Photo of the day - 18: Swim Serpentine done, and a lovely London Classics medal!

The day finally came and I swam 2 miles in the Serpentine. It wasn't pretty but I did it. Not only did I receive a medal for my efforts, but I got an extra big one too for achieving the London Classics challenge.

London Classics is a medal you get for completing the London Marathon, Ride London 100-mile cyclosportive, and Swim Serpentine 2 miles. If you have done all of these events, regardless of the year, you are eligible for a medal. I am glad they say regardless of the year, because I ran the London Marathon twice - in 2002 and 2005. I have applied quite a few times since and have been rejected. I think the times when I was accepted I hadn't realised how lucky I was. In fact in those days you would apply any time up to late September and you would get a response in mid-late November. You had around a 1:2 chance of getting a place. Now it is totally different story, with applications open just for one week a year before the event, and probably a 1:10 chance of getting a place when you factor in all the places allocated to charities. 

I have done Ride London 100 three times. That is probably my sweet-spot event, as I generally get a place given the work I do in cycling, and I can get around the route in a reasonable time without loads of training as I know the roads, and my fitness from all the other types of cycle rides and races I have done carries me through.

Swim Serpentine for me, was the sticking point. Getting a place isn't difficult as there's no ballot. However, swimming two miles was a stretch target for me. In a previous life when I did triathlons regularly I got used to doing half-mile and one-mile swims. Once I even did a half-ironman and swam a mile and a quarter. But that was a long time ago, so getting back to a point where I would feel comfortable swimming almost double the distance was going to take a bit of effort. 

This year I have probably done more swimming than I've done at any other time in my life - including thee period when I was in a triathlon club. Everywhere I went I swam: my local pools at Crystal Palace, Streatham Ice, South Norwood, then outdoors at Beckenham Place Park Lake, Brockwell Lido. Moving further out of my neighbourhood I swam in Lidos at Charlton and in London Fields. I also did more open water swimming at Royal Victoria Docks, West Reservoir in Stoke Newington, Divers Cove in Godstone, and The Haven at Feltham. On my trips up to Manchester I swam at Salford Quays and Sale Water Park. Then there were also the swim-run events at Chorlton Water Park and Box End Water Park. So yes, there's been a fair bit of swimming done this year. 

For the race I made sure to stay warm, wearing full neoprene including gloves and booties. I also had on a pull buoy to keep my legs up, and I used hand paddles. I thought I had all bases covered, but in fact I forgot to tighten my pull buoy before getting in the water and it kept swinging around my leg while I was swimming. There was no way I could have put up with that for the two miles, so I swam to the shore where the water was shallow and started to amend things. The lifeguard thought I'd gone off course, but when I explained to her what I was doing, she was okay with it. It was not a bad thing having this pause as it was also the chance to chat to the spectators and curious passers-by in Hyde Park. You don't usually get to do that while in a swimming race!

After that, everything went swimmingly (pun intended), apart from the odd moment I had to tip water out of my goggles. Sighting was not a problem (for once) as there were so many people to follow. For me, it was just a case of keeping a steady rhythm between moving my arms, rolling my body and breathing. Admittedly my pectoral muscles began to ache in the last half-mile, but it was a case of mind over matter, and staying confident.

It was great to that the marshals at the finish line were people I knew. There was a guy I had met at Royal Victoria who was there, as well as Audrey from Crystal Palace Triathletes, and Donna from South London Harriers. Thanks so much to them and all the other volunteers and the organisers for making this a fun day.

As I walked through the area to retrieve my gear from the bag drop, and get changed many people congratulated me. I hadn't realised why they kept saying it to me more than anyone else. In fact it was the effect of wearing my London Classics medal. It is an impressive looking medal, and peoeple are genuinely happy to see that folks have achieved these three big endurance events in London. And I must say I do feel slightly proud that, as per the saying on the medal (et ego Londinium vici), I have conquered London!

   

Rapha Festive 500, London Waterways - Day 6: River Cray and River Darenth

Featured waterways: Croydon Canal, Chaffinch Brook, River Beck, River Pool, River Ravensbourne, River Cray, River Darenth

Distance ridden: 68km 

Cumulative distance: 386km

Distance left: 114km

Terrain: Mainly road, with gravel in Beckenham Place Park

Weather: Overcast, 3degC

Nutrition: None. I felt too cold to drink anything! I just wanted to burn off yesterday's dinner and return home!

Route on Strava:

Whenever I do the Rapha Festive 500, there is always a slightly difficult day. It can be for different reasons. Sometimes it is because the weather is challenging; maybe there's a mechanical issue with the bike, or maybe I just feel tired and slightly demotivated.

Today seemed to be that day for me. The weather looked very dull and uninviting, with temperatures forecast to not go much above 3 degC - colder in the suburbs. Also, I had a slightly tickly throat and a runny nose.

