Tuesday Track Sessions at Willesden

Track coaches Malcolm and Andy organise Serpentine track sessions on Tuesday evenings at Willesden Stadium.

The coached sessions start at 7.00pm with a 15 minute warm-up. Ideally, you will also have jogged 4 times round the track before the group warm-up starts. See here for more information about what to expect and how to interpret the session descriptions. The workouts usually finish by 8.00pm. Track use fee is £2.60. 

Full details of the programme are below and are also sent to the mailing list each week.

Sessions

Preparing for the summer road and track races including the Serpentine Grand Prix.

Meal Of The Month

It has become a tradition that on the last Friday of the month a meal out is organised somewhere in London. Previously we have been to a variety of places from Tapas to Traditional, Turkish to Thai. Meal of the month is a great way to meet a diverse mix of people you would never normally talk to, whether you are new to the club or have been in the club for years. The chat is always great.

May Meal of the Month details:

Date: Friday 25th May

From 6pm: pub tbc

7.30pm: Reservation at Navarros Tapas, Charlotte Street, W1T 4PH

Cuisine: Spanish

Nearest tube: Oxford Circus / Tottenham Court Road (Central line); Tottenham Court Road / Goodge Street (Northern Line)

Please contact social@serpentine.org.uk if you have any queries.

Triathlon London League

The Triathlon London League started in 2006. It is a series of races each season — duathlons, aquathlons and triathlons — organised by clubs in the London area. At each race points can be gained by club members towards a team total in each race, then points gained by each team (club) in each race are used to determine the club position in the league.

All London clubs are automatically entered into the league and teams do not have to be registered in advance. All you need to do is enter the race(s) as normal and the best placed men, women and vets from Serpentine make up our team in each race. Please wear club kit if possible so that you know who your team-mates are and so other clubs can see who we are. We would like to have a good Serpie team competing in every race.

2012 Races

Serpentine came 2nd in the 2011 league, and won the mob-match!

How does Serpentine score League points?

• Each club's best FOUR team results in the series will count towards their final points score and must include 1 triathlon.
• Teams consist of the first 5 athletes from each club to finish which must include one female and one vet (40+).
• The female can be the vet (ie. a team can have 4 senior men and 1 female vet).
• Teams which fall short of the criteria, but have 4 athletes racing including EITHER a female OR a vet, will pick up the points from the lowest scoring male, female or vet (whichever is missing) in the entire race (ie. not just London club finishers).
• Teams with less than 4 athletes do not score.
• Secondary to the League there will be a "Mob Match" prize for clubs with the highest participation in League events.

What is the scoring system?

• For the League scores, the race winner picks up 1 point, 2nd placed athlete 2 points, etc for the whole race.
• Total points from all 5 athletes gives total points score for the team.
• The winning team (with the lowest points) from each race is then awarded 30 points, 2nd place 29 points, 3rd place 28 points, etc in the league rankings for that race.
• In the event of a tie on points, we will look at each club's mob match score in the series to act as a tie-breaker.
• If points are tied on both League and mob match scores, then we will look at each club's fourth race score in the series, and if necessary fifth, or even sixth.
• Mob match points are calculated in reverse order to the League points, ie. the last finisher in the race receives 1 point, second last receives 2 points, etc.
• Each club's total points for ALL club finishers in the race will be totalled and the highest scoring club in each race is than awarded 30 points, 2nd place 29 points, 3rd place 28 points, etc in the Mob Match rankings for that race.
• League and Mob Match rankings will appear on this website following each event.

Results & League Table

The league table and further information can be found on the Triathlon London website.

Thursday Track Sessions at Battersea

Sessions to help build speed endurance for 10 mile to marathon and triathlon

Beate Vogt, Andrew Hibbert and a team of coaches lead the sessions preparing athletes for race distances of 10 mile, half marathon, marathon and triathlons. The sessions are geared around building speed endurance and are open to anyone aiming for a long race, although you should be running several times a week before adding speed sessions. 

We are running two sessions each week, one in the park and one on the track.  Both work towards the same training goals.  Track sessions will include drills designed to improve your running technique and efficiency.

Sessions include dynamic warm up, sessions run at 5K to tempo pace and cool down.  For track sessions we meet at the start/finish line, for sessions in the park we meet at the front entrance to the track, in either case we start at 7:00. For sessions in the park you do not need to pay for the track, if you need the changing rooms you can pay just to use them. Please store bags in the lockers in the changing rooms or make alternative arrangements, the coaches are not able to guard them during the session.

