Yesterday I took part in the London Zoo Stampede 10k run. After an early start heading up to Regents Park with my friend, and fellow Romford CC member, Steve (the monkey) we found ourselves at London Zoo for 8.30am having a leisurely wander around the animals before we were due to head off at 9.30am.
It was chilly to start but the sun was about to come out. So many people were queuing up in face paint and animal costumes and the atmosphere was great. The crowd started a countdown from 10 and off we set, through some of the zoo and as we passed the gorillas and meerkats we then headed out into Regents Park.
The run was laps. Why are all runs laps? I hate laps! There is something soul destroying about running laps and every lap seems to feel longer than they actually are.
After the first lap the sun was well and truly out. By the second lap I was feeling good which was surprising as it was very up and down with the ups being long gradual inclines which I could have happily done without. I knew it was like that before we started as I had a quick google and found a Strava profile from last years run.
It’s funny how you can walk or stroll round a park or any area and think it is flat until you have to run it – not so flat.
By the third, and last, lap I was feeling good and there was a lady in front of me that I was sticking with. Then she stopped and turned to look behind me. I quickly said ‘no don’t stop I’ve been pacing myself on you’. She, like me, had got split from her friend and like me was feeling bad so was turning to see if she could see them, as did I, but we had no luck so decided to carry on (oh dear bad friend alert). I had a brief turn around to see if I could see Steve and ended up on the floor almost face planting! I didn’t see the lady in front of me stop to tie her laces and ended up doing some sort of leap frog ending up in a less than graceful heap! And the poor lady said sorry to me! I’m such a clumsy old cow.
We finished and I must say I felt good and really enjoyed it.
Medal on, bottle of water in hand, then was given a banana, then told to pick a Clif bar and then given a goodie bag from Whole Foods! The price for this event was about £30 and on top of everything else you were then allowed to spend as much time as you wanted in the zoo, which of course we did. I will be back next year and would recommend if you are thinking about it! Lovely day out!
Although at first I was a little disappointed that very little of the run is in the actual zoo (given the name I assumed the majority of it would be in the zoo where possible) everything else made up for it and Regents Park is beautiful and lovely to run in.
My friend Anna was also running with her cousin Charlotte and her other half and she managed to knock off more than 5 minutes from her 10k time of last week at the Nike Run to the Beat 10k!
Yesterday also saw the London Duathlon in Richmond Park and my friends Minnie (the machine) and Tim (routemaster) were taking part completing a 5km run, followed by a 22km bike, followed by another 5km run. They smashed it as I knew they would! So massive congrats to them!
No weighing today as I cannot figure out how to find the weight scale on my new Garmin without the hubby around (such a girl and technophobe!).
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