd then left onto Hemstal Rd. At West End Lane, cross and turn right and then a quick left onto Cleve Rd. Turn right onto Priory and the second left onto Goldhurst Terrace. Keep left onto Aberdare Gardens. At the end, turn right onto Fairhazel Gardens and go straight across Belsize Rd. Jog left and then right to get back onto Loudoun. At the top of the hill, turn left onto Boundary Rd and cross over Finchley Rd. Turn right onto St. John’s Wood Park and take that to St. John’s Wood Terrace. Turn right and finish at Starbucks.
Here are the links for all of our Heath routes, if you’d rather stick with the regular drill! Please continue to use our Elsworthy Rd and Thurlow Rd routes into the heath, so we can keep as much traffic as possible off the Fitzjohn Avenue pavement. For specific directions on these routes, consult the WRW London group page on the RunGo app.
Hello Runners! I hope you’ve had a relaxing weekend and are finding ways to stay social as things keep changing. I keep thinking how lucky we are that we are already accustomed to doing so much socialising out-of-doors on long runs. We’ve got a head start on adjusting to this phase of our Covid reality, and a ready-made outdoor social group!
Tier 2 Restrictions and WRW. The good news is that the new government rules don’t change that much for us. We will continue to meet and run in groups of 6 or fewer, but we should put even more space between groups at meetup, to make it clear to onlookers and passersby that we are following the rules! This was meant to be the week we started slipping destination runs back into the mix for those comfortable with public transport. But since Tier 2 rules ask people to stay off of public transport unless necessary, we will continue to offer looped routes for now.
Running this week. Monday we are doing a new and improved Notting Hill loop (just under 7 miles) that incorporates the iconic pastel houses in the neighborhood. This route does use the canal, so please pay attention to spacing between our 6-packs, and also give space to other pedestrians and bikers on the canal (take it to single file if needed!). On Wednesday, we will swap the two ‘Frieze Tag’ routes we used last week, with 8s and 10s doing Camden/Mornington Crescent, and 9s and 11s doing the Primrose Hill/Regents Park run. And Friday will be ASL School Conferences, so check in on your Whatsapp groups to see who is running. Even though there is no official run on Friday, I’m sure everyone who can get out there will want to run up the hill as usual 😉
Looking ahead. Next Friday, October 30, we will do some variation of our traditional Halloween Run. As always, costumes are welcome and encouraged, though by no means required! Meanwhile, we continue to pay close attention to our Covid reality, and we’ll be ready to add in some of our fun destination runs and social events the moment it becomes possible. For now, your fabulous Routes Team is planning to go back to the maps to try to tweak and twist us some fresh loop options, and we’re keeping an eye on the training calendar we’ve used in past years.
Have a great week, everyone, and enjoy the time we get to spend together! Take good care of yourselves– physically, mentally, emotionally– and please reach out if you are feeling like you need some support. As always, we are here for one another. One of the unexpected things about this group is that while we may start running to make ourselves stronger, we end up making each other stronger. xx Micki
ROUTES
Monday, October 19 – Notting Hill Pastel Loop (6.9 miles) RunGo link: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/F114naRal5 All groups head out the same way, so please be mindful of spacing between 6-packs, and be sure to give other canal users plenty of space. From the top of Church Gardens, run down Wellington Rd and right onto St John’s Wood Road, passing Lord’s Cricket Ground on your right and the LJS Synagogue on your left. Turn left on Cunningham then right on Aberdeen to work your way to Blomfield Rd. Run along the street sidewalk until you turn left to cross the Westbourne Terrace Road bridge. Turn right after the bridge, follow the sidewalk along Delamere Terrace, then 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 right, then the first left onto Rosmead Gardens, then left again onto Lansdowne Rd. At the end of Lansdowne turn right onto Kensington Park Rd, then left on 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.
Wednesday, October 21 – ‘Frieze Tag’ via Mornington Crescent or Primrose Hill Swapping routes from what you did last Wednesday… 8s & 10s pace groups – Camden Lock/Mornington Crescent/Regents 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 follow the paths on the east side of the park to take in the Frieze sculptures, 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.