(In the IAAF Standard Representation of Training Sessions, paces are in round brackets, rest times in square brackets. LT denotes lactate threshold pace.)

Sessions are subject to change

Southern Counties Veterans' Track and Field

Serpentine enters teams in the Southern Counties Veterans' AC League, which comprises four fixtures on Monday nights during the Spring/Summer.

The Vets League is split into various divisions (Serpentine are in the Mid-London division) and men's and women's teams compete against each other over most of the track and field event programme (excluding hurdles but including race walk).

There are separate events for different age groups (men 35–49, 50–59 and over 60, and women 35–49, 50–59 and over 60). Aggregate points earned from the Monday fixtures determine the league position. Leading teams from each division go on to meet in the league final at the end of the season (usually early September).

Contacts

_{*) Our usual captain - Jan Farmer - is temporarily unavailable.}

Club Track Championships

The Serpentine Club Championships are a series of races with trophies for the male, female and age-graded winners of each race. This year we are including more track racing as part of the championships in recognition that more members are now competing in track & field. The 1mile and 3000m track races are part of the "grand-prix" (which also includes the two shortest road races) and are organised by the club so there is no advance entry – you just turn up on the day. The other distances are virtual races where we use your best result from any of the league or open meetings as recorded in the results database (as we do for the marathon).

To count for club championship competitions you must:

1. Be a first claim member of Serpentine Running Club
2. Have entered under your own name
3. Compete wearing club colours

The Serpentine Age-Graded Championship uses performance factors to calibrate Club Championship race times, to put everyone (male and female, younger and older) on a level playing field. The overall championship will be awarded to the first claim member with the highest average percentage from any 5 of the championship races (road and track).

The results of the club championships are published in the results database.

The dates of the club championships are listed below. They are also included in the Serpentine Planner where they are highlighted in yellow.

2012 Track Races

The road races, including the rest of the grand-prix, are listed in the Road Running section.

* Grand-prix races.

Club Championships

The Serpentine Club Championships are a series of races with trophies for the male, female and age-graded winners of each race. The 1k and 5k races are part of the"grand-prix" (which also includes the 1mile and 3000m track races) and are organised by the club so there is no advance entry – you just turn up on the day. The other races are open races and you must enter them yourself.

To count for club championship competitions you must:

1. Be a first claim member of Serpentine Running Club
2. Have entered under your own name
3. Compete wearing club colours

The Serpentine Age-Graded Championship uses performance factors to calibrate Club Championship race times, to put everyone (male and female, younger and older) on a level playing field. The overall championship will be awarded to the first claim member with the highest average percentage from any 5 of the championship races (road and track).

The results of the club championships are published in the results database.

Any marathon run this year will count towards the Club Championships. When inputting marathon times in the results database the official time should be used, and for championship contenders this will be checked at the end of the year against published results.

The dates of the club championships are listed below. They are also included in the Serpentine Planner where they are highlighted in yellow.

2012 Road Races

The track based races, including the rest of the grand-prix, are now listed in the Track & Field section.

* Grand-prix races.

The Summer League

The Summer League is an inter-club competition of five races between June and August at various venues around London. The clubs in the league this year are Dulwich Park Runners, Metros, Ealing, Southall and Middlesex, Mornington Chasers, Serpentine RC, Sudbury Court, Ealing Eagles and Queens Park Harriers.

The main event is a 5 mile or 10km race which covers all standards and is based at a park local to the host club. Following the main event there is a shorter 'tenderfoot' (1.5-2km) race suitable for children, runners returning from injury and runners who prefer to run a shorter distance. Finally there is a series of optional, light hearted, age graded, 300-400m relays, again suitable for all ages and abilities.

There is no need to enter in advance - just turn up on the day in your Serpie vest/shirt, the entry fee is paid by the club. All levels, new and regular runners welcome, although you must be a Serpentine club member. The events are family oriented so do bring children, they can also participate in the tenderfoot race and/or the relays. 

Lunch, in the form of sandwiches and cakes, is provided by the hosting club. Trophies are awarded at the end of the year for individuals in their age categories based on their best three performances in the five races.

2012 Dates

The dates of the Summer League are also listed in the Serpentine Planner.

