December highlights

A few events to look out for in December

The third Start Fitness Metropolitan cross country league race of the season is on Saturday 3 December at Wormwood Scrubs. In division one, the Serpentine men remain in third place, but only 14 points behind Woodford Green & Essex Ladies, so we should pass them at this meeting, as long as we have a good turn out. Also, our male vets are now top of division one and it would be great to defend this position. For those not running this event, Serpentine are hoping to provide a few marshals - if you can help, please contact Ian Hodge. The final club handicap of the year is also on Saturday, with a last chance to accumulate points for the Tom Hogshead and Stratford Cups. In the evening it is the Serpentine Christmas party at the Grand Connaught Rooms, tickets on sale only until midnight on Tuesday 29 November.

On Sunday 4 December are the Regent's Park 10k and Perivale 5-mile and on Monday 5 December there'll be the last committee meeting of the year. If you would like to raise an issue or agenda item with a member of the committee prior to this, please contact us.

The SEAA Vets cross country championships and the SEAA senior women's Intercounties cross country championships are both being held on Saturday 10 December at Horspath Sports Ground, Oxford. Sunday 11 December offers a chance for a social Serpie trail run, this one over the Tring Hills, Santa hats encouraged – watch out for more details to be sent out on email shortly. If you would like something a bit warmer and/or shorter, on the same day are a Lee Valley indoor track & field meeting and, for the junior athletes, there's a QEOP junior duathlon. Sunday is also the last date to get entries in for the Southern cross country championships, which will take place on Saturday 28 January 2017 at Parliament Hill.

On Saturday 17 December a few Serpie athletes may well be trying their luck at the Southern Combined Events Indoor Championships at Lee Valley. Then on Sunday, there's the Sunday league cross country race at Willian, near Letchworth in Hertfordshire, starting at the earlier-than-usual time of 10.00am; while on the same day the Portsmouth Coastal Waterside marathon offers one of the last chances to run a 26.2 mile event this year.

Over the Christmas and New Year period there will be some changes to the regular Serpie training sessions. A full timetable showing changes will be published on the Serpie website shortly. For those wanting to work off a bit of Christmas excess, the Buntingford 10 on Tuesday 27 December is a popular (if hilly) choice. The last Brooks Last Friday of the Month 5k of 2016 will be on Friday 30 December.

Looking forward to early January, the new year will get off to a great start for hundreds of runners on Sunday 1 January at the Start Fitness Serpentine New Year's Day 10k. A good number of you have already signed up to help, but we need more to ensure we can make this race a success. If you've now firmed up your new year plans and know you'll be in London, you can sign up to help here. And for new Serpentine members who want to plan their Serpie year, there'll be the opportunity to meet other club members and find out about what Serpentine offers at the new members' evening at the Seymour Centre on Wednesday 4 January.

There's more information about lots of these events on the Serpie events planner.

Sally Hodge
communications@serpentine.org.uk

Submitted: 29 November 2016

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