Dulwich Midsummer Relays 2017

52 teams of three took part in the Dulwich Runners Midsummer Relays on July 12th 2017, held for the second year in Dulwich Park. In previous years the club organised a midsummer 5k - I ran it in 2015 (see report here) - but with the park hosting a 5k parkrun every Saturday it makes sense to try something a bit different.

The start of the first leg

 This year I ran with people from work who I sometimes join for a Wednesday lunchtime run around the Tower Bridge area. We fielded two teams as 'Tooley Street Runners', each of us taking our turn at one lap of the park - just over a mile.

Tooley Street Runners

Finsbury Flyers were the winning men's trio in 14:52, and a team from London City Athletic Club won the women's competiion in 17:43. The mixed team prize was won by three Peckham parkrunners in 16:34. Full results here.

Cherry blossom running in Dulwich Park

A beautiful Spring day in sunny South London last weekend (8th April 2017), I went to Dulwich Park unaware that it was its parkrun's 5th birthday. There was bunting, birthday balloons and of course cake.

As I was in the middle of a long marathon training run I didn't go flat out so was surprized when I got to the end to see that it was my fastest parkrun in over a year  - I know Dulwich is reputed to be a fast course on account of being flat(ish) with no sharp corners, but I haven't always run fast (for me) there.  As I wasn't really timing myself I didn't look at my watch on the way round, just concentrated on maintaining a steady pace - maybe that's something I should try more often!

I had more miles to do afterwards and wanted to run off road as much as possible so I decided to stay in the park. What I hadn't realized despite going to the park for years is that there is a proper woodland trail whereby you can run more or less the entire outside circuit of the park on trail, much of it in shaded woodland.




This includes the 'Village Copse' at the north-west corner of the park (pictured above). Only planted in 2006 by  TRUE (The Trust for Urban Ecology) it has now matured enough to let you run under trees, and at this time of year to be showered with cherry blossom while doing so.
 

 

 The romantic painter Samuel Palmer, who grew up in Walworth and often wandered in Dulwich wrote of  'Dulwich as the gate into the world of vision' and considered how to paint its hills 'to bring up a mystic glimmer like that which lights our dreams. And those same hills (hard task) should give us promise that the country beyond them is Paradise'. His 1834 painting The Shearers, painted when he was living at Shoreham in Kent, was an attempt to realize this landscape first glimpsed in the Dulwich 'valley of vision' 

No sheep being sheared in Dulwich today but maybe if you're lucky the occasional glimpse of paradise! 

Dulwich park - the outer perimeter is the woodland trail, just find a stretch of pathway as close to the edge of the park as you can get and follow it round, taking care to head to far side of the football pitches to the village copse section. The distance of the Outer Dulwich Park loop (see Strava segment) is around 1.3 miles.




See previous posts:




Running London: Dulwich Park


Midsummer running in Dulwich Park

What is the fastest parkrun in SE London? And how much difference does the course make?

All parkruns are equal but some are more equal than others... yes they're all 5k distance (more or less ;-)) but anyone who has run more than one knows that some courses are faster. There are various reasons, such as the terrain (tarmac is generally faster than trail) and how many slowing twists and turns there are, but obviously the main factor is hills. Up hill sections slow most of us down, and even  if we go hard down hill it is rarely enough to make up the time lost on the ascent.

Still, hilly courses are excellent training and for some its enough of a challenge  to just compare times week in week out over the same course. My home parkrun at Hilly Fields is one of the hillier in London, as the name suggests, and I have run it 73 times. But sometimes its good to see how fast you can go on the flat, and if you are chasing a target time it obviously makes sense to seek out a faster course now and then.

But can we quantify how much difference a course makes? Clearly it partly depends on the individual. If you are very strong on hills, then of course you might not notice as much a difference in time when moving on to a flatter course. If, on the other hand,  you can barely keep going up hill you are likely to benefit more when there's less hill to deal with.

Making more general comparisons is more complicated than it seems, as I found when looking at runs in the South East London area (with Mile End across the river also included as it's one of my nearest parkruns as the crow flies). One obvious measure is the average run time which the parkrun website gives for each run. I assume that by average, parkrun refer to the mean. This is calculated from aggregating all the run times from an event and dividing them by the number of runs - in the case of Hilly Fields currently over 15,000.