9s & 11s pace groups – Primrose Hill/Regents Park (5 miles) From the Church Gardens (rather than Barclay’s as shown on map) start out as if we’re headed for the Heath, running a short way down the High St, then right on Allitsen, left on Townsend, right on Acacia, and then left again at Avenue Rd. Use the zebra crossing just a short way up Avenue to cross over and run down Elsworthy Rd until you see a small road on the right that ends in the entrance to Primrose Hill park. Once in the park take the path that angles to the left, then bear right at the first fork and left at the second. This will take you up for a fantastic view from the top of Primrose Hill. After you’ve caught your breath, take the path that goes down on the right (if you are looking out toward London), then curve around to the left at the first split. Follow this path all the way down the hill to the crossing at Prince Albert Rd. Cross at the zebra and head straight into the park via the bridge and across the Outer Circle (NOT a zebra, please note!). In Regents Park, take the path that angles to the left, running behind the zoo. Cross the Broad Walk by the fountain and continue across on the path that heads toward, but not all the way to, the perimeter of the park. Follow this to the far corner, zig-zagging as you like to see the sculptures, and then turning right to run along the southern edge of the park, inside the fence. Continue to follow this around the boating pond to run across the little bridge at the far end of the pond, then bear right to follow the contour of the pond to its end. Continue on the same path until it meets the diagonal path that runs behind the zoo (the same one we ran in on). Turn left to follow that to its end and then turn left onto the Outer Circle and follow it for a short distance to the crossing at Charlbert. Exit the park and take Charlbert to St Johns Wood Terrace to finish at our Starbucks/Pret corner of the High Street.
Friday, October 23 – ASL Parent/Teacher conferences– no official routes … but here are the links for the Heath routes, because you know you want to run them! Please continue to use our Elsworthy Rd and Thurlow Rd routes into the heath, so we can keep as much traffic as possible off the Fitzjohn Avenue pavement. For specific directions on these routes, consult the WRW London group page on the RunGo app.
Hello Runners! What a week! Starting with last Sunday’s cold, soggy marathon for some of our brave runners and their dedicated supporters, we ran through birthdays and cloudbursts, sculptures, street art, cemeteries, and statue poses! The photos you sent were beautiful and fun. While I can only share a limited number of photos in this e-mail (lest the servers decide we are spammers!), I can thank all of you uncredited photographers, and suggest to all that you put some of your highlights on our WRW Facebook page. Especially while we are all so fragmented in our ‘Rule of Six’ world, it’s great to connect with other pace groups and 6-packs with fun photos from our runs. If you’re not on our Facebook page, search us up and request to be added (Amy will say yes!).
Running this Week*. Monday is part of October break for ASL, and we normally do not have an official run on school holidays. But check in with your pace groups via Whatsapp, as I imagine many women are not traveling and will choose to run as usual. If you have the time, why not choose a fun destination and make it a mini-getaway? Wednesday we are suggesting two routes that allow us to play a game of “Frieze Tag.” I know many groups have run through the sculptures recently installed in Regents Park as a main feature of the 2020 Frieze Art Fair, which has gone mostly virtual this year. Here is a link to an online video tour if you’d like to have a better idea of the stories behind the sculptures we’re running by! Finally, Friday we’re suggesting an old favorite destination run to Finsbury Park. It’s a 7-mile route that incorporates our usual Friday hill workout, but then follows the lovely Parkland Walk from Highgate to Finsbury Park, and ends with bagels at Happening Bagel (there’s a Costa across the street) and a tube ride or other form of transport back to St Johns Wood. It’s a great route, but if you’re not up for figuring out the transport back at this time, you can stick to our Friday Heath routes or run to Borough Market. See details and links below. *Note that all of our plans are subject to change with whatever new guidance is being announced Monday. Stay tuned, and we will send out updates to our plans and meeting procedures as needed!
Announcements and Shoutouts. Huge congratulations to our official London Marathon finishers, Kelly Willis, Laura Beal, and Noor Ismail (I’m so sorry we didn’t know you were running, Noor!), and to Jess Browne and Miki Neant, who ran alongside them! What an amazing experience and achievement– we are all proud of you, and your strength, spirit and perseverance! We are also so proud of the teams of supporters who chased, photographed, ran or biked with, and generally provided the marathon atmosphere for the day (along with some dry layers here and there) for our runners as well as any others spotted out on the streets. I know that your support meant so much to our marathoners! I do want to give a special shout-out to Tamar Brooks for her photo coverage. Tamar and Yvonne Horrell spent the entire day out in the rain, chasing our runners all over the city, and the results are incredible. Click here to see her gorgeous album. And below is a preview with some of her photos as well as many from all of the supporters who were out there last Sunday.
