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 with Herons

My pleasant London Sunday long run yesterday included heading up to the Tower of London to watch cyclists go by in their thousands in the RideLondon-Surrey 100 mile event. As well as enjoying the spectacle, associated road closures meant that Tower Bridge was devoid of traffic and I was able to run across it in the middle of the road like it was mile 12  of the London Marathon all over again.

Heading home I passed through Burgess Park, where by the lake a grey heron was casually strolling along the path not in the slightest bit bothered by runners heading past. As the lake is on the Saturday parkrun route I can only assume that the wildlife there has grown accustomed to the sight of legs and Lycra! 

Heron on Burgess Park lake

On another run last week from St Katherine's Dock to Shadwell Basin I also saw a couple of herons calmly wading in the water as frantic humans packed a few km into their lunch breaks. I can't help thinking that they are conveying some taoist message about effortless grace.

City of London Mile 2015

The mile race has an iconic status in the history of British athletics, brought up as many of us have been on the legend of Roger Bannister and the first sub-four minute mile in 1954. Not only that but the mile itself is woven into the English language in numerous idioms - 'saw it a mile away', 'go the extra mile', 'walk a mile in my shoes' etc. (though those who want to maintain that the mile is something distinctly British should note that its name derives from the Roman unit for a 1000 paces - mīlle passus or passuum).

As most of international athletics is based on metric distances, the mile race rarely features in major events, but it is going through something of a renaissance with two big London events launched in the last few years. The Westminster Mile started in 2013, and last year was joined by the new City of London Mile. 

The second race of the latter took place today, in cool and slightly damp conditions (though the drizzle had more or less stopped by the time running started) . Really it was 16 races, including 12 waves plus a wheelchair race, youth race, and elite men's and women's races. The start and finish point were both in the vicinity of St Pauls Cathedral, with the course heading on roads past Mansion House and the Bank of England.

The first wave passes to the South of St Pauls - this stretch was also on the route for the 2012 London Olympic Marathon, though I think running in the opposite direction.

 It was the first time I've run a mile race, of course if you're used to running longer distances it all goes by very quickly and you certainly don't have much time to make up for any delays or slow sections. The event, which was free thanks to sponsorship of Amba Hotels, was enjoyable and well organised (OK apart from the baggage pick up which was fairly chaotic - maybe a bigger tent next year?).

After my run I stayed to watch the elite races - in fact you can manage to see the start and then cut round the back of St Pauls to see the finish. Men's race was won by New Zealand's Julian Matthews, finishing his first road mile in 4:04, ahead of Australia's Collis Birmingham (4:05) and GB's Tom Lancashire (4:05). The women's race was won by Alison Leonard in 4:40, followed closely by Jemma Simpson (4:41) and Australia's Zoe Buckman (4:43). 

(results here)

All in all, a great event - look out for next year's.

5:55:32 - I'll take it.

All over Battersea, some hope and some despair - Assembly League Race 3

The third of this season's Assembly League races was held in London's Battersea Park last Thursday (4th June 2015), hosted by Serpentine Running Club. 318 runners from 13 clubs took part on one of the hottest days of the year so far - with heat, pollen and London air quality there were plenty of dry throats and coughs by the end.

Johh Franklin (Serpentine) was first in 15:24, followed by Chris Greenwood (Kent AC - 15:29) and Richard Kowenicki (London Stock Exchange - 15:30). Amy Clements (Kent AC) was the women's winner in 17:07- making it three out of three for her this season - with Martha Lloyd second (Victoria Park Harriers, 17:47)  and Clare Elms (Dulwich Runners, 17:58) in third place. In the club placings, Serpentine came first in both  men's A-team and B-team, while Kent AC  cleaned up in women's A-team and B-team. A-team scores are based on positions of each club's first four finishers (so Serpentine runners finished in 1st, 4th, 6th and 10th place = 21 points) with the club with lowest points winning. B-team is the same, but for the next four finishers from each club. Final results are now available here  (see also the Assembly League facebook group).

With three races still to go - Greenwich peninsula, Victoria Park, Beckenham - Lewisham's Kent AC are still ahead in all team competitions but by no means secure. Plenty still to run for.