The thing is, I was getting tantalisingly close to the end of the challenge. I had roughly 180km left to do over three days - 60km per day is doable. I could even get this done in two days. The weather was forecast to be quite nice the following day, so I could do 100km on that day and then spread the remaining 80km over two days. Or maybe, I could just do nothing today and then do 180km over two days. It would still be doable, but there would be a bit less margin for error, and a bit more pressure. Also the weather forecast suggested there might be snow on New Year's Eve. I wouldn't want to ride 50 miles in that!

My original itinerary had been to go out to the River Cray and Darenth confluence, ride up to where they meet the Thames, follow the Thames Path to Greenwich and then return home on the Waterlink Way (Ravensbourne and Pool Rivers).

In the end, I decided that given how I was feeling, I figured it would be prudent to be kind to myself and do a ride that allowed bail-out points if I genuinely was feeling unwell. I calculated that a 40km ride taking in the River Ravensbourne and the River Cray would be just about doable without breaking me; I could finish early, get some rest, and then still be able to resume tomorrow with a doable 140km over two days. 

If, after 40km I was feeling fine, I would carry on, and aim for the River Darenth at Eynsford, then turn back. These are the thought processes that go through my head on days like this - as well as just willing myself to get on my bike.

Before heading into these nearby suburbs, I gave a nod to a couple of the waterways right in my neighbourhood. Just around the corner from me in Betts Park, is the Croydon Canal. The original canal ran from Croydon and fed into the Grand Surrey Canal at New Cross. But it is now defunct, with only a small channel of it still functioning in this local park. 

Nearby, at Elmers End, is Chaffinch Brook. I don't know anything about it, but it is there and runs through South Norwood Country Park, where I do my runs as well as behind people's houses at Clockhouse before joining the River Beck, and later the River Pool.

We don't have significant rivers in my neighbourhood, but it seems there are enough waterways to create a mini flood risk if we had lots of rain!

From there, I moved on to Beckenham Place Park, which was still very busy despite the dismal looking day. It was good to bump into Geoff Nutter, a local cyclocross racing buddy while there. I was happy to stop and chat, where normally I would have ploughed on trying to keep to my schedule. But today I was feeling half-hearted so didn't mind looking for an excuse to stop! He seemed impressed when I told him I would be riding out to the River Darenth and the Cray, so in a way I realised I had inadvertently roped myself into carrying out the task!

Eynsford Village (the only photo I took on this grim day)

When I reached the River Cray at the village of St Mary Cray I was pleasantly surprised to find a little cycle path that ran alongside the river. I would have liked to follow it all the way to Footscray Meadows, a place where we used to do Christmas cyclocross races a few years ago. But my plan was to move East rather than North, towards Eynsford. By this point I was feeling quite good, and distinctly more motivated than at the start of my ride, so the idea of turning back early was now history and I was happy to continue a bit farther along the route. 

Soon I reached Lullingstone Country Park and castle, which made for a handy spot to take a break - and more importantly, to go to the loo. The cold was having that effect on me.

The River Darenth runs through the Country Park, with a path alongside it. However, it is prohibited to cyclists, so I had to ride parallel to the river, on the road - not a problem as the road was quiet. 

From here, my route followed the River Darenth right through to Eynsford, and beyond as far as Horton Kirby and South Darenth. If this had been a long sunny day in the summer I could have just continued North towards Dartford and Crayford to reach the Thames, played around in the marshes and then ambled along at a leisurely pace to reach Greenwich. 

But this was not one of those days. It was cold, and the day looked grim. I would normally have seen lots of club cyclists along these lanes, but it seemed that the weather really had scared people away. At Eynsford I saw four or five hardy souls out too, but that was it. Most people had the good sense to stay home and watch the latest Neflix series or Shrek or Wallace and Gromit!

Once I had reached the apex of my ride, at South Darenth I turned back towards home. I must say, a lot of the villages around this area are quite picturesque - Eynsford - with it's picturesque bridge and riverside, with the Darenth literally flowing right through it, plus Farningham, and Horton Kirby with their quintessential Kentish village ambiance. But South Darenth somehow seemed to buck that trend, and just looked rather shabby. Not sure what was going on there.

Once past Swanley, I felt more content and relaxed to be in familiar territory again. There remained the small matter of climbing up Leeson's Hill - probably the only hill of the whole of my Festive 500! It was no pimple either. Leeson's Hill, just outside Orpington, lasted about a mile, and was similar to Anerley Hill, in Crystal Palace. I should be used to this sort of gradient, but on days like this the cold saps your energy so I had to take it easy when going up and not think I was in a hill climb race! 

