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.
Written by
Mudita11
Graduate10
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Congratulations Mudita11 and very well done. What a fantastic experience. I'd love to try that out. Could make it a double with a trip to Bushy Park for parkrun on the Saturday and then take part in London Vitality 10,000 on the Sunday. Mmmmm. I can hear my cogs clanking in my brain already trying to work that one out. Fantastic running and great finish time.
Well done Mudita. This is certainly one of my favourite runs. It has the best atmosphere (and is still my 10k PB). I must get better organised and book a cheapish hotel early on (as that is what has stopped me doing it again). Glad you managed to get away from the double negative, it would have annoyed me too!!
Hiya Mudita, congratulations!! It’s a fab race isn’t it? We were very grateful the weather wasn’t as forecast either. Sorry we never saw you. Katnap was on the bag drop and I was on the men’s fit t-shirts. Impressed they do ‘fitted’ tops now, even if there was a typo! If you don’t get to run it next year, I can highly recommend volunteering!
What a fabulous success that was! Congratulations on a great run. So glad the rain held off and that the room worked out. Have you booked for next year yet? 😍
Reward for sticking to your plans Mudita11. How did you survive the trauma of that double negative? I would have pulled out of the race immediately! That ain’t not what you don’t want to see nowhere, never mind on a run(that may be a quadruple!).
I nearly ran the Vitality 10,000 a few years back, but it was converted into a virtual race because of Covid 19. I ran 10k up here, so I do have a shirt. I saw lots of lovely trees, but there was definitely a shortfall of cheering people and iconic buildings.
Pity you didn’t see the Kats; I would have checked out the hot dog stands……maybe catch up with them another time, although their minds will be fixed on Berlin this week; lots of quality sausages there. 😋
As ever you ran a really good time, braved the conditions and went home with your bling and a well justified smile on your face. Just awesome 🙂🏆
Hahaha 🤣 I don’t know how I continued after that trauma BC. I must be tougher than I thought! Ah yes I swerved past the hot dog stand so maybe that’s why I missed the Kats. Shame but there’s always next time.
Thanks Coddfish. I really loved the event. My first time was May 2022. I thought it was going to be moved just once, because of the Coronation but seems they want to keep it in September. Hope you are doing ok x
Congratulations! Your talk of tshirts reminds me of a regular at our parkrun - he has one reading ‘coffin dodger’ and the other ‘if I collapse stop my strava’! He’s over 80 😆
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