Runners gather at the bandstand last week

The 5k course started at the bandstand in the centre of the park, before heading on a circuit and half of the park. There aren't many parks in this country where a run takes you past a Buddhist peace pagoda, but of course Battersea has one, built by monks, nuns and followers of the Japanese Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order as part of the 1984 Greater London Council (GLC) Peace Year - shortly before the GLC was abolished and the park handed over to be run by Wandsworth Council. In fact I saw The Pogues play in the park in July 1985 in one of the great farewell free festivals organised in the last days of the GLC.

Battersea Park was opened next to the River Thames in 1858 and has a long sporting pedigree. The first football match played under Football Association rules took place there in January 1864. The park was regularly used by London Olympiades Athletics Club, one of the first women's athletics clubs in Britain (founded in 1921). In fact the first women's mile race in the UK was organised by Olympiades in Battersea Park in 1932 (source), in a period when many athletics officials thought women weren't capable of running such long distances!

Margery Bennett throws the discus in a London Olympiades meeting in Battersea Park, August 1939, with a barrage balloon in the background (Leeds Mercury 15 August 1939)

The women pictured below were taking part in a May 1931 trial in the park to select athletes to run in Florence later that year.

View image | gettyimages.com

Today the park hosts the Battersea Park Millennium Arena, with its eight lane running track, as well as other sporting facilities.

(the title of this post - 'All over Battersea, some hope and some despair' is a line from Morrissey's 1992 song, 'You're the One for Me Fatty', the video for which was filmed in the park).

Obligatory picture of some of the Kent AC runners in Battersea Park last week

See previously:

Assembly League in Victoria Park, May 2015
Staying Out for the Summer - Start of 2015 Assembly League in Beckenham, April 2015
The Assembly League 2014 finale in Beckenham (includes history of League)

Streatham Common Cross Country

The third of this season's 2XU Surrey Cross Country League Men's Division One fixtures took place on Streatham Common on 10 January, with 177 runners from the nine competing clubs completing the (approximately) five mile race.

photo by Rayond O'Donoghue

Paskar Owor (Belgrave Harriers) finished first, followed by Chris Greenwood (Kent Athletic Club) and Ralph Street (Ranelagh Harriers). But in the team results, based on scores of first ten finishers for each club, Kent AC were victorious ahead of South London Harriers and Herne Hill Harriers. Kent now have a strong lead in the League and have a good chance of winning the title for the third year in a row with one race remaining, at Richmond Park on 7th February.

I was one of 27 in the Kent vest, finishing well behind the scorers on a deceptively challenging course. I guess I associate Streatham Common with leisurely walks and summer festivals, but running three times around it in gradually deepening mud was another story. The course started with a charge down hill and around the big open space on the west side of the common, coming back up the edge of that then plunging down a slope again before climbing through the woods.  There was no real flat section.

Streatham Common cross country course (approximate, drawn by me from memory)

By the end of it I could have done with some of the healing waters of Streatham Spa's mineral springs that attracted people to the common in their thousands in the early 18th century. Sadly they are no more. The common itself was once used by local people as a place to gather wood and graze animals, and like many such places was the scene of an ongoing conflict with landowners who wanted to enclose the common land (see Down with the Fences: Battles For the Commons In South London) - in 1794 'six men dressed in black' demolished an enclosure fenced off by the Lord of the Manor. A century later the common was secured for public access when it was purchased for use as a public open space under the powers of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. 

There's a long history of running in the area, as shown by this newspaper cutting from October 1880:

South London Harriers annual Ten Mile Championship and Mr J Gibbs' Challenge Cup
from the Greyhound, Streatham Common, won by G.E. Liddiard, followed by H. Burrows
(the Greyhound pub, originally a coaching inn on London-Brighton road, is still there)

See previously:

Farthing Down Surrey League Cross Country, October 2014

South of the Thames Cross Country, Wimbledon Common, November 2014

100th parkrun in Hilly Fields

It was the 100th parkrun in Hilly Fields today. Since September 2012, people have been meeting at 9 am every Saturday morning in all weathers for a 5k run up and down the slopes of this South London park (see previous post for more on the history of the park). 

