RACE 47 - ROYAL PARKS FOUNDATION HALF MARATHON - 9 October

I wanted to do this race and you've only got to look at the route to see why. Central London, The Mall, Buckingham Palace, the Embankment, Trafalgar Square, quite apart from the parks themselves ~ and all on roads closed to traffic. I nearly didn't get a place as it is oversubscribed every year and I initially didn't get a place. However I got a place on the first round ballot ~ they must have been short of 50 year old men or some such. I must admit I did approach the race with a fair degree of trepidation as over 12,500 take part and unlike the equally big events such as the London Triathlon, the starts aren't in waves spread over the whole day. I've only ever run in a similar sized event ~ a 10k again on closed roads in central London, which had been a bit of a disaster. There had been no grading of the runners so you had absolute 'snails' pushing themselves towards the front while some of the 'speedsters' spent the whole race having to dodge around people. It was not an enjoyable experience.


To digress (as per usual), there are two websites that are worth a browse ~ one about the race http://royalparkshalf.com/ and one about the foundation that looks after the parks http://www.supporttheroyalparks.org/ From these I gleaned the following snippets:

• In the 16th century, The Green Park was popular with duellists and many a gentleman died on the turf where office workers now enjoy their lunchtime breaks.
• In the 13th century, a leper hospital was founded alongside St James’s Park, and it is from this hospital that the Park took its name. St James’s Palace was commissioned by Henry VIII on the site of the hospital when it was disbanded in 1532.
• When Oscar Wilde was arrested in 1895 he was first held in the Old Police House in Hyde Park. His old cell is now a lavatory!
• William III bought what was originally part of Hyde Park in 1689. An asthma sufferer, the Kind found the location quiet and the air salubrious and so he commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to design the redbrick building that is Kensington Palace.
• Queen Caroline, the wife of George II, ordered the damming of the River Westbourne in Hyde Park as part of a general redevelopment of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. At that time, the Westbourne formed eleven natural ponds in the park. During the 1730s, the lake filled to its current size and shape.
• William III travelled along Rotten Row (then Route du Roi) between his residence at Kensington Palace and Westminster. Anxious to ensure his protection from roving highwaymen, lamps were hung from the trees, making it the first public road to be lit.

However back to the race itself. I was pleased to find that everyone was graded and their numbers colour coded according to ability (as in the race entry we had been asked for estimated finish time). I wasn't in the first group ~ sub 1:30 runners, but in the next group which seemed to be 1:30 to 2:00 hours which suited me just fine. It also meant that while there were a lot of charity runners, it was unlikely that there would be many in full costume at this pace. I'm still traumatise by being overtaken by a runner in a full chicken suit, with chicken feet, feathers, comb ~ the lot, in a race a couple of years ago!


An advantage with a central London race was it was a stroll down to Brixton tube, five stops and off at Green Park for a 15 minute stroll to the start. Easy-peasy! It was interesting seeing how packed the tube was early Sunday morning, mainly with trainer-wearing passengers all with their chip timing device attached to their shoes. Degrees of nervousness, preparedness and enthusiasm were all evident ~ from the obvious athletes to the "give it a go and hope I make it" brigade. 

It was a pretty damp start to the day but it did brighten up a bit as the day wore on. Getting to the start I was amazed at how big the "event village" was. The bag marque was enormous and incredible well organised - no need for queuing at all, the food on offer was amazingly wide ranging, the charity marques seemed endless .... and so on. I had intended to look around and meet up with some others such as Elaine, Becky, Gordon .... who were also running ~ but no chance. It really was like finding a needle in a haystack! Never mind the atmosphere was gripping and all really good natured. The warm up was led by Nell Andrews dressed as a woodland fairy. I'm assuming she's a 'celebrity'. I 'Googled' her and I'm not much the wiser ~ though to be fair she seems to do a lot of charity work and I found out later she finished 15 minutes faster than me! So celebrity or not, she's a fine runner!


One of the races' raison d'etres is sustainability. This was emphasised as we were corralled into our coloured enclosures. Any clothes we were wearing to keep warm while waiting for the off and didn't want, could be left by the side and Oxfam would pick them up and use them. Our medals were made out of wood from the trees of the park; the race shirts made out of bamboo (and they are really good too!); the water provided by M&S were all in small bottles which would be recycled; the bananas at the end were fair-trade ....  see what I mean?

The elites were set off on the dot of 9:30, and once that corral of people had moved off it was our turn to move up to the line and be 'released'. It was a stunning site see a mass of runners streaming down South Carriage Drive towards Hyde Park Corner and Wellington Arch. Under the arch and then down Constitution Hill toward Her Maj's house. 


