Following a fabulous Saturday morning with VRBs at Southampton parkrun, I set off to catch a train to London for the London Vitality 10,000 the next day. I’d booked a hotel pretty close to the start to avoid having all the travel hassle on the day.
I have run this twice before and love the atmosphere. I was, however, rather concerned about Sunday’s weather forecast for thunderstorms and heavy rain all morning. I even considered not going.
Got to London, found my hotel - a Premier Inn Hub in a perfect location 10 minutes walk from the start line. The rooms are like big cupboards with a bed and a bathroom 😂 but, as it turned out, very soundproof and comfortable and I had the best night’s sleep I’d had in ages 👌.
Had an email on Saturday night from the run organisers with recommendations on coping with the horrendous weather that was expected. Again, I was thinking I should have cancelled this, but too late now.
So the morning arrived and I set off on the short walk to the race village area. It wasn’t raining, woohoo! Took my bag to the bag drop. Wow that was well organised, found the Women’s Running podcast tent, quick natter and a selfie and off I went to the start pen. Still no sign of imminent rain.
No warm up but I did my own stretching and jiggling about while waiting for the start hooter. Then we were off! Still no rain - yay!
The course takes in many famous London landmarks including St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament. We also went past the Cenotaph and the end of Downing Street. My favourite building in London is the Royal Exchange next to the Bank of England. Loved seeing that too!
Somewhere along the route I heard a marshal shouting ‘keep running, keep smiling’ ☺️. That gave me boost.
The crowds were amazing. People started shouting at someone near me who was apparently Dr Epic. He seemed to have a lot of fans. I Googled him later but I’m none the wiser 🤣.
When running in a crowd it’s difficult not to see what the people in front of me are wearing and one chap had, on the back of his t-shirt ‘We don’t play no games’. That gave me another boost - to get past him and away from that annoying double negative 🤦🏼♀️🤣.
Still no rain but it was very humid. There were puddles on the ground from the overnight rain but nothing much. I was so relieved!
There were several marvellous bands and choirs en route. The atmosphere was really amazing and I loved every minute of it.
Eilish McColgan finished in 00:31:36, I finished in a slightly 🤣 slower time of 1:03:04. I was 53 of 250 in my age/gender category so I was happy enough with that.
Collected a lovely medal and t-shirt and retrieved my bag from the bag drop. Sadly I didn’t see TailChaser or Katnap in those areas but it was rather busy.
I took a slow wander back to Waterloo Station for the train home. Very glad in the end that the horrendous weather forecast didn’t put me off. Did I mention that it didn’t actually rain 🌧️?
A great day and I’d definitely recommend this run. No doubt I’ll be entering it again next year.
Virtual London Vitality 10000 in Bristol. 🏃♀️☀️
London Vitality 10K
London vitality 10k, first ever race
Vitality 10,000