Last push to the finish at Hilly Fields today  - note 100 balloons
(photo from Hilly Fields parkrun flickr pool)

110 runners took part this morning, ignoring the fluctuations of the English summer climate. I left the house in a thunderstorm, but by the time the run started the parkrun weather fairies had arranged a dry but humid spell. To celebrate at the end there were parkrun cakes galore.

The great event was also commemorated in a Lego model of the infamous hill tackled by runners at the end of each lap, complete with cones, a marshal and dogs.

photo by @adeleprince, with some help from her son Hector's lego.

First finishers today were Steve Canwell for the men and Laura McCrave for the women. The course record of 15:39 set last month by Shaun Dixon (Highgate Harriers) remains intact - Shaun runs for GB in international mountain running championships, so presumably our little Lewisham hill didn't seem such a big deal to him!

Birdwatching and running

Assuming you don't only run on a treadmill or track, running means spending a lot of time in the great outdoors. And that means that in your running you will encounter many birds, whether in city parks or rural wilderness. Of course you might not notice them as you focus on the ground in front of you, your time, your pain, or whatever you are listening to on your headphones, but they are there nonetheless.

I have never been a proper twitcher, but a time in the RSPB Young Ornithologists Club at primary school set me up for a lifetime appreciation of birdlife. And I think that does enrich my experience of being out and about running. In my regular parkrun in Hilly Fields I see the bright green ring-necked parakeets and, at this time of year, the swifts on summer holiday in South London from Africa (OK I tend to notice them more in the post-run state of mild euphoria than when I am chasing a 5k PB). I was delighted to see a beautiful goldfinch as I was on my way to the run last week.

Goldfinch

Running around Rotherhithe I see the waterfowl that live in the stretches of water that remain from the long-closed Surrey Docks - there are swans, ducks, coots, moorhen, and, on the nearby Thames, cormorants. I once saw a kingfisher by Surrey Docks Farm.

Running on holiday in Portugal I kept coming across a species of bird that is only found there and in Spain - the Iberian Azure-Winged Magpie. They fly and behave just like the magpies we see in this country, but as they look different I managed to break the lifetime habit of counting them ('One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, and a four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told').

Azure-winged magpie

Of course some birds are pretty good runners themselves. The roadrunner, found in the southern United States and Mexico, isn't quite as fast as its cartoon representation but can clock up speeds of 20 miles per hour. And if you should happen to come across an ostrich while running (unlikely in South London) don't bother trying to keep up. The fastest bird on land can reach speeds of up to 43 mph (70 km/h) - is using them as pacemakers the  secret of Kenyan running?!

Roadrunner

Update, 24 July 2013:  a 10k run this week taking in Dulwich Wood/Sydenham Hill Wood, a paradise of robins, blackbirds, wrens, great tits and best of all on my run a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Also saw a heron amongst the dragonflies on  a run along the canal between St Katharines Dock and Shadwell Basin.

11 August 2013: saw a Green Woodpecker while warming up for Richmond Park 10k today. 

26 August 2013 : running by the Thames at Purley, a flight of Canada geese alongside me just above the water

22 August 2014: I was buzzed by terns running near their nests of the Isle of Islay

26 October 2014: saw two Green Woodpeckers while running over Farthing Downs near Coulsdon.

Running at work by the River Thames

I went for a very pleasant run at lunchtime with a group of people from work. They run a couple of times a week, and are also preparing for the 5k Your Way event at Hackney Marshes in September. We have some great places to run near to work, today's 6k took in Southwark Park, King Stair's Gardens and various historic locations including the Angel pub on the River Thames and the Rotherhithe house where Jessica Mitford may have lived. All that and dodging the tourists under Tower Bridge.



Caryatid Statues in Southwark Park - they once adorned Rotherhithe Town Hall before World War 2 damage
(photo by Julesfoto)

It was the first time I'd done a lunchtime run at work and I wasn't sure how it would go. Well I knew the run would be fine, it was more the thought of returning to work afterwards. Usually after I've got my breath back I have a post-run feeling of deep relaxation which is not exactly consistent with being at work. I also had a potentially difficult meeting immediately after lunch, so wasn't sure whether I would be able to get back into the zone. As it turned out  my calmness and a quick shower carried me through nicely, though an afternoon of work soon put paid to that deep relaxation...