The Race Organiser : Hyde Park - Race Reports
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Hyde Park

Hyde Park Bandstand, Hyde Park, LONDON. W2 2UH

Anonymous Published: 15/11/2017
Title: Good to be back
I signed up for the Royal Parks Winter 10k series to keep me going over those long winter months. You see, I do love my running but I'm getting on a bit (MV50) and I have a habit of picking up injuries; this is the bit where my teenage kids roll their eyes. So when in October 2016, having come back from a ruptured Achilles tendon, I set my half-marathon PB (at Peterborough) and then two weeks later, tore the cartilage in my right knee, no-one in my household was at all surprised (much eye rolling).
This put me out from running for 15 months; a dark, dark time. Last year's target was just to get back to running 10ks regularly. Having done that, when at the end of the year, I spotted this series, it was a must.
Greenwich Park went well, close to my season's best, which given the amount of ascent, was not at all expected.
Regent's Park was much flatter and much more to my liking; I ran a PB(!)
So I was all set up for Hyde Park and with the extra bonus weeks of training time, had great expectations. And that's where I went wrong. Four weeks before the race, on a 20k long run, I rolled my ankle on an uneven pavement (much, much eye rolling). I was reduced to two weeks of rest and then restricted to the elliptical trainer. A Park Run the weekend before the race, a Monday night 12k and that's your lot, training-wise. 
Still, I thought, get plenty of rest, stuff yourself full of porridge and see how you feel on the day. And d'you know what? I felt fine on the day. The race info was great, the on-day organisation as slick as ever and before I knew it, I was off. Thanks to some great marshalling, was even able to avoid the worst of the congestion. Astonishingly, I finished only 20 seconds out side my PB, coming in 5th in my age category, which I was more than happy with.
So how astounded was I when I received the final series results, to discover that I was the MV50 category winner over the series. It really is good to be back and thank you to all at The Race Organiser for this great series. I'll be signing up to the summer series shortly.
Marcus
Anonymous Published: 15/11/2017
Title: Tough... but worth it!
I got a new PB at this race and finally got the goal of running sub-60! IT was tough going though - running along the straight next to the Serpentine on the second lap, it felt like I was running and not getting anywhere! My legs almost stopped moving there, but I managed to maintain mind-over-matter and made it to the end without stopping :)