Cancer Research London Winter Run 2019
Lets start off by getting this out of the way – this fifth annual London Winter Run 10k run is a little bit special. First off, it’s closed roads slap bang through central London, starting at Trafalgar square and finishing nearby with a rapid sprint down Whitehall. With 23,000+ runners the sheer scale of this one is something you only see with a couple of events across the whole calendar.
Arrive a little early – although the bag drop area is massive, there were big queues this year. Once you have dropped your warm jacket and other gear off it can take a good twenty minutes after you’ve entered the start funnel before you actually cross the starting line. This is an event where it’s a really good idea to bring an old jumper you don’t mind dropping for a charity as you get close to the start, or at the very least bring a bin bag to keep the wind off you as you wend your way round.
I actually saw a number of people (I’m guessing caught out by the queues) who were running with their drop bags – there’s no need to do this as the wave system seems to be pretty random and they are very relaxed about runners dropping back to start later with friends in different waves. It’s worth mentioning as well that driving to this event would probably be a disaster which means unless you live near enough to not worry about travelling in, your journey is almost certainly subject to the vagaries of a mid winter Sunday schedule on public transport.
This year, with engineering works meaning bus replacements on two of the three train routes near me, the one remaining choice chose to cancel my planned train and delay the next two options. If I hadn’t know how ‘casual’ the start organisation was in advance I probably would have been pretty stressed.
Even as you are shuffling to the start line, there are loads of marshals cheerfully yelling and dancing to keep the mood up, and spirits always seem high regardless of how cold it gets. Each wave is dispatched with a gun, but chances are you won’t be close enough to really appreciate a racing start. Even if you do, it’s difficult to get too far before you find yourself trying to pick your way around slower runners (no matter what your speed is) during what always seems to be a fairly congested first k and a half.
For me, it always feels like the chance of a decent time is gone by the time the course opens up a little, but it’s flat (maybe could be described as gently undulating) and very fast. I always seem to put in a significantly negative split (where the second half is faster than the first), and wind up running one of my fastest 10ks of the year.
There’s a lot to look at as you run round, from London landmarks like the bank of England and the strand to the Husky Hi Five zone and the Penguin Party. I saw three choirs, all strategically placed so we passed them twice, and a number of buskers and dancers and other entertainments so there was never far to go before you could hear something else interesting ahead. It’s genuinely the closest I ever get to an actual ‘Fun’ run, and it feels like everyone is having a good time.
The last two kilometres are gently descending and you can feel the crowds of runners still surrounding you really opening up as they realise they are flying and banging out a decent time is still within grasp. You also cannot ignore the number of entrants who running because Cancer has had a personal impact on them or their loved ones and I always find this inspiring.
I managed to find the breath to tell a lady who was proudly wearing a shirt announcing her ‘in recovery’ status that she was amazing and she much more loudly and easily told me I was amazing too. It’s one of those runs where your name is printed in large letters on your race number. I love having people cheer me on by name but it took me embarrassingly long to work out how strangers knew my name – twice, this year.
The water station at 5k is huge – a loop through the guildhall yard with marshals dressed in bobble hats and ski goggles making sure everyone gets a drink that wants one. At the finish the medal always seems to be spectacular. This year the medal starred a polar bear on a spinning disc in the middle of a much larger disc. You then get handed drinks and food as you work your way through an long and wide finishing funnel. There is also branded merchandise associated with this run, which looks good and seems to be pretty good quality.
Don’t take this one too seriously and, one of my all time favourite runs, could be one of yours too.
Details on the Cancer Research London Winter run can be found here: https://www.londonwinterrun.co.uk/