Just like last year in May, just ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, what’s better than coming to run together with fellow Serpies?

As part of our Saturday Long Run series, we are going to do a heart-shaped route in Central London, totalling about 20km:

Run details

• Date: Saturday 10^th May 2025
• Run Start Time: 09:30 (please arrive between 09:15 and 09:20)
• Run Start Location: The Italian Gardens Café in Hyde Park (opposite Lancaster Gate Tube Station – Central Line)
• Run route brief description: Lancaster Gate – Baker Street – Warren Street – Tottenham Court Road – Trafalgar Square – The Mall – Sloane Square – Kings Road – South Kensington – Holland Park – Latimer Road – Little Venice – Paddington – Royal Oak – back to Lancaster Gate
• Strava link to the route: please find it here. You can join or leave at some of these locations if you only want to complete part of the route, although obviously you will end up with a broken heart on Strava!
• Pace: This is a social run about mental health so we will not leave anyone alone!  We will decide on pace groups just before the run.  We might do a few groups of manageable sizes, pace guide – between 5:00/km and 7:00/km.
• Post run gathering: The Swan pub

Supporting Place2be and Mind

This year we are supporting two different charities – Place2be and Mind. Place2Be is a children and young people’s mental health charity providing counselling, mental health support, and training in UK schools.

For the second year in a row, we are also supporting Mind, which is another leading mental health charity in the UK. They offer vital support services and campaign for better mental health policies. They aim to break down stigmas surrounding mental health in society.

For donations, please go to this Givestar link, and feel free to share with anybody you know who will be inspired by our running, either before or after the event.  We will then let everyone know how much money we have raised.

Apart from the inevitable thousands of kudos we are all going to get on Strava, just like last year, you can also get a Mind T-shirt for the event.  Members are encouraged to wear a Mind T-shirt for the run:

• Mind cotton t-shirt (£5)
• Mind technical t-shirt (£10)
• Delivery takes 3-5 days, so we advise you to place your order no later than the evening of Monday 5^th May.

You can also choose to wear a Serpie top for the run as well.

Sign-up and Questions

Please let us know you’re coming via this link.  Signing up isn’t mandatory but will give us an idea who and how many are coming. Any questions about this run and our fundraiser, please email me. 

You can also join our ‘Marathon Training’ WhatsApp group (within our WhatsApp community) which will be where you can chat about this run.

Finally, a reminder that the normal Saturday morning club runs will still take place as usual, for those who want to run the usual 2 or 3 parks routes.

Happy running,

Michael Ngo

Saturday Long Run Lead