Dear Boris

FAO: Mayor of London

Dear Boris,

   Re: Encouraging Londoners to get out and about.

I must congratulate you on the rollout of an ambitious cycling scheme this week– which I am personally very keen to make use of and I have ordered my “key” and await its arrival with eager anticipation. However if the scheme does take off and a second wave of bicycles are rolled out, please can you consider adding some pink bicycles to the existing blue stock as I feel this would help represent male and female colour tastes more equitably.

However since “encouraging Londoners to get out and exercise in this wonderful city of ours” is such a focus for you currently, I thought I would also take this opportunity to draw your attention to the shocking state of sections of the Thames Path which I encountered during my 10km race around Richmond Deer Park this morning.

Whilst the scenery of the Thames Path can only be described as breathing taking, the “Path” (a noun I can only ascribe loosely) underfoot also managed to completely take my breath away (not to mention wrench my ankle). It felt as though the loose and chipped tarmac (this includes the plethora of potholes I encountered) had been laid with an assortment of daggers and blades. This, as you can imagine, does rather make for slow progress along the Thames Path, however attempting to run at speed along these sections felt as though I was attempting to climb K2 barefoot.

Whilst I sincerely congratulate you for making it possible for ANY Londoner to enjoy the benefits of cycling (particularly for us Londoners for whom owning a bike would mean developing the upper body strength of the World’s Strongest Man to enable us to drag a bike up eight flights of stairs), I imagine when you co-designed this scheme, you imagined that people might take the opportunity to cycle along the delightful Thames Path. However, if you ever want to successfully get one of your bikes down the “Path” I strongly advocate relaying sections with more appropriate wheel and of course WHEELCHAIR FRIENDLY smoother varieties of tarmac at the earliest opportunity.

As for my run, you will be very happy to hear that my progress wasn’t completely hampered by the poor condition of the Thames Path and that I successfully completed the course in a rather pleasing 1hr 2mins; successfully cutting 6 mins of my previous PB 10km time. I do wonder however if a smoother and more even surface might have just brought me in under the 1hr mark? I am therefore willing to rerun the route and test this theory ONLY when you have authorised repairs on the badly maintained sections.

Wishing you well and continued safety on your helmet-clad peddling missions around London.

Girl on a Mission x
Enthusiastic London Park Exerciser and now, two-time 10km Medallist!!!!

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Old Deer Park 10km Race Lowdown:

Sophie and I both completed 10km runs this morning (even despite Sophie straining a muscle in her thigh earlier in the week – she’s my new HERO!!). Even better both of us SMASHED our PBs from the Boutique Run three weeks ago, even with totally minimal training.

Sophie came in 278th at the staggering time of 53 mins and 50 seconds, knocking three minutes off her previous time.

We actually passed each other during the race- albeit, she at the 9km mark and me at the 7.5km mark and I can personally attest that she high fived me like a MoFo which just demonstrates how fast she was going. (The throbbing pain in my hand kept reminding me of her amazing speed for the next five minutes but at least it successfully distracted me temporarily from the pain of running!)

I came in at a less impressive 456th but at the AMAZING time of 1hr 2mins (I even got my medal engraved with my time, I'm that PROUD of my little legs) – I knocked a WHOLE 6 MINS off my previous 10km time. EVEN BETTER THAN THAT THOUGH, I ran 6.5km without slowing to a walk, that’s 38 minutes of non-stop running – meaning that I ran for longer than the 10km race winner who completed the course in 37mins 40 seconds!!! I even beat my previous 5km time by 3 mins, meaning that I ran PERFECT 5 minute kilometers -WOOP WOOP!!

The official race results however are a little judgemental if you ask me; it appears my time puts me in the Senior Category – The cheek of it, particularly as I distinctly remember having to sprint to overtake the 80 year old runner.

See for yourself!

Running 6.5km non-stop was such a massive achievement for me, EVEN if I am classed now as a Senior Citizen in the Running World, particularly because those last 500 meters were soooo tough. I’d actually made 6km my predetermined goal for my 1st walking break as we’d been told that’s where the water station was. But at 6.5km and with no water station in sight I had to slow down for fear of doing a classic Alistair Brownlee exhaustion finish.

Although I was nowhere near complete exhaustion (or for that matter Alistair Brownlee’s class of athlete), when I did finally slow down at 6.5km, my legs were not my own and I was staggering ALL OVER the place. Luckily within a few paces, I managed to pretend I did know how to walk in a straight-ish line. Although it did freak me out slightly, I was also slightly pleased as it showed just how much I’d pushed myself to keep running that extra 1.5km longer than last time.

One of these days I’ll have the mental stamina to run a WHOLE 10km non-stop just like my heroes! (i.e. no walking, stopping, twisting ankle, fantasising about being scooped up off the pavement by a hansome male and bought a refreshingly cold drink and a yummy sandwich please etc)  x