Sri Chinmoy 10k in Battersea Park

I ran in the Sri Chinmoy 10k in Battersea Park last week (November 26th 2016).  The series of races organised there by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team and associated Run and Become shop have a deserved good reputation for being friendly and well organised, and also for attracting some good club runners as well as those making their first steps at this distance. The Battersea Park course is fast and flat, and the conditions last week were perfect for speed - cold and dry, but not icy.

214 runners took part, and the first 24 were all under 35 minutes headed by Tony Payne of Wesley Harrierse in 31.47. Lisa Rooney of Collingwood AC was the first woman in 39.11 (full results here)

the start of the race - from Sri Chinmoy photo gallery

Sri Chinmoy on running

Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) was an Indian spiritual teacher and keen runner, who advocated running and physical exercise as part of spiritual practice: 

"Running offers us the message of transcendence. In our running, every day we are aiming at a new goal... every day we are running towards a goal, but when we reach that goal, we want to go still farther. Either we want to improve our timing or increase our distance. There is no end. Running means continual transcendence, and that is also the message of our inner life."

“These long distance races remind me of our Eternity’s race. Along Eternity’s Shore we are running, running, running. We are running and running with our birthless and deathless hopes. We are running and running with the ever-transcending Beyond"

“Run and become.

Become and run.

Run to succeed in the outer world.

Become to proceed in the inner world.”

(As mentioned here before, Carlos Santana was associated with Sri Chinmoy for a while, hence his Marathon album).

You don't have to worry about being preached at on these runs though - the message is there if you want it, but the organisers are focused on putting on a good race.

As for me, I'm not sure I quite transcended my self, but judging by this picture I was fairly flying at the finish line and did get a big PB - 41:06.

Southwark Park 10k, May 2016

267 of us took part in a 10k in Southwark Park on 14th May,  organised by PB Race Events. The park hosts a weekly 5k parkrun on Saturday mornings,  on this occasion it was cancelled but many of the regulars stepped up to race the longer distance. 

As discussed here before, Southwark Park has a long athletics history  - including being the birth place of Cambridge Harriers. I can't say my own performance was particularly historic in the recent race, I started at PB pace but soon fizzled out. The course, while flat, wasn't particularly PB friendly as there were two hairpin bends to negotiate on each of the three laps. But I don't think I can really blame my sluggish second half on that - it didn't stop others.

The race was won by David Henderson of Inverclyde AC, with Tilly Snow of Stragglers running club the first female finisher (full results here)

The finish line of a well organised race

Some of my fellow Hilly Fields parkrun and Kent AC regulars at Southwark Park 10k

I wandered over to nearby Canada Water afterwards, a watery remnant of the old Canada Dock which now has a Decathlon sports store next to it and waterfowl nesting on it, including this lovely swans nest.

Regents Park 10k (Royal Parks Winter Series)

700 runners completed the Regents Park 10k on Sunday 13 December, part of the Royal Parks Winter Series arranged by The Race Organiser. That included eight of us from Hilly Fields parkrun/Kent AC chasing PBs before entering a season of goodwill and gluttony.

Tinsel town in the rain - the finish at Regents Park

Spanish runner Miguel Aristu was the first man home in 34:24, with Lucy Wertheim winning the women's race in 39:34. The course is generally flat (some mild slopes notwithstanding) and all on tarmac, so ideal conditions for a good time. It was cold and drizzly on Sunday, which for me is another incentive to run a bit faster.

The course has one unique feature - it passes along the edge of London Zoo, and some of the animals are visible from outside. So if you are searching for some shamanic power animal inspiration for your running look no further! Actually the most exciting animal I could see was a camel - two humps just about visible behind me in picture below. The two hump bactrian camel is not as fast as the one hump dromedary used in camel racing - and whose name is actually derived from the Greek word for running - but it has its hydration strategy sorted!

My time of 41:52 was one of my fastest, though not a PB it was enough to lift me in the Run Britain rankings to the hallowed ranks of Number One in my age and postcode category - 'He was the fastest M50 in SE14' is something I will happily have on my tombstone!

Full results here

Running Clapham Common: RunThrough 10k 2015 (and a 15 mile race in 1869)

I enjoyed the Clapham Common 10k organised by RunThrough on Saturday, with nearly four hundred runners finishing a three lap course around this flat South London park. I suspect too that it will be my last race in sunglasses this year - a glorious sunny morning on this first weekend after the Autumn Equinox. Dan McGrath finished first in 33:50, first woman finisher was Imogen Aimsworth in 36:43 (full results here). I took a couple of minutes off my PB in my first 10k for two years, so was more than happy.

The start/finish was near to the park's grand Victorian bandstand, which along with the local underground station inspired the event's fine medal 

There's always people running round Clapham Common, and a number of local running groups/ clubs use the park regularly - including Clapham Pioneers, Clapham Runners, Sweatshop's running group (from their shop just off Clapham High Street in Voltaire Road) and indeed RunThrough themselves who have a free Monday night session there. 

