First, apologies for all the recent running posts. I promise there are more exciting things coming up in the next few weeks that I’ll blog about, but at the moment it’s dark, cold and everyone is poor. So there’s not many fun things going on.

On January 1st at the crack of dawn 11am Alex and I ran the Serpentine NYD 10k.  Put on by the Serpentine Running Club at Hyde Park the race is half resolution half start as you mean to go on.  I was told to expect to set my “personal worst” that morning and 99% of the battle was showing up at the start line.

Us at the start line. Direct sunlight is not your friend after more glasses of champagne than hours of sleep

We got there and the organisation was lovely. In our tired state we weren’t the most prepared runners, but the volunteers were very helpful. The race pack pick-up went smoothly (they even provided safety pins!) and bag drop simple.  It was chilly so most people were just keen to start and that’s what happened right at 11am.  The route was well marked and lots of marshals along the paths to explain to people why there were crazy people running 10k and not sleeping off hangovers…  It took a very nice route through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens with only one small loop we had to lap.

Is this photo worth £20?

The only complaint I have about the race isn’t specific to the Serpentine 10k. Race photography needs to get out of the dark ages and into the digital age. I understand that race photos can’t just be given away, but why are they so expensive?!? If I was a race director, I’d want as many people sharing photos of the race as possible to encourage more entries and more sponsorships for future races. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they’re the way people share their experiences now and  they are imaged based. If giving runners free photos isn’t feasible then why not add £5 or so on to the entry fee and include 2-3 photo downloads for each participant.

So while it was a great run I can’t say I was feeling good during it – pre-race fuel included dim sum and champagne. Not what Jessica Ennis would choose and my fault completely.

winner winner

Alex and I finished in a respectable time of 55:58.  But after I won our honeymoon 10 mile race in Paris, I have to give credit where credit is due, Alex technically took the win in this race by 0.12 seconds.

It wasn’t pretty but we finished.

We got a medal and a technical t-shirt at the end – for our £17 (I think?) entry it was pretty great swag. The real value in this race though was the organisation & volunteers who were up early on New Years Day to make this a great race for everyone. I highly recommend it as a great alternative to the Canadian tradition of a Polar Bear swim.

Big girl, bigger t-shirt.

That’s one race down, on to the next. See you in Verona for the Giulietta & Romeo Half Marathon.