Celebrating this fabulous milestone feels like a good time to assure you that your WRW team is continuing to think about spring training goals. Our race-boss, Sue Wheeler, has been keeping a steady eye on the outlook and opportunities for Spring 2021. Stay tuned for an update next week! And meanwhile, don’t forget to keep taking care of yourselves by stretching, attending to any niggling pains or injuries, and paying attention to your training pace and miles. More on this in weeks to come. On a very different note, Jess Browne has asked me to share the following note with this WRW community:“Dear runners: it’s been 6 months and I had promised myself thank you notes would be done by now. I tried to write them last Sunday after the marathon but just opening the box with your cards to reply was like reliving the april pain again. I just couldn’t do it. What I can do is tell you that without those cards, books, flowers, food and love you sent, my family and I wouldn’t have survived. We’ll always remember the support you gave us during our most horrendous time. Accept this as a thank you note and know you all have a special place in our hearts.” As we head into this week with possibly more rule changes ahead, I just want to close by reminding you what a strong community we are. We will find a way to keep running, getting stronger, and supporting each other– together, apart, in sixes, in twos, or however we have to do it. I’m so thankful for, and proud to be a part of, what we have together in WRW! See you out there! xx Micki
ROUTES
Monday, October 12 – ASL School Break– Runner’s Choice Use Whatsapp groups to coordinate start times and locations, and take your choice of destination!
Wednesday, October 14 – ‘Frieze Tag’ via Primrose Hill or Mornington Crescent 8s & 10s pace groups – Primrose Hill/Regents Park (5 miles) From the Church Gardens (rather than Barclay’s as shown on map) start out as if we’re headed for the Heath, running a short way down the High St, then right on Allitsen, left on Townsend, right on Acacia, and then left again at Avenue Rd. Use the zebra crossing just a short way up Avenue to cross over and run down Elsworthy Rd until you see a small road on the right that ends in the entrance to Primrose Hill park. Once in the park take the path that angles to the left, then bear right at the first fork and left at the second. This will take you up for a fantastic view from the top of Primrose Hill. After you’ve caught your breath, take the path that goes down on the right (if you are looking out toward London), then curve around to the left at the first split. Follow this path all the way down the hill to the crossing at Prince Albert Rd. Cross at the zebra and head straight into the park via the bridge and across the Outer Circle (NOT a zebra, please note!). In Regents Park, take the path that angles to the left, running behind the zoo. Cross the Broad Walk by the fountain and continue across on the path that heads toward, but not all the way to, the perimeter of the park. Follow this to the far corner, zig-zagging as you like to see the sculptures, and then turning right to run along the southern edge of the park, inside the fence. Continue to follow this around the boating pond to run across the little bridge at the far end of the pond, then bear right to follow the contour of the pond to its end. Continue on the same path until it meets the diagonal path that runs behind the zoo (the same one we ran in on). Turn left to follow that to its end and then turn left onto the Outer Circle and follow it for a short distance to the crossing at Charlbert. Exit the park and take Charlbert to St Johns Wood Terrace to finish at our Starbucks/Pret corner of the High Street.
9s & 11s pace groups – Camden Lock/Mornington Crescent/Regents 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 follow the paths on the east side of the park to take in the Frieze sculptures, 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, October 16 – Finsbury Park/Happenin’ Bagels (7 miles), or Heath routes All 6-packs doing the Finsbury route, please allow a good amount of space between groups leaving the park, and take Fitzjohn Avenue in single file! As Fitzjohn is our best route to do this run, we’re going to try it. Please be mindful of social distancing as you run past people doing the school dropoff. Run as if you are going to the 6-mile Heath route, but pass the Heath entrance and continue up Spaniards/Hampstead Lane, curving up and around 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).
