Day 37 - Royal Parks Ultra

Sunday 7 October. Beautiful, clear, crisp, sunny morning, ideal for running. Which is what I did for 31 miles through the streets of London and along the Thames path.

The Royal Parks Ultra turned out to be a real race of two halves. Definitely enjoyed the first half the most. We were sent on our way by Ben Fogle and Nell McAndrew and enjoyed empty, traffic free roads as we ran out of the Hyde Park, through the triumphal arch at Hyde Park Corner, down Constitution Hill to Buckingham Palace and then up Birdcage Walk to Parliament Square. By now we'd caught up with the 5k runners who went off 10 minutes ahead, so a bit of traffic dodging before peeling off at the 3 mile mark onto Blackfriars Bridge.

This got even more surreal as there were just three of us running together (one being Cath Wood from Scarborough who went on to finish her fist ever ultra in 3:59 having only run one marathon before at Hull this year. She started running in January 2011, so definitely one to look out for!). No one in view ahead, apparently no one behind, as we made our away along the South Bank now dodging tourists. It was a bit hairy around London Eye, but once passed the Palace of Westminster we were away.

Pretty good from there up to the 20km mark when we left the smooth tarmac and pavements for muddy, puddles on the slippery towpath, but nicely shaded by the trees and occasional good views.

I stopped at the 25 km mark to refill my Hyrapack (I think easier to do than my Camelback) and that was when several runners went passed (the first I seen since km 5!).

As with any long race the second half was more of a slog but I went through 42.2 km in 3:35 and finally finished in 4:17 and came 22nd overall. Very happy with that.

Also took quite few photos, from Buckingham Palace to rutting, bellowing stags in Bushy Park!

New shoes (Brooks Ghost 5) were good, no issues, just a bit slippy in the mud ( ideally I’d have changed half way into my Cascadias), and the UltrAspire Surge backpack also did its job perfectly – Mimi Anderson (handing out the medals at the end), clocked it and was interested to know how it performed! I obviously gave a plug to Likeys.....

So, that was day 37. The 200 mile mark passed and only 327 days to go.