By the way, I wouldn't recommend riding on this road. It's not pleasant - not simply because of the hill, but it is a popular cut-through for motorists heading towards Orpington and maybe joining the M25. Plus everyone seemed to drive at ridiculously fast speeds like they had to be somewhere yesterday. It seems as though since lockdown some people think empty roads mean people can just drive as fast as they like. It was similar on St Paul's Cray Road, going into Chislehurst too. If I had given it more thought I would have taken the bridleway that was in the nearby woods. After all, I was on a gravel bike, the Liv Devote, which would have been well suited for it. I will probably do that next time.

Finally, I reached Bromley where I felt very much in the home strait of my ride. I hadn't seen many cyclists today - but I did see a man on a Penny Farthing riding through Bromley Town Centre. He was dressed in Tweed, and looked very elegant, attracting lots of stares. Initially I saw him on the main road, and then later I saw him again riding towards Shortlands where he gave me a wave. He was probably doing circuits of Bromley and waving to everyone. He was properly perambulating, 19th century style in a 21st century world. That was quite a fun sight, and brightened up an otherwise gloomy day.

Soon, I was back in my world ready to rewards myself with some left-over turkey and a mince pie. I was glad to have got in almost 45 miles, and the scratchy throat I had had early in the day had gone. So the remaining 70 miles looked very doable. 

Related posts:

Rapha Festive 500, London Waterways - Day 1

Rapha Festive 500, London Waterways - Day 2

Rapha Festive 500, London Waterways - Day 3

Rapha Festive 500, London Waterways - Day 4

Rapha Festive 500, London Waterways - Day 5

  

Rapha Festive 500 - Park Life tour: Day 3, South London suburbs

Stats
Kms ridden: 35
Running total: 185
Kms left: 315

Weather: Heavy rain and windy; 7 degC

Parks: Cator; Beckenham Place; Kelsey; Spring/Monks Orchard; Spring/Sparrows Den; Lloyd; South Norwood Country

Route on Strava

Given the forecast for continuous rain all day, I decided that my ride would be short and close to home. So this was mainly an off-road ride on trails in local parks.

Mansion at Beckenham Place Park

On one hand, being off-road in woodland areas meant that I kept clear of the worst of the heavy rain. On the hand though, being off-road meant that my mountain bike ride was a lot slower than if I had been on the tarmac, and furthermore, I rode through such muddy terrain that by the time I finished my ride me and my bike were one soggy mess.

Initially, when in the first couple of parks - Cator Park and Beckenham Place Park - the sun almost came out, and I thought that I may have gotten lucky with the weather. But it was not to be, and as I travelled towards Shirley the day became darker and darker as the rain got heavier, eventually becoming torrential. 

At Bethlem Hospital I took a little breather to regroup and consider whether I should amend my itinerary. In the end I just pressed on, knowing that there would be a number of bail-out points if I felt I'd had enough. 

Although I was getting drenched, my layers were doing their job, and I still stayed warm. I had on a good dhb base layer, and a Rapha Brevet jersey, which was amazing at keeping me warm and dry.

I also had on Cube overshoes, which were pretty handy.

Waterproofed up from head to toe

Bethlem Hospital has a park and woodland known as Spring Park. I have done cyclocross races there in the past, and it is also used for Park Runs. So it was definitely worth doing a mini tour around there.

From there I moved on to another park also called Spring Park - in Shirley! This one was also in woodland, though was a bit bigger and set on the side of a hill, meaning a lot of care was needed as I took some sketchy descents towards West Wickham. Even in this grim weather there were still people out doing their Boxing Day walk. As I passed them we greeted each other almost as a mark of solidarity between kindred spirits.

A well-used bike from the local muddy trails

Next up was Lloyd Park, near Croydon. The best thing about this park was that there is now a tarmacked path that goes around the edge of the park, which I made use of.

Lloyd Park is a Park Run venue and is also regularly used as a course for cross country races. So it is fair to say that at this time of year the grass is constantly churned up and waterlogged - not something I found appealing today.

If I thought I'd avoided the mud of Lloyd Park, I couldn't avoid the clag in the final park, at South Norwood Country Park. Maybe because it was the home straight of my ride I became a bit enthusiastic with my pace, which meant mud splashed all over the place, and by the time I reached home I looked like I'd been in a cyclocross race.

I didn't care by this point though, and was just glad to have done the route I'd planned, and my faithful old mountain bike had not lead me down.

Related posts
Rapha Festive 500 - Park Life tour: Day 2

Rapha Festive 500 - Park Life tour: Day 1

Daily photo - 3: South London running route

View from my run: Docklands as seen from Lower Sydenham station

This time last year I was preparing to run the Beachy Head Marathon. Twelve months later I am once again preparing to run 26.2 miles at the New York Marathon. It is a greater undertaking than last year because of the distance I am travelling to the race. It is also hillier than other big city marathons.