For groups doing other Heath routes, please continue to use our Elsworthy Rd and Thurlow Rd routes into the heath, so we can keep as much traffic as possible off the Fitzjohn Avenue pavement. For specific directions on these routes, consult the WRW London group page on the RunGo app.
Hello Runners! Kudos to all of you who have been getting out there for your runs– rain or shine! There’s nothing like powering through bad weather for a good run, to make you feel strong and amazing– which, of course, you all are!
Thank you for being so conscientious about maintaining social distance at meetup and after the runs, and for continuing to run in 6-packs. I love that this week’s photos show how skilled some have become at taking selfies while everyone keeps socially distant! Also look for the “Hill” message one group is sending…
Running this week. This week our official runs will keep to our new, basic schedule, with the two different routes to Hyde Park on Monday and options to do the loops back to SJW or to run on to one of our destinations from Hyde Park. Wednesday we will do our new Regents Park routes, swapping which groups are doing which. And Friday we will head up the hill as usual, with the option, as always, of running to Borough Market for a flat, destination run.
Announcements and Shoutouts. This weekend the 40th London Virgin Marathon will finally happen! It’s gone virtual, in the sense that there is no official, marked-off race course for regular participants (there is one for elite runners). But the race will be very REAL for a few of our runners who are participating! Kelly Willis is officially running the marathon, and she will have support runners Miki Neant and Bjorg Fridbjornsdottir, as well as Marissa O’Malia as a one-woman support crew carrying all the extra gear on bike. A big apology from me to Kelly and crew for missing them in last week’s announcement!! And as I did mention last week, Laura Beal is also officially running the marathon, with Jess Browne as her support runner and an assorted crew meeting her with supplies/gear at various points along the route. Good luck, ladies!! As with everything this crazy year, this is not the marathon you had planned for… but I hope you will feel all the excitement and triumph of a ‘normal’ year, plus a lot more because of how you’ve managed to rock this despite all the setbacks!
To cheer on these strong ladies, you can download the London Marathon app here and search them up by last name or by bib number. Kelly Willis is bib number 12324, and Laura Beal is bib number 11011 (both great numbers, right?). Miki, Bjorg and Jess do not have official race bibs, but will presumably be in the same vicinity as their official runners. Below are the planned routes each of them has shared with us:
Kelly’s Route: She is starting at 6:30am near Blackfriars Bridge. Her route will first take her down around Southwark, across Tower Bridge, through the City and then on to East London. Follow her on the London Virgin Marathon app to track her on her route below. Her team estimates she will be entering Regents Park at Portland Place around 8:00, running anti-clockwise around the outer circle, with a loop of inner circle, and exiting the park the same way about 8:20/25. She will then be running the perimeter of Hyde Park, anti-clockwise from about 8:40 to 9:05, then through Mayfair, Charing Cross and Embankment, and across Westminster Bridge (a good viewing spot on the Eye side) close to 9:30 to finish at Blackfriars Bridge.
Laura’s Route: Laura and Jess are starting at the top of the Kensington Garden Broad Walk at 7:30am. They will run straight down the path and through South Kensington, crossing through the Brompton Cemetery from the north at mile 2, and then weaving down through Chelsea Harbour toward Wandsworth. After a detour up toward Parson’s Green, they will run along the north bank of the Thames all the way to cross at the Barnes Bridge, then will cut inland to connect with the south bank before Putney Bridge. They’ll run all along the river to Battersea Park (where the “Power” mural tunnel is) and then will cross briefly to the north side, then back over to run along the South Bank area to Borough. Keep an eye on her on the tracker, as there are excellent viewing spots along the way here! They will cross the Thames again at Tower Bridge, take a lap of St Katherine’s Docks, come around behind the Tower and along the river again to Embankment to finish near Buckingham Palace if the roads are open following the Elite Marathon finish.