One other thing that the organisers had done was provide pace runners. These were runners that had flags on their backs showing the intended finish time of that particular person. I was aiming for a finish around the 1:40 mark, so I kept those particular mauve flags in view. It resulted in the pace runners having a small posse of people around them. One disadvantage of getting too close to them was that as they were pace runners they were running well within their capability so still had breath enough to chat!

Past Buckingham Palace seeing the bemused tourists wondering why they couldn't cross the road and why their holiday snaps were being ruined by a bunch of sweaty runners. Past St James's Park towards Parliament Square and Big Ben. This was mile two, only 11.1 to go! It was then a loop over Westminster Bridge then along the embankment towards Temple. 


Along this section of the run we passed the elites coming in the other direction. They seemed to be running flat out but effortlessly. The next two miles were along the Embankment ~ out and back with the first of a number of well organised drinks stations at mile four. I kept an eye out for others I knew who were running but I had no chance of spotting anyone ~ it was just a constant stream of runners.


It was then a right turn into Whitehall by Horse Guards Parade, up towards Trafalgar Square for more bemused tourist hoards. It was here that as it was beginning to hurt (mile five) we noticed a 'rather' (in the voice of Terry Thomas) welcome distraction. A couple of incredibly attractive young ladies who'd obviously been partying Saturday night stood by the kerb (probably wondering how to get across the road or find a taxi) in short figure-hugging dresses and 'physics-defying' plunging necklines. A real vision of loveliness that had a tendency to cause male runners to take quite a tight racing line around that particular corner; to pick up the pace; to straighten the shoulders and pull in the stomach and generally try and look like we weren't dying inside. As I say a welcome distraction!

Running down the middle of The Mall towards Buckingham Palace was an incredibly dramatic and memorable experience. It was then back up Constitution Hill ~ funny how much steeper it felt  going up after 5.5 miles. We even saw a couple of runners going in the opposite direction. I can only assume they had started late as they were on their first mile while we had finished our fifth. From mile 6 to the end was all in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens ~ which was great as this was where most of the supporters were.  Up past the Serpentine to the North Carriage Drive. It was at this point there were a bunch of Prostate Cancer volunteers/ supporters who gave me a rousing cheer! Very welcome as by this point (mile 7) the legs were getting decidedly leaden.  


Again this section was one that had the faster runners going in the opposite direction looking (most of them) still fresh and full of running. A few had pained expressions which made me feel like I wasn't he only one suffering. Back past the Serpentine, this time with the opposite scenario -  we were the faster runners passing those who were slower. 


At mile nine it was back up the back running paralleled to Park Lane. It was at this point that I had my first shock of the day (apart that is from the girls in the skimpy dresses) as a guy seemed to stumble, recover slightly and then just collapse. Seeing some marshals ahead a couple of us rushed on to explain what had happened and as luck would have it a couple of paramedics on bikes happened along and were quickly assisting the person who'd collapsed. Certainly a sobering thought. 


At mile ten (which had in the other direction had been mile seven) another rousing cheer from the Prostate Cancer supporters, which if anything was even more welcome this time!  

The last three miles through Kensington Gardens was just painful. The 1 hour 40 min pace runner slowly drew ahead to about 200 yards - just couldn't keep up. It was a case of grit your teeth, keep the pace runner in sight and keep going. It had been too much for another runner as I passed someone else collapsed being attended by paramedics with an oxygen mask. Only two other memorable points ~ well that's all I remember of the last couple of miles at any rate. Firstly, someone had a talking watch that constantly update him to how fast he was going, what his current pace was and what that meant in terms in finish time. It was so irritating that I actually found it in myself to speed up a bit in order to get away from the annoying metallic voice. Secondly, the long finish straight along the South Carriage Drive had signs like only 800m to go, 500m etc. It made it seem further if anything! 

At the finish a well organised and efficient series of marshals saw us be-medalled (its a nice wooded one in the shape of a maple leaf), watered, de-chipped and handed a banana. Wondering back to to the equally efficient bag drop marque to get my warm clothes and returned to the the finish to see if I could spot anyone ~ no luck (and I hadn't bothered to take the phone - duh!).  As I trudged wearily and stiffly back to Green Park tube, I swore I wouldn't do another road race of this distance, they're just too painful. Needless to say, I've already booked my expression of interest for next year and this time I'll finish in front of the pace runner!                   


Press release: 
http://royalparkshalf.com/press/news/12500-runners-race-through-london


RESULT: 1100 out of 11,480 in a time of 1:40:24 


From the results I found that I was 157th in the 45+ category; it had taken 3 minutes from the starting gun until I'd crossed the start line; and  most startling for me, my time for the first half of the race was less than a minute faster than my time for the second half!