So the maximum must be done so I am ready for the start line, and can also reach the finish line. These days I am doing training runs of over half-marathon distance (13.1 miles or 21.1km), so it's important to keep things interesting and vary the places I go to, in order to stay motivated.

Long runs are an opportunity to explore local parks and green spaces. Being in South London there are lots of local parks to discover, especially when following the Green Chain Walk. I have done a 14-mile (22.5km) run that took in Crystal Palace Park, Dulwich Park, Brockwell Park, and Dulwich Wood. Today, I did a 16-mile (26km) run that included Beckenham Place Park, Crystal Palace Park, and South Norwood Lakes.

It was interesting to see the different neighbourhoods and see new areas and views that I hadn't previously noticed. This is the view of Docklands from Lower Sydenham train station as I was running from Beckenham Place Park to Alexandra Recreation Ground. It was a slightly dull morning when I ran here, but I hope to return on a sunny day when you can really see Canary Wharf in it's grandeur.


Related posts
Trail running in Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Bellagio Skyrace too

Bacchus half-marathon

My Paris Marathon training

Parkrun rules

Rapha Festive 500: Day 4

Tuesday 27th December - My Tour de Londres - Beckenham (Cyclocross race)

Today was different from the other days of my Festive 500 challenge. Yes, I was out on my bike, I put in a few kms, but I worked harder than I have worked all week on the bike! Yes, I did a cyclocross race. As this was an inaugural event taking place in a park just three miles from my home it would have been rude not to race there!

It seems like Lewisham Council are keen to revamp and reinvigorate the house and grounds of Beckenham Place Park, and have given permission for different sporting events to take place. They have started doing Park Runs there, and now Lewisham have allowed for cyclocross racing to take place.

It's a really nice park and very vast too. While the Park Run is held on grassland that is pan flat, the cyclocross course builders have typically gravitated towards the hilly side of the park where there were old golf course bunkers which can make for a great sandpit as well as the odd berm.

So I rolled along to Beckenham for the Yulecross. Riding through the park at a rather sluggish pace I began to feel my efforts from the previous three days beginning to catch up on me. In fact, my legs felt so creaky that I wondered if I should have been racing at all. I guess there was time for me to duck out gracefully as I had not signed on, and  as I hadn't yet arrived at the race HQ I could have easily turned round and gone home before anyone saw me!

However, a deep-seated curiosity kept me moving towards the house, and before I knew it I had paid my £10 and pinned on a race number. So I was in, whether I liked it or not.

There was a good turnout for the race, with around 13 women on the start line. That was down on the large numbers there have been in recent rounds of the London League, probably due to Christmas holidays, but it was still a massive improvement compared with a couple of years ago.

On the blow of the whistle we set off on a steep uphill section (what is it with steep sections at the start of races? It's not fair!) My legs were still feeling heavy, so I just crawled up at a slow warm-up pace. Needless to say I was shot off the back into last place within a few metres. This didn't bother me much, and I just decided to do my own ride and ease my legs into the pace.

Being a festive event, I had dressed up for the occasion - well at least my version of dressing up. I was wearing my new Hackney GT arm warmers, my jazzy Madison three-quarter tights and my favourite jersey, so the hope was that this would at least be worth a photograph, if not any British Cycling points or prize money! Sadly, when you are in last place and off the back the photographer tends not to want to waste his energy or his film on you!

By about half-way through the race I could feel my legs waking up, and I suddenly had the energy to get into race mode. Gradually my pace kranked up and I began to catch a few of the women one-by-one. Without me realising, my body had found a first wind that was making me race. My legs put in a spurt on the hills, and threw me over the bumps. I had a grrr going on!

With Abi Armstrong post-race - photo by David Steele

Going over the planks was still a bit pants and I did stack it in the sandpit, getting my chain all messy with the stuff, but hey, the adrenaline rush was great and I felt strong.

In fact, by some fluke I had managed to ride myself from last out of 13, up to 5th place, once again overtaking (as with the SE Championships) Liz Orr from Kent Velogirls in the closing metres (sorry Liz - I'm sure you'll get me back next time!).

It was nice to have finished better than I started, even if I was a lap down on the winner, Louise Heywood-Mahe of Les Filles RT.
And as a bonus though, it turns out I was photographed after all!

After the fun and games of the cyclocross race, catching up with other riders including Abi and David who were up from Eastbourne, and Russ Jones who designed my arm warmers, I sauntered home, the tank empty but feeling happy.


Stats:
25.4km ridden; running total - 226.4; 273.6km left
Weather: sunny, 8degC, light wind


Related Posts
Rapha Festive 500: Day 3

Rapha Festive 500: Day 2

Rapha Festive 500: Day 1

Tackling the Rapha Festive 500

Mudplugging again! Cyclocross is back