I hope to see many of you out running again in what they’re saying will be another wet week– remember, nothing stops us! And there’s a special kind of satisfaction and fun in getting out there ‘no matter what.’ Take care of yourselves and each other…
From the church gardens, run down Prince Albert Rd to the Charlbert entrance to Regent’s. Run straight, pass The Hub and at the next intersection after that, make a sharp right and run with the water on your left. Curve around and then turn left to run over the bridge. Turn left after the bridge to run past the Boating Lake and keep running around the edge of the park (keeping inside the park). The path will start making its way to the left, putting you at the fountain at the highest part of the Broad Walk. Go straight over the Broad Walk and keep to the right to run along the edge of the zoo. Cross over the Outer Circle and then Prince Albert Road. Once in Primrose Hill Park, turn right and run to the far edge, then turn left and run at a slight diagonal and make a left to run up to the top of Primrose. Head back down towards the Elsworthy exit and go out and turn left on Elsworthy. At Avenue, turn left and cross where you can, then turn right on Acacia to head back to SJW High Street.
From the church gardens, make your way to Allitsen Road and run down Allitsen to Primrose Hill. Enter the park and turn right. Cross over Prince Albert Road to head into Regent’s Park. Once across the Outer Circle, turn left to run around the outer edge of the park. After 1.5 miles, turn right on York Bridge to get to the Inner Circle. Run all the way around the inner circle and exit the way you came in on York Bridge. Turn right to continue running around the outer edge of the park, exiting at Avenue Road (NOT Charlbert). Turn left to run along Prince Albert Road to SJW High Street and Starbucks/Pret.
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.
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.
Once again this week, you sent in so many great photos it’s really hard to narrow it down to a few for our e-mail. The wonderful thing about ALL of them is that you look so happy! We are together (in 6’s, of course!), we are running to interesting and fun places, and we are taking joy from the running and the companionship and the places we go (and no doubt the coffee and breakfasts, too).
Reminder!!!Kit orders are due today by 10pm! Here’s the link to the order form. Marissa has given us a great selection of fun, WRW-logo running gear to choose from, including our annual shirt with the yet-to-be-determined surprise saying on the back (still taking nominations, but hurry!). Items will be delivered sometime in early 2021, and you will pay for them at that time. Full instructions are on the order form. And again let me emphasize that there is absolutely no obligation to buy anything, for anyone new to WRW, this is not a uniform or an expectation, just a fun thing we do!
Running this week. We are continuing to keep the basic routes in play, with an occasional variation, while Covid-19 concerns and regulations remain. So we will run Hyde Park Monday via our two new routes, with a possible variation of running desired mileage in the park and ending at Whole Foods Kensington (or Ole & Steen, also on the High Street now), just off the southwest corner of Hyde Park, along Kensington High Street. Return home would be via taxi, tube, or bike rental. On Wednesday our official routes will be the two new ones in Regents Park, please see the maps below and the RunGo links for details. And note that we need to be careful to keep our distance on the SJW High Street if many of us end up there after the ‘home-field’ run in Regents Park! Finally, Friday it’s off to Hampstead Heath for the hills. Our new basic routes are below. And, of course, the Borough Market run remains a favorite for those wanting a flat Friday.
Meanwhile, as we list these basic routes, we know many groups are running alternate directions, and we love seeing and hearing about them! We can’t wait for the day (it WILL come!) when we can all head out in waves to our favorite destinations together. In a normal year this would have been the week for Brick Lane via the canal (and bagels and Crosstown Donuts). I’m thinking we may use this space to call out former destination runs as a reminder of where we’ve been together and where we will go together again when we get through this time. And for some it might be inspiration for independent run destinations.
Training Plan. Our e-mails have been so consumed with keeping ourselves in line with current Covid protocols that I haven’t had a chance to mention our training plan and goals. First the goals. I know that this year is exceptional, and we are all to some extent doing our own thing, but we want to share the cumulative years of WRW training experience and help empower everyone to meet her goals. We normally have a half-marathon trip to look forward to (and train for) in late March or early April. Last year we were forced to cancel. We’re not certain yet what this year will hold (our Trip Master Sue Wheeler is weighing the options and odds, and we will have some decisions in the next few weeks). BUT it seems practical to at least start our training with the goal of a half marathon in late March. Even under lockdown last spring, many women completed the goal independently or in pairs; and hopefully one way or another we can manage something more than that this year.
