Club Runs – every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday

Our Club Runs continue every Wednesday evening and weekend mornings, and there continues to be no need to sign-up for these runs beforehand. All members are welcome; non-members can let us know by filling in this form to try out the club before. (Members do not need to fill in this form.)

Wednesday evenings

Just turn up and run! You have the following choices of run routes:

• Two-parks (4.3 miles / 7km) – Around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens;
• Two-and-half park (5.5 miles / 9km) – A bit of Hyde Park plus Green Park and St James’s Park;
• Three-parks (7 miles / 11km) – The above plus Green Park and St James’s Park;
• Hyde Park to Battersea Park (9-11 miles / 14-17km) – Ideal for those training for spring marathons.

We group runners based on pace – 7:30 min/m (4:40 min/km), 8 min/m (5 min/km), 8:30 min/m (5:20 min/km), 9 min/m (5:35 min/km), 10-12 min/m (6:15-7:30 min/km), and Run & Talk/Beginners. Haven’t run before, or don’t know your pace? Not to worry, please get in touch with our club run rep Catharine and she will help you.

You can meet fellow members at one of the two places, note different starting times (which depend on your pace):

• Seymour Leisure Centre – Please remember to bring your membership card. You can use our Club Room to store your belongings, and you can also use the Leisure Centre’s changing rooms. A volunteer will lead everyone down to Speaker’s Corner for run start: 8:30 min/mile (5:18 min/km) or faster please be ready at Seymour Centre by 18:35. Everyone else will leave Seymour by 18:45.
• Hyde Park Speaker’s Corner – for those who arrive run-ready. The 2 or 3 park routes running 8:30 min/mile (5:18 min/km) or faster start at 18:45; Everyone else start at 18:55.

Join us for a drink and some food in the Larrik pub after the runs!

Not running but still want to be involved? We need volunteers each week to make the club runs work. See the ‘Volunteering this month’ section for more details.

Saturday mornings

Our Saturday morning runs work similar, with a few differences to Wednesday:

• Runs start from the Hyde Park Bandstand. Start time is 09:45 – please come a few minutes before so we can form run groups. Note that unfortunately we do not operate the bag room on Saturdays, although you may use the Seymour Centre changing room – please bring your membership card and a padlock.
• No club runs on the first Saturday (5th March) – please run the handicap instead! (See below)
• Route choices will be two-parks and three-parks only.
• Post-run refreshments at the Serpentine café.

Sunday mornings – Richmond Park

On Sundays we set off from Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park at 09:00 sharp – please come on time, ready to run. Most people do 1-lap (7.2 miles / 11.5km), some will be doing multiple laps. Another great route for spring marathon training! For more details please see this link. If you’re coming for the first time, or if you have any questions, please email our organiser Kevin.

The Serpentine Handicap

The March Handicap race will be held on Saturday 5th March. The race will be held near the Hyde Park Boat House as usual. As usual, the race covers two laps of the Serpentine lake (almost 7km) in Hyde Park, with slower runners starting earlier than faster runners, so everyone has a chance to win. Just like the club runs, we will have some post-race refreshments in the Serpentine café.

No advance registration is required – registrations are taken on the day, starting from 8:30am until 8:55am, with the first runner starting soon after 9am. See this link for more details if you want to come and run. Taking a morning off running but still want to come to be part of the magic? Please let the handicappers know that you can volunteer as well (also see ‘Volunteering this month’ below).

Southern Road Relays – Milton Keynes

After two years of hiatus the popular southern road relays is back at the Milton Keynes circuit on Sunday 27th March and is open to all age grades and abilities. The race is held on a traffic free circuit and the teams are composed of either 12 men or 6 women. Details about how to enter are outlined below:

Training – Running and Swimming

We have the following run training sessions across several London locations, please click the hyperlinks for details and sign-up process:

• Monday at Maida Vale (Paddington Track): Foundation track session at the Paddington Recreation Ground Track in Maida Vale – for those whose 10k time is about 48 minutes or more.
• Tuesday Intervals: Evening interval sessions at Bermondsey Spa Gardens.
• Tuesday at Maida Vale: Our Endurance coach Gavin Edmonds coaching at Paddington Recreation Ground Track in Maida Vale, for anyone who is able to run 30 miles / 50km or more (over 3 runs or more) per week.
• Thursday at Primrose Hill: Evening hill sessions at Primrose Hill, suitable for all levels to improve strength, fitness and endurance.
• Saturday Greenwich Hills: Hill session on Saturday mornings in SE London.
• Saturday Hampstead Heath Hills: Another hill session on Saturday mornings.

We have two swimming sessions, both coaches with dedicated lanes. Please email our triathlon rep Anne Bennett indicating which session you would prefer.

