The Royal Park is home to the Capital Runners Richmond Park 10K, so Sportsister went along last month to try out the course which offers an undulating and varied route in arguably London’s most beautiful deer park.
Despite feeling rubbish after being ill earlier in the week, and despite a pretty poor personal performance, I thoroughly enjoyed this race. Partly due to a course well suited to a ‘cruisy’ run round the park, and partly due to the friendly and mutually encouraging bunch of runners that look part.
This would be a brilliant race to bomb around and properly challenge yourself, so I’ll just have to go back and do it again!
The course
The Richmond Park 10K consists of two laps which are broken down into 2k of undulating – but mainly uphill – sandy/dirt track through wooded parkland, followed by 2k of gentle tarmac downhill and 1k of grass and a bit more woodland.
The uphills are challenging but sensible and satisfying, rather than complete killers, and the terrain is pretty even so you can get a good stride and rhythm going.
Doing two laps means you know exactly what to expect during the second half, so you can plan your approach to the finishing sections of your race just right. I’m not really a fan of running next to the road, though, which the downhill 2K is, but that’s just me being fussy - it is London, after all!
My favourite thing about this course is the surroundings. Richmond Park is gorgeous and it’s amazing to run so closely to huge herds of deer – if you have the time or inclination to look around you rather than focusing on your running, that is. No sign of Fenton, though!
Organisation and facilities
Although it’s a pretty small race, the organisation and infrastructure was great. When you sign in you collect an envelope which contains you race number, pins, your electronic timing chip, fasteners and a numbered luggage tag for any clothing or bags you want to leave at the start.
Having never done a big race, I found the timing system quite odd. I suppose all the fastest runners would start together at the front, but the start line was very narrow so the start was staggered, with 20-30 people being let through at a time.
However, I understand the narrow start was put in place for safety reasons to combat the problems caused by runners being on shared paths and is a requirement at Richmond Park.
Your individual time started when you crossed the line, rather than when the gun went. This meant you didn’t necessarily beat the people you crossed the line in front of, and it meant I didn’t know how far ahead of other female runners I needed to be in order to beat them, which was quite frustrating.
Although the chip timing was useful for people just running for themselves, it seemed quite out of place at such a small race, and blurred the lines between race and time-trial. However, race organisers do encourage faster runners (sub 40 mins for women) to start at the front so they know exactly where they stand positionally in the race if they are competing for places
There was a toilet block near-by, a drink station at half-way, the course was clearly marked and you got a medal, a drink and chocolate at the finish line. Plus there was someone there at the end to clip your timing chip off straight away.
How did my race go?
I’d been ill during the week before but was desperate to do this race because I used to run in Richmond Park every week and love the course and terrain. I just took it quite steady with the aim of enjoying the race, and knew from the start I wasn’t going to be anywhere near my PB.
I seriously struggled on the uphills - which are not my forte at the best of times - and was quite proud that I finished it. On a two-lap course it’s very tempting to stop half way if you’re feeling rubbish.
The great thing about running is that you don’t have to go out to get a PB every time, you can just run for the fun of it, or run because you know it’ll make you fitter and get you closer to a PB next time.
Would I do this race again?
Probably. There’s nothing that sets it aside from any other races but it is well organised and a nice course.
Good points
- Lovely location and picturesque course
- Even terrain
- Well organised
Bad points
- Start line too narrow (although I understand this is a necessary requirement for safety reasons, but personally I just didn’t like this style)
- Long straight 2k next to the road – but that’s just personal preference!
More info: capitalrunners.com
Jenna Hawkey, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