So then the training plan. On our website you can find a complete training plan from a previous year, as well as a partial plan for the more gradual approach. But for those new to WRW, our training calendar usually follows a pattern of doing a long, slower-paced endurance run on Mondays; a shorter, speedier run on Wednesdays; and a mid-distance, hilly run on Fridays. September is usually very much about getting back on track after summer break– though we also usually have some ladies training for half marathons in Sept/Oct, as well. October is when we begin to stretch the distance bit by bit, with Monday runs going in the 6-8 mile range, Wednesdays holding steady at 5-6 miles but perhaps beginning to reach for an up-tempo pace, and Fridays holding at 6-8 miles in the Heath (with an occasional flat run for a break). We will work on customising the plan more as our overall plan for the year comes into focus.
Announcements and Shoutouts. Next weekend Laura Beal and Jess Browne will run an independent version of the Virgin London Marathon 2020! Laura was training for the official race, originally scheduled for last April, when lockdown happened. The postponed race date was October 4, but Covid forced it to become a virtual race. So, next Sunday Laura will run her official, virtual London Marathon! And Jess Browne, who has stepped up to train with her through the months, has now become a London Marathoner as well! We want to support and cheer these ladies to the max– what grit and heart they are showing to do the marathon without all the glory and the celebratory atmosphere of marathon day in London! Look for more information this week on how to support them on race day next Sunday! On a more somber note, we have had one incident with a runner being verbally attacked just after a run last week. I’m so sorry for what she went through from a man who was clearly unbalanced; but also so proud of how she handled it– calmly responding, and then walking away with the rest of her 6-pack. Do be careful out there, and keep your wits about you. If you face a similar situation, try to remember that in these times the safest and best course is to walk away, even if everything inside you screams to fight back.
Covid-19 Reminders. As we all continue to do our best to observe and respect all the current guidance and regulations on gathering and social distancing during the pandemic, please remember our current basic operating principles: meet in groups of no more than 6 people, with several meters of space between groups; be mindful of social distancing within our groups as well as out on our routes when we pass people; be careful not to allow ourselves to group up beyond our sixes after runs; and do not let any person’s behavior provoke you to actions or words that could be dangerous for you or reflect poorly on our group. And finally, as we continue to navigate the protocols for what to do if you have been exposed– directly or indirectly– to someone with Covid symptoms, we’d like to ask that you notify both the people you ran with most recently, and your WRW team. We will respect your privacy and not share anything without your permission, but it is fairly important that we have an overall picture of what is happening within the group, so we know if we should be changing our plans. Please see here for our WRW Covid-19 statement.
So, onward into another week in this crazy year! Let’s tackle it together (a couple meters apart) with positive spirit and all the mutual support we can offer. Can’t wait to see you out there tomorrow! xx Micki
ROUTES Monday, September 21 – Hyde Park via two Routes (4 – 7 miles) 8s and 10s pace groups – Hyde Park via Regent’s Park RunGo link: 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!
From the church gardens, make your way to Allitsen Road and run down Allitsen to Primrose Hill. Enter the park and turn right. Cross over Prince Albert Road to head into Regent’s Park. Once across the Outer Circle, turn left to run around the outer edge of the park. After 1.5 miles, turn right on York Bridge to get to the Inner Circle. Run all the way around the inner circle and exit the way you came in on York Bridge. Turn right to continue running around the outer edge of the park, exiting at Avenue Road (NOT Charlbert). Turn left to run along Prince Albert Road to SJW High Street and Starbucks/Pret.
From the church gardens, run down Prince Albert Rd to the Charlbert entrance to Regent’s. Run straight, pass The Hub and at the next intersection after that, make a sharp right and run with the water on your left. Curve around and then turn left to run over the bridge. Turn left after the bridge to run past the Boating Lake and keep running around the edge of the park (keeping inside the park). The path will start making its way to the left, putting you at the fountain at the highest part of the Broad Walk. Go straight over the Broad Walk and keep to the right to run along the edge of the zoo. Cross over the Outer Circle and then Prince Albert Road. Once in Primrose Hill Park, turn right and run to the far edge, then turn left and run at a slight diagonal and make a left to run up to the top of Primrose. Head back down towards the Elsworthy exit and go out and turn left on Elsworthy. At Avenue, turn left and cross where you can, then turn right on Acacia to head back to SJW High Street.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Hello Runners! It was a great week to run together, and I remain so thankful we are able to do so! Seeing many of you out running– in our six-packs, and socially distant, of course– has been a welcome slice of almost-normal. Thanks to all for being conscientious in following the guidelines and helping to keep our community safe. This week is another long e-mail filled with updated instructions… believe me, I would love to have it just be a breezy congrats on another good week! But these things are important in allowing us to go forward with running somewhat together, so please give the whole e-mail a good read. In addition, you can find our basic Covid-19 guidelines here.
