Brooks Serpentine New Year’s Day 10k in London

I am so relieved to have my first race of the year over and done with! My training has gone completely to pot, and I can barely remember how to tie my laces, much less train find the time to train. However, with this race over, I feel like I am getting back on track – I was slow compared to my last 10k – I came in at 53:26 at an 8:36 pace, but faster than I thought I would be. And actually even if I had trained for it, I think it was quite a slow course… hills and quite a narrow path we were all on. Anyway, the point is, I am quite content with the results and had a great race.

The race was in Hyde Park, and I figured out where I needed to be and when the night before:

But when I got there, I was confronted with the annual Winter Wonderland, which is absolutely enormous, and took up most of the Hyde Park Station corner of the park:

A was running a little behind so got a bit nervous when I couldn’t immediately see the start line.

I fought my way through the Alpine village and finally caught sight of the finish line, where the check in tent was, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The packet pick up was seamless- the line moved really fast and everyone was super helpful.

I dropped my bag off and headed to the start line thinking about how lucky I was to be racing on such a gorgeous sunny winter day in London, and that I had actually made it to the start line with about 15 minutes till the gun went off.

My spirits were high, and although I was a little nervous to be doing my first race alone outside of America, I felt the commraderie and sense of community and all was giddy, and then… then I got to the start line and saw this:

NOTHING!

There was literally no one there at the start line 15 mins before the start. So…I went back to panic mode, and wondered if I had got the time wrong, or if there were two races and this was the start line for the wrong one. … you know… normal crazy thinking…

I decided to calm myself down with a visit to the restroom and by the time I got out, it was starting to get busy…. I guess my people aren’t as punctual or eager as we are the US!

And the next thing you know, we’re off on a crazy zig-zagging run all over Hyde Park. It was really wonderful to be racing in my hometown and the volunteers and staff were amazing at cheering us on. I was *that* guy going for the high 5′s and waving at everyone, as I was so excited and happy to be doing the race.

That is me rocking my new Lululemon Short/Tights combo which I LOVE.

After the race, I hit the Winter Wonderland Village up and got an enormous Bratwurst and some Bavarian Donuts smothered in Nutella.

That’s all I got- did you do a New Years Day Race?