In my area that makes the flat tarmac course at Dulwich the fastest, more than two minutes faster than the hills of Hilly Fields and Greenwich's Avery Hill Park course.Still I was surprised to see Brockwell Park coming in second fastest when it is certainly much hillier than the pretty flat Southwark, Burgess and Peckham Rye courses. Average times might be affected by various other factors though - perhaps some courses attract more, faster club runners which lift the average while others might have larger, more inclusive fields with a higher proportion of slower runners. Dulwich parkrun has a strong association with Dulwich Runners, Brockwell Park is home to Windrush Tri club, Hilly Fields is close to Kent AC's track, whereas Burgess parkrun has no nearby club - does that affect its times? It's important to recognise that what's being measured here is not how fast the course is as such, but how fast the people running it are. There is a relationship between the two - even the fastest runners run more slowly on tougher courses - but some parkruns seem to have faster fields (i.e. more generally faster runners)

Another way of looking at the average is the median time - that is the time of the runner who finished half way down the field. I would have thought that would ameliorate the 'club runner effect', as the times of the faster runners don't affect the average in the same way. As I don't have access to all the data for parkruns ever, I have just calculated this for all runs last week, that is 25 Jul 2015:

On the median measure, Greenwich still appears to be the toughest course. Southwark Park is now the fastest, with Dulwich slipping into second. Burgess is now faster than Brockwell Park which I would expect. But I certainly don't believe that Hilly Fields is faster than Peckham Rye - there must have just been a faster field at Hilly Fields that day.

Course records

So how do the faster runners compare? What about the course records? Well Bromley comes out fastest for both men and women, with Dulwich and Brockwell Park in the fastest four for both. But course records can sometimes just reflect that a top runner turned up one day. Hilly Fields certainly wouldn't be seen as faster than Burgess Park by most runners, but the fastest male time at the former is 22 seconds ahead of the latter, set on Christmas Day 2014 by team GB mountain runner Shaun Dixon (mind you Burgess record holder Max Nicholls is a junior Team GB mountain runner who could probably also get a good time at Hilly Fields).

More instructive is comparing course records set by individuals at different courses. Kent AC's Amy Clements' has the records at both Dulwich and Hilly Fields, the former 1:18 faster. That's in line with the gap in average times between the two. But  this year's Manchester Marathon winner Paul Martelletti holds records at Mile End and Southwark Park- is the former really faster, or was he just taking it a bit easier in Southwark that day?

To exclude the 'anomolous super-speedy visitor effect', I've also looked at averaging the last ten fastest finish times at the events. Dulwich and Mile End are in the top three for men and women, Hilly Fields and Greenwich in the bottom three.

Not sure what to conclude from all this - on most measures Hilly Fields and Greenwich are at the slower end, and Dulwich is clearly one of the fastest. But how much difference it makes depends of how you measure it, and of course on the individual. Burgess Park is definitely the fastest for me, my PB there (19:42) is 92 seconds faster than for Hilly Fields PB (21:14), with my fastest times for Dulwich, Southwark Park and Peckham Rye somewhere in between. So I'm surprised that Burgess doesn't figure higher up the speed tables - maybe it just needs some faster runners to run there!

[updated 1 August with median times; all statistics as of 4 July 2015 unless otherwise stated]

Midsummer Running in Dulwich Park

'Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to make me afeard'

(photo from Dulwich Runners)

Last Thursday 25th June, 150 of us did three circuits of South London's Dulwich Park taking part in Dulwich Runners' Midsummer 5k. Top three finishers for men and women were as follows (full results at Run Britain):

Men:

1. Alex Gibbins (Blackheath and Bromley AC) - 16:10

2. Phil Sanders (Kent AC) - 16:11

3. Warwick Norris (Run Dem Crew) - 16:21

Women:

1. Sorrel Walsh (Run Dem Crew) - 19:07

2. Julia Wedmore (Herne Hill Harriers) - 19.23

3. Melanie Edwards - 19:26

The race was preceded by a one mile children's event, which was all very cute but definitely cost me a place in the 5k later as the children stayed on to cheer their parents... I was running along quite happily when at the end of the second lap a child called out to the guy behind me 'Dad, there's a little boy beating you' (there was a junior runner ahead of us both). In no time at all, said Dad had moved up a gear, overtaken me and headed off in hot pursuit of his youthful rival. 

Midsummer running

'Over hill, over dale,

Through bush, through brier,

Over park, over pale,

Through flood, through fire,

I do wander everywhere,

Swifter than the moon's sphere'

It was a hot evening, and where better to be than in the green outdoors? At this time of year with the days at their longest and the sun at its height, people have celebrated midsummer revels for thousands of years with dancing and games. In his book on seasonal customs, The Stations of the Sun (1996), Ronald Hutton notes that it was once common in many parts of  Europe to light festive bonfires on Midsummer Eve (23 June). An  Elizabethan ballad  mentions that 'the nimble young men runne leapinge' over Midsummer fires. There was no fire leaping in Dulwich Park this year, but plenty of nimble men and women of various ages running around.