New Guidelines. Monday, as you all know, brings a new round of government restrictions to combat Covid-19. It is still legal to meet up and exercise in groups of six or fewer, so we believe WRW can continue to meet if we are very strict with ourselves about how we do our meet-up before runs, what we do when we see each other along the way, and how we handle ourselves after our runs. So, the changes we need to make from how we’ve been meeting the last two weeks are relatively small, but really significant:
Meeting in the Park
We must continue to wear a mask in the park for the entire meet-up time.
In the park we will collect into groups of six or fewer upon arrival, and move significantly away from other groups, leaving several meters of spacing between groups. We really must do this right away, not allowing larger groups to form at all! If we fail in this, we may have to suspend our group-organised runs. (And we may find ourselves facing government fines!)
To the extent possible, we should use our Whatsapp groups to self-organise ahead of meetup times. For example, even if just a couple of people go on and say ‘I’m doing five miles today’ or ‘I’m doing the loop’ (or whatever the variation in route or pace), others will have a marker to look for upon arrival. It probably won’t be possible to entirely organise groups that way, but it may help us self-sort more easily.
If there are partial groups assembling and waiting for others who are running similar distance and pace, make sure we are spaced into separate groups. So if there are three people from one six-pack and three from another, keeping a space between them from the start will make it easier to avoid accidentally finding ourselves in larger groups.
Out on the run
We will continue to carefully think through the routes we suggest, to try to ensure we aren’t sending too many people the same way, or going into crowded spaces at the busiest times.
Within our six-packs, we ALL need to be careful to give pedestrians plenty of room: move to single file when passing someone, anticipate when we will need to move over so we don’t cut too close to them, and just generally try to be polite no matter what attitudes we encounter. Tempers are short in these times, and even if we are doing everything right, there are just going to be people who don’t like what we’re doing.
If you run into another six-pack while out on a run, don’t linger together. Even though we may feel like we’re still in motion if we’re mid-run, stopping for selfies with twelve people is still breaking the six-person government rule. (So be super quick with those cameras and greetings! And please don’t be offended if, for now, we don’t put photos with more than six on our “official” communications.)
After the run
Our presence on the St Johns Wood High Street is being noted by the community around us, and even by our own kids. As much as we love our post-run coffees and seeing others we didn’t run with, we need to keep to the rules here as well: no more than six people together, and more than just token space between groups.
It’s a good time to consider temporarily trying new coffee spots near the end of a route– the park, the other end of the high street, or a nearby area such as Maida Vale or Swiss Cottage. (But don’t get too used to it– someday we will all come together at the end of a run again!)
Running this Week. We begin the week with our Hyde Park routes. Remember that we have two NEW ways to run to the park, both avoiding the busy Lisson Grove area during school dropoff times (though the loop-routes come back that way later in the morning). These runs have loop options from 4 miles to any distance you care to add in the park. Our ‘destination’ option for this week continues on from Hyde Park to Sloane Square (for about 4 miles), with options on to Westminster (6 miles) or Green Park (7 miles). On Wednesday we are going to try two old standard routes in reverse: Notting Hill (6.5 miles, or stop/walk from St Johns Wood Road for 6) and Camden/Mornington Crescent (5 miles). Both of these routes use the canal towpath for a couple of miles, so we are reversing them to hit the canal later in the morning, when there are hopefully fewer commuters. And, of course, our Regents Park routes are always an option on Wednesdays. Friday we will continue to learn the new routes to the Heath. This week the 8s and 10s will use the Belsize Lane/Thurlow Rd route, and the 9s and 11s will use the Elsworthy Rd route. We have mapped mileage variations from 5-8 miles (see here for our maps, though keep in mind they are routed the old way up Fitzjohn Ave). AND, I keep forgetting to mention that for those not averse to finding a way home by bike, taxi or public transport, our beloved Borough Market routes are always an option on Fridays! See below for more on routes, including links to new RunGo maps!
