Each of the coached running sessions offered by Serpentine will be holding a Christmas social gathering in some form over the course of December. The format of each will vary, but importantly these offer you the chance to celebrate another year of hopefully fruitful training with your training partners and also give you the opportunity to thank, in person, the people who make these sessions available to you – your dedicated and hardworking coaching team. No sensible offers of drinks will be refused!

Despite the lack of cross country league races and championships over the first weekend of December, a group of Serpies will be running the Pirie, a 10 mile cross-country race in Farthing Down on Sunday 1 December.

On Wednesday 4 December there’s an opportunity for some indoor track racing at the Lee Valley Indoor Middle Distance Evening, with 1000m and 3000m races for all age groups 11 upwards – perfect for our junior middle distance runners. Friday 6 December at noon is the deadline to apply for a club place at the 2014 London marathon. The last club handicap of 2013 will be on Saturday 7 December and on Sunday 8 December, the third Sunday League cross country of the winter season will be at Trent Park. Sunday is also the last day that tickets for the Serpie Christmas Party will be on sale.

Shuttleworth Park near Biggleswade is the venue for the SEAA Inter Counties and Vets cross country championships, which will take place on Saturday 14 December – the date of the Serpie Christmas Party at the Grand Connaught Rooms. On Sunday 15 December there is an indoor meeting at Lee Valley with events from 60m (for all age groups up to U17) plus 200m and 800m for everyone, including seniors – download entry form. The weekend of 14 & 15 December is also the deadline to submit entries for the Southern cross country championships and several county xc championships.

In the ATW Metropolitan cross country league, the Serpentine women are currently in the lead in division one, with our men in 2nd place in their division, so we need a big turnout at Alexandra Palace on Saturday 21 December to remain in contention.

The December Last Friday of the Month 5k will be on Friday 27 December and the following day is the deadline to get entries in for the National cross country championships, which take place in February in Nottingham.

On 1 January 2014, we hope to see lots of Serpies starting off the year by putting something back into the running community and helping out at the New Year’s Day 10k in Hyde Park.

Also, during December there won’t be any organised Serpie group trail runs, but a full programme of these will be back in the new year.

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

Sally Hodge
communications@serpentine.org.uk