• Orchard Lisle Pool, Guy’s Hospital, London Bridge – Monday evenings, 8-9pm. Cost: £90 for a block of 10 sessions
• Pancras Square Leisure Centre, St Pancras – Wednesday evenings, 8-9pm. Cost: £90 for a block of 12 sessions

The Last Friday of the Month 5k

The next Last Friday of the Month 5k race will be on Friday 25th March. The race starts at 12:30pm near the Hyde Park Boat House. For race details, including how to register, please click here. Please note that registration normally closes before race day, and you will not be able to run without signing up in advance. If you fancy volunteering to marshal, please contact the race organiser (see ‘Volunteering this month’ below).

Athletics Social – Join us on Wed 23rd March!

All members are invited to come to our Athletics Social on Wednesday 23rd March at the Larrik. Starting at 8:30pm, we will present the awards for the 2021 season, and will also give everyone a taster of what races/track meets are to come in the upcoming Athletics season in the summer. If you’re interested in officiating in track and field events, this is an opportunity to find out as well. Note that we are meeting after the normal club run session, so come along after the runs! You’d be pleased to know that we are planning to provide some finger food on the night.

Middlesex County Centenary Indoor Championships

Talking about athletics – If you live or were born in North London, you may like to know that the Middlesex County Centenary Indoor Championships will be held on 19 & 20th March at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre, Edmonton.  Entries are now open on this page.

If you’d like to experience the excitement of competing in indoor athletics, there’s still time to enter but entries close very soon, on Thursday 3th March.   

Please contact Malcolm for further details. 

Green Belt Relay – Sign up now!

Want a great weekend running and socialising with fellow Serpies? The Green Belt Relay (14-15 May) is now ready for Serpies to register! We need 44 runners and by now half of the Serpie spots have been filled, so sign up soon before they are gone! Please join us for some nice runs at the surrounding areas of London, as long as you think you can run about 20 miles over 2 days (roughly 10 miles each day). Want to find out more?  Check out this webpage, or email us. To sign up – please follow this link.

Our 2019 team – join us to get into the same photo this year!

Welsh Castles Relay – Sign up launch

After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, the Welsh Castles Relay is back on the weekend of 10-11 June 2022.

Sign up for the Serpentine RC team will open early in March. This year we plan to enter 2 teams of 20 runners each (40 runners altogether), with entry grades to be determined depending on the make-up of club registrations. Each runner will run once (each stage approx. 8-12 miles / 13-20km) over the weekend.

The weekend is very social with the chance to have a great race along some scenic countryside. Along the way there are loads of sheep, castles, a fair few car parks and plenty of great Serpie company. On Friday and Saturday nights are stay as a group in B&Bs and we also organise a group meal on Saturday evening.

For more details please visit our Welsh Castles webpage (including sign-up link when it is available), and also contact the organising team.

Volunteering this month

Not too sure about running but want to stay connected with everyone? The good news is you can volunteer. It is a wonderful way to do something social whilst feeling connected to a great community. Most of the events or activities above actually need volunteers to make them work, so if you would be so generous to help, please let us know!

• Club Runs (Wednesday nights) – Volunteers are required to check membership cards at the Seymour Centre gate, guard the bag room, and lead runners to Speakers’ Corner to start the runs. This is particularly important for 9th and 16th March when many of us would be heading to Lanzarote. Please email Catharine if you’re interested in helping out, once every few weeks, or as often as you’d like.
• Handicap (Saturday morning 5th March) – We need volunteers to be marshals, time keepers, finish areas, bag-watchers etc, so that our race can happen as it does every month. Please email the handicappers.
• Last Friday 5k (Friday noon 25th March) – similar roles to the handicap race above. Please email the race organiser.
• Club kit room (Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings) – Proud of seeing the Serpie colours in training or in races? How about helping us distribute some kit from the Seymour kit room? Join our wonderful kit room team if you can commit to at least one session each month. We are expanding our kit room operations and aiming to open up after the club runs on Wednesday evening and Saturday mornings (except handicap day), so it’ll be compatible if you are already planning to run. Please email Marina who will give you a briefing on how the kit room operations work.

And finally…

• As you may have heard, we are celebrating our 40th anniversary this year! Now we have confirmed the celebration party on Saturday evening 25th June 2022 – worth putting in the diary! Stay tuned for further announcements.
• We wish everyone going to Lanzarote for our annual training holiday a fantastic time! Heard about it and want to do it next year? We will communicate further in the coming months.
• We are taking a break from the trail runs this month, but we shall resume in April. Look out for details next month!

Happy Running in March,

Hans Ho

Participation Representative