RunGo. During lockdown, many of us began using the RunGo app, which allows us to take maps and step-by-step directions with us on our phones. Thanks go to Amy Grace for working to bring our newer routes into the app quickly so we can all avoid being lost! Download the app and connect to the group WRW London to see the routes. As we will continue to offer a greater number of routes each week, we may start to use links to RunGo routes in place of some of our basic in e-mail maps in future.
Shoutouts. We all know it’s hard to say goodbye, but we don’t expect to have to do it in September! This week we very sadly have to say our farewell to one of our 11s Pace Group Leaders, Ann Sharma, who is headed to the Seattle area. We are sending all of our best WRW love and good wishes with you, Ann!
Upcoming events. As we mentioned last week, if races are happening in the Spring, we will, of course, plan to take WRW to one! In this landscape of unknowns, we can’t say what the exact timing will be– but likely late March or early April, as usual. The Royal Parks Half has announced a ‘surprise lottery’ for places in their rescheduled race, now planned for Sunday, April 11. The ballot opens Wednesday, September 16, and will be open for a week. Another local half marathon planned for that timeframe is the London Landmarks Half on March 28 (not yet open for registration). It is possible that either of these local races might conflict with whatever race trip we might conjure, but we thought we should let you know about them. For some runners, the entry fee may be worth it to hedge a bet on being able to run a race in the spring. (Last year the London Landmarks half was on the same weekend as our Prague half marathon and, in the end, both were canceled).
Finally, I want to say again, that as we consider how to officially conduct WRW during these times, we are aware that there will always be a wide range of individual feelings and comfort levels within any large group regarding how to respond to the pandemic. While our plan aims to respect the letter and spirit of the guidelines, we also respect people’s individual choices about how to respond. As we’ve said before, whether you are comfortable joining a group run or prefer to stick to solo or prearranged group runs, we are here to support you. There are so many ways for us to stay connected now, and our shared lockdown experience taught us all that we can ‘be there’ for each other in all circumstances. Looking forward to our runs this week, to seeing some of your faces, and to proving to ourselves and to others that we can adapt to these new guidelines and– just keep running! xx Micki
ROUTES
Monday, September 14 – Hyde Park via two Routes, with Destination Options to Sloane Square/Westminster/Green Park (4 – 7 miles) 8s and 10s pace groups – Hyde Park via Regent’s Park
From the church gardens, run down Park St to the mosque to enter Regents. Once in the park, turn right and run along the outer circle of the park and exit at Baker St. Turn right on to Park Rd, then left onto Ivor Place and left again on to Gloucester Place. Run along Gloucester Place towards Oxford St. Once you cross over Oxford St, Gloucester Place becomes Park St. Continue along and turn right at Brooke St and enter Hyde Park. To return to St John’s Wood, turn right and run towards our usual entrance to the park. To make the run longer, pick up any of the regular Hyde Park routes from where you enter. Click here for the routes.
On to Sloane Square/Westminster Turn left and run down towards 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. 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. See below for the map from the edge of Hyde Park to Sloane Square/Westminster/Green Park.
9s and 11s pace groups – Hyde Park via Westbourne Terrace RunGo link: https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/j7nkmylery From the church gardens exit towards Wellington Rd, cross at the zebra crossing and turn left. At the traffic lights turn right on St John’s Wood Rd. Run along St John’s Wood Rd and turn left at Cunningham Place and right at Aberdeen Place, which turns into Blomfield. Run along Blomfield towards the canal. Do not get on the canal but instead cross over it and take the Westbourne Bridge under the Westway (A40). Run south on Westbourne Terrace and, at the fork, bear right to enter Hyde Park at Lancaster Gate. From here you can take any of our Hyde Park routes (click here for the routes).
On to Sloane Square/Westminster
Turn left, run up the hill and cross Carriage Drive. Start running towards Speakers Corner but quickly take the first diagonal path. Follow this to Serpentine Rd, cross it and run straight 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. 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.
Wednesday, September 16 – Reverse Notting Hill OR Reverse Camden/Mornington Crescent
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.
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.
Friday, September 18 – Reverse Heath Routes (5-8 miles)
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.
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.