Contact

summerleague@serpentine.org.uk

Metropolitan League

This cross country league provides our main competitive focus. Details about the league as well as information about venues is now available on the league website. The league is sponspred by Active Training World .

The league is made up of teams from 21 clubs. These include such well-known clubs as Thames Valley Harriers, Highgate Harriers, Shaftsbury Barnet and Woodford Green with Essex Ladies. The race venues are all within easy travelling distance of Central London. All of the competitions are on Saturday afternoons - see the list on the Serpie planner.

The league is primarily a team competition. The team scoring the least number of points, according to the finishing positions of the runners, is the winner. There are separate races for men and women. The men's races are ~8km and the women's ~6km. In addition, each meeting includes a race for U13 boys and girls (3km), and U15/U17 boys and girls (4km).

There are three divisions for men and three for women. In division 1, the men's "A" team comprises twelve runners and the women's "A" team comprises six. Incorporated within the main races is a veterans competition, with the men's team being six to score and women's team have four scoring members in division 1.

The league is open to all Serpies. Second claim runners are welcome to compete but must be decalred before the season starts.

The race programme starts at 1.15pm (all months). Later races do not have a fixed start time and may start a little depending on completion of the previous race, but generally the women's race is around 13:55 and the men's race around 14:35. Please leave plenty of time to get to the venues.

There is a lot more information on the league website.

Men's captain: Eric Phillips
Women's captain: Victoria Crawford

Regional and National Championships

Championship Races

Each year races are selected to be the county (e.g. Middlesex), regional (i.e. southern) or national (English or UK) championships at a number of distances, usually 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon. In recent years the London marathon has always been the UKA national championship. Faster Serpies are encouraged to compete in these races if possible and we hope to target these races with teams each year. We often get free places. At the national level it is currently quite confusing with the ERRA (English Road Running Association), UKA (via RunBritain) and England Athletics all organising championships at one distance or another, often on clashing dates!

Road Relays

In addition to the standard road races, there are also road relays organised each spring and autumn (between the track and field and cross country seasons), both regionally and nationally, to allow clubs to compete against each other directly. These are:

• the SEAA 12 stage (men) and 6 stage (women) in Milton Keynes every March/April
• the ERRA national 12 stage (men) and 6 stage (women) in Sutton Coldfield every April
• the SEAA 6 stage (men), 4 stage (veteran men) and 4 stage (women and veteran women) in Aldershot every September
• the ERRA national 6 stage (men) and 4 stage (women) in Sutton Coldfield every October

These races attract the best runners regionally and nationally and are a very high standard. They are the key races on the calendar where clubs measure themselves against their peers and the traditional athletics clubs take them very seriously indeed. Serpentine sends teams to the regional relays and, assuming they qualify, to the national events as well. These races are one of the best opportunities our better runners have to compete against the best since there are usually international athletes racing for some teams. They also provide wonderful 'sharpeners' for spring and autumn marathons.

Men's captain: Andrew Reeves
Women's captain: Victoria Crawford

RunBritain Grand Prix

The top 250 male and female athletes in each of the races gain points towards the overall grand-prix, which has a large pot of prize money. The 2012 races are:

• Reading Half Marathon - 1 April
• London 10000 - 27 May
• Swansea Bay 10k - 23 September
• Bristol Half Marathon - 30 September
• Great Eastern Run - 14 October
  

See www.runbritain.com for further details.

Veterans (Masters)

In addition to the senior races, there are also vets (masters) championships at 5k, 10k, 10 miles, half- and full-marathon, selected by the BMAF (British Masters Athletic Federation). There are also separate vets races in the southern 6/4 stage relays in Aldershot and a national 6/4 stage relay championship in Sutton Coldfield each year (usually in May). Contact our vets' captains for further info (phone and email details in Serpiebase):

Women's captains: Pam Rutherford (FV35), Val Metcalf (FV45) or Jan Farmer (FV55).
In  practice you can contact any of them whichever age-group you are.

Men's captains: Vacant (MV40), Lars Olsen (MV50) or David Smart (MV60).

Results

Results for Serpies in any of the individual races are held in our database as usual. Results for Serpies in the relay events are available in this spreadsheet . Detailed results are available on the following websites:

• SEAA spring relays - www.mkac.org.uk
• SEAA autumn relays - www.afd.org.uk
• ERRA relays - www.race-results.co.uk
• BMAF relays - www.bmaf.org.uk