The Common doesn't seem to have quite the rich running history of other South West London parks such as Richmond and Wimbledon - where organised cross country running started out - but it was featuring in races even before it was drained and recreations grounds laid out in the 1870s. This report from 1869 is of a Hare and Hounds race organised by Brixton Football Club. Two 'Hares' - F. Bone and Harry Foster - laid a paper trail across nearly 15 miles of SW London in one hour 57 minutes for the 'hounds' to follow. As well as Clapham Common their run in a loop from Brixton took in Streatham, Tooting and Wandsworth Commons.

The Sportsman, 10 March 1869

South London Running News: Spring 2014

The sun has shone and the ground's drying out, and even the most fair weather of runners are showing their faces and indeed their legs.

Sidcup 10

I took part in Kent Athletic Club's Sidcup 10 Mile Road Race a couple of weeks ago (Sunday 9th March) and it felt like the first run of the summer, I was pouring water over my head after the first lap. More than 300 people took part in a well organised run, starting off at Sidcup Leisure Centre and finishing three laps later in the grounds of Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School. Mark Steinle (Blackheath & Bromley) came in first for the men with a time of 55:11, while Tina Oldershaw (Paddock Wood AC) was the women's winner in 62:05.

Lewisham-based Kent Athletics Club have had a busy winter, winning the Surrey Cross Country League for the second year in a row. Not to mention the club's Conrad Williams winning a silver medal in the 4 x 400m relay at the World Indoor Championship in Sopot earlier this month.

Parkrun

Parkrun continues to expand locally as everywhere else. On 8th March, more than 1400 runners were out for a 5k Saturday morning run across nine South East(ish) London runs, compared to 969 in the same area on the same weekend last year. At my home parkrun, Hilly Fields in Lewisham, slippery conditions on the muddiest part of the course necessitated a change of route during the latter part of the winter, but it's now back to normal.

Parkrun participants in 9 South London events,
second weekend in March, 2013 and 2014

10ks

Nearly 700 people finished the 'Wrap up and run' 10k in Crystal Palace last week (16th March) in aid of Age UK. Patrick Brown of East London Runners was the fastest man (35:52), while Sarah Watson of Kent AC was the fastest woman (39:59).

With the encouragement of Southwark Council, London City Runners are establishing a London City Athletics Club that will include a youth athletics section. Their inaugural event is a 10k run in Southwark Park on March 30th - with plans in place too to refurbish the athletics track in the park. On Saturday 5 July the park will also see the Southwark Park 150th anniversary 10k Run, organised by PB Race Events.

PB Race Events are also organising the 'Run for Diabetes 10k' in Greenwich Park on Saturday 14th June, while on 19th October there's another Greenwich Park 5k/10k organised by Run Through.

New Eltham Joggers are organising the Eltham Park 5 on Sunday June 8th, a 5 mile run through Eltham Parks and Shepherdleas Wood. There's also a 3.5 km run, and a 1 mile family fun run on the same day.

Croydon Half

Next big run for me is the Croydon Half Marathon on 30th March,organised by Striders of Croydon - I think there's still some places left.

(all photos from Sidcup 10 2014)

See previously: South London Running News Summer 2013

Running London (6): Dulwich Park

I saw in 2014 with a New Year's Day 5k Dulwich parkrun. It was wet and windy, but 172 runners decided to get cracking on their New Year resolutions early.

Parkrun has been taking place in Dulwich Park since April 2012. It is one of the smoother, faster parkruns in London, with three circuits of the park on tarmac all the way round, mostly fairly flat (runners sometimes complain about the slight gradient on part of the course, but there's certainly no hill).  Sarah Watson is currently the fastest female finisher with a time of 17:31, Thomas Payn holds the men's record with 15:01 - getting on for a minute quicker than the best time at my really hilly home run at Hilly Fields.  So yes, the course does make a difference, though I have run faster times at Hilly Fields than I managed at Dulwich Park on New Year's Day. Then again I had been up drinking and dancing into the early hours the night before.

Dulwich parkrun, New Years Day 2014

There's nearly always people running in the park, and the area boasts two local running clubs in addition to the weekly parkrun - Dulwich Park Runners, based at the Trevor Bailey Sports Club on The South Circular opposite the park and Dulwich Runners AC, who have their main club night at The Edward Alleyn Club in Burbage Road, SE24. There are also various other running events in the park - such as the annual Cystis Fibrosis Dulwich Park Fun Run (next one on May 31 2014).

Back in October, I took part in the Dulwich Runners Charity 10k, with 213 runners starting off and finishing in the park, but also taking in a section of the South Circular Road and Dulwich Village (all photos in this post except the top one from New Years Day are from that race). A PB for me, but  I strained a muscle in my thigh and ended up out of action for a month. In fact I was relieved to come away from the park on New Year's Day uninjured as on my previous parkrun there in June my vision started to blur and by the end of the day I was in Kings Hospital Accident and Emergency with a temporary loss of vision (seemingly related to damage from my contact lenses).

