Richmond Park, celeb spotting, and some real athletes

On Sunday my brother-in-law, who is running the Virgin London Marathon, was doing his final 20 mile run in Richmond Park, so me, my wife and sister-in-law joined him for a couple of laps. It was my first time running there and I can see why my brother-in-law likes it - it's a huge area, and although it's surrounded by suburban London it feels very much like you're in the country with some beautiful woodland and deer roaming around. And a nice big lap with a good mixture of hills and flat bits.

Three weeks before the London marathon though, so probably the busiest day of the year for runners - it seemed like the whole city was there doing their final "long slow run", but even so, it's such a big park that there was plenty of space for everyone. The lap we ran is around 7.12 miles and I set off fairly steadily, not really knowing what the terrain would be like. Although it's undulating and there are a few hills, there's nothing as steep as the inclines in Greenwich, and there's also some long downhills to compensate. I did my first lap in 1:12:49, averaging 10:13 per mile but sped up a quite a lot on the second lap (powered by jaffa cakes and jelly babies) and averaged 9:49 per mile to complete the run in 2:22:53, almost exactly 10 minutes per mile. I felt really strong too so overall I'm pretty satisfied with my fitness with a couple of weeks to go.

The run was also notable for some of the other runners - a group of, I suspect, elite Kenyans who overtook me on one of the uphill stretches and disappeared into the distance effortlessly, their elastic legs carrying them along as if on tip-toes, barely touching the ground; Gordon Ramsay, who apparently I ran past without noticing; and, most impressive of all, a runner with one good leg and one prosthetic leg who also overtook me at a rate of knots, while chatting happily to everyone he passed. A really inspiring sight.

So, together with the midweek Dulwich runs I did, I completed 28.8 miles last week, and 4 speedy lunchtime miles in Dulwich today (comfortably my fastest 4 mile run this year) brought my total for the month of March to a hefty 130.4 miles. I'm in Aberdeen on business for the rest of the week so won't be running until the weekend again but at this stage I'm happy just to give my body a rest.

Finally, a quick hello and thanks to Michaela at Practical Action for her ongoing support, and also to Ben, who is also running in Brighton for Practical Action.

[Image at the top is from the Friends of Richmond Park website]