The 5k route was more or less the same as the regular Dulwich parkrun route, above

The drama of the Green World

Writing about A Midsummer Night's Dream and other Shakespearean comedies, the critic Northrop Frye famously wrote of the ‘drama of the Green World’, with the action moving away from the confines of 'the normal world'  to a woodland setting of rebirth and dreams where the social order is suspended and contradictions are resolved. If the characters generally have to return to the normal world afterwards, it is to a better place than when they left it as a result of their adventures (Frye, The Anatomy of Criticism, 1957).

 For me, running races - perhaps especially in parks, woods and fields - functions as a kind of Green World in a similar way. A time and space outside of everyday life when we can temporarily leave behind worries about work or the state of the world, when the things that divide human beings are set aside for a common experience of focusing solely on the immediacy of our physical bodies and the terrain we move over, as fast as we can. And if we cross the line hot and exhausted, we generally feel better for it afterwards.

'O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!'

(all quotes in italics from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream)

See previously: Running in Dulwich Park for a bit more about its history and running culture - in fact the park's origins have a connection with Shakespearean actor and theatre owner Edward Alleyn.

More running related literature:

Jack Kerouac running down a mountain

'These forms who hasten by' - runners on the Pilgrims Way, 1920s

'You just had to run' - Karl Ove Knausgaard

Morrissey - List of the Lost

Burns Night Running Thoughts

Running in the Railway Children

Running to Paradise - W B Yeats

The Sky of a Saturday Morning - John Updike

The Road is a Strange Country - Rebecca Solnit

The Runner - W H Auden

Once a Runner - John L Parker jr

Louisa May Alcott - 'A Joy to Run'

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

South London Running News (1): Summer 2013

A round up of running things going on round my way:

Your Pace no Race in Burgess Park

I took part in the 5k parkrun in Burgess Park (Camberwell/Walworth) last week, which like all UK parkruns takes place every Saturday at 9 am. Something slightly different coming up in the park next month though:

'Fancy a running event where no one comes last? Are you new to running and want an achievable goal? Not ready for a 5k or 10k race yet? "Your pace no race" is a running event were no one comes last. You can choose from two, three or four kilometre runs, with no timer, no top three prizes and no race numbers. Just you, your challenge distance and a fun, friendly, no pressure event.

Sunday 22 September 2013, 11am to 1pm. £5 entry for all distances Register on the day and arrive by 10.15am to pay and sign in. Free tshirt for all participant All events are wheelchair and pram friendly.

Southwark Park

Meanwhile elsewhere in Southwark, Rotherhithe's Southwark Park is re-emerging as a running venue with a new parkrun starting there on Saturday September 7th. I went for a run there today, nice flat course with tarmac path so should be good for those chasing a 5k PB.

This month London City Runners have started a weekly Thursday training night in the park (7 pm start) , using the nearby Seven Islands Leisure Centre to leave belongings. London City Runners was established in 2010 and has quickly grown to over 2000 members. The club currently train twice a week from Bermondsey Square, but due to restrictive space have been looking to expand the number of sessions they offer each week.

There's also a 10k fun run in the park on 12 October. Details from Southwark's RUN! London Activator David White (david.white@southwark.gov.uk)

Other Parkrun News

Bromley Parkrun are celebrating their 4th birthday on 31st August 2013, and will be running their usual course backwards - that is running in the opposite direction to normal, not actually running backwards!

My home Hillyfields Parkrun in Lewisham will be having its first birthday on 14th September with cake and prizes. They will also be reversing their normal direction so those dreaded uphill stretches will now be a doddle, and those downward slopes... well you do the math. Check their facebook page for updates on what's planned..

Athletic Clubs

There's lots of running clubs locally, most of which cater for all levels from beginners to elite runners (including in some cases international athletes). South London Clubs include:

- Croydon Harriers - based in South Norwood.
- Kent Athletic Club - based in Ladywell/Lewisham
- Dulwich Runners - have a 10k charity run coming up on 6th October, starting and finishing in Dulwich Park.
- Dulwich Park Runners
- Herne Hill Harriers - actually based in Tooting Bec, not Herne Hill.
- Beckenham Running Club
- Blackheath and Bromley Harriers
- Petts Wood Runners
- London City Runners. (see above)
- Clapham Runners
- South London Harriers - based in Coulsden, but also training at Crystal Palace
- Cambridge Harriers - based in Bexley, also train in Eltham