The park holds many happy memories for me, wandering through the Rhododendrons with my kids, seeing a great outdoor performance of Alice in Wonderland from Bubble Theatre, cycling over from Brixton the first time I stumbled across it. It has a good cafe, and just outside the various food and drink establishments of Dulwich Village. And yes it does feel a bit like a rather posh Surrey village, though sometimes this is overstated. Once I overheard a shopkeeper say 'there's a lot of outsiders in the village today'- well it is in one of the world's biggest cities and just down the road from Peckham and Brixton!

The finish in Dulwich Park for the Dulwich Runners 10k,
Sunday 6 October 2013

The park itself was opened in 1890, on former farm land and meadows that had belonged to the Dulwich Estate before they donated it to the Metropolitan Board of Works (later London County Council). The origins  and wealth of the Dulwich Estate go back to Alleyn's College of God's Gift, founded  by Edward Alleyn, the Shakespearian actor who made his money from playhouses, bear pits and brothels on the South Bank of the Thames. He set up the charity for the benefit of poor scholars, though the main beneficiaries seem to have ended up being the associated elite fee-paying schools of Dulwich College, Alleyn's School and James Allen Girls School. Oh well at least the rest of us got a park out of it to run around!  Dulwich College, once attended by the likes of Raymond Chandler, P.G. Wodehouse and more recently Chiwetel Ejiofor, is another part of the running mix in the area. It has a strong tradition of cross country running and its own running track - also used for training sessions by Dulwich Runners.

The nearby Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Woods are also popular with runners, offering a woodland trail within easy reach of inner South London (well for me a run from New Cross to the woods, round them and back again is a good 10k run).

Dulwich parkrun route - the run starts 9 am every Saturday from Queen Mary's Gate (the entrance on South Circular)

Previously in the Running London series:

Nunhead Cemetery

Hilly Fields

Southwark Park

Richmond Park

Hackney Marshes

Running London (2): Richmond Park 10k

In between watching Mo Farah and Tirunesh Dibaba  win their respective 10,000m events at the World Championships in Moscow, I went for a not quite as quick 10k myself in Richmond Park (where Farah once regularly trained). The event on Sunday 11th August was organised by Nice Work for Capital Runners.

315 runners took part, a mixed ability field with finishing times ranging from 34:52 to 1:33:07. (results here). Winners were Adam Kirk-Smith for the men's and Deirdre McDermot (Tonbridge AC) for the women's race, the former a couple of minutes ahead of the rest despite having to rerun the final section after a misunderstanding about the route at the end. 

The finishing line on Sunday

Richmond Park is a huge expanse, it certainly feels like you are deep in the countryside rather than in a London park, albeit one in the leafy South Western suburbs.  At 2500 acres it is the largest enclosed space in the London area. 

photo from Sunday's race by Scrimpledore

And of course it has what few other parks in London have - more than 600 red and fallow deer. On the first lap on Sunday I spent some time gazing at a herd of red deer across the road from the running track, not so much on the second lap when I was more staring at the ground through gritted teeth.

Feeding deer in Richmond Park in 1928

Until the 17th century most of  what is now the Royal Park was common land. Then King Charles I put a wall around it to the dismay of those who had previously used it for grazing animals and gathering firewood: 'A resort of royalty and nobility, attempts were made to keep out the commoners, to lock the gates, to provide the favoured few with keys or tickets of entry' (E.P Thompson, Whigs and Hunters, 1975). In the 18th century there was a bitter fight to regain public access to Richmond Park after further restrictions had been imposed. One of the leaders in that struggle, local brewer John Lewis, is commemorated on a plaque at Sheen Gate, near to where the race started at the weekend. So thanks to him and all the others who made it possible for us commoners to run around the park!

 The route: the run on Sunday was two laps of a 5k course in the north of the park, starting out near Sheen Gate, with a long stretch along Sawyers Hill. With numerous roads, paths and trails crossing the park, any number of other routes are possible.

Terrain: on this route a mixture of gravel paths and grass tracks.

Hazards: the deer aren't threatening unless you get too close to a stag during the rutting season, or come between a mother and her baby deer. But a deer did once steal my sandwich while picnicking in the park! An additional hazard for this particular race was the queue for the public toilets at the gate just before the race - you might want to go somewhere else or get there early.

Getting there: If you are not driving or cycling, Richmond rail station is about 1.5 miles away (details of walk to park here)

Opening times: opens  7:00 am to 9:30 pm in summer, shorter hours in the winter (check website for details) 

Post-run refreshments: within the park there is a tea room at Pembroke Lodge, lots of places to eat and drink in East Sheen if you are at that end of the park.

The next Capital Runners 10k race in the Richmond Park Series is on 8th September, followed by 27 October and 24th November 2013. Richmond Parkrun follow a very similar 5k course there every Saturday at 9 am, though they start near Bishops Gate.