On Sunday 8th October members of Sri Chinmoy AC took part in the "Run London" Nike 10K in Hyde Park. Several of the runners have recently been team-members on the European leg of the World Harmony Run, of which Sri Chinmoy is also the founder.
As the Harmony Run was to be in London that weekend anyway, Shankara at Run and Become very kindly got extra entries from Nike so that we could enter a really big team of about 20 runners.
Every year Run London has a theme, and this year's was "north verses south", using the traditional rivalry between north- and south-of-the-river to bring forward the competitive spirit! In this 10K your number is pre-printed on your t-shirt and everyone wears the same colour. This year, however, there were 2 colours - green for north-of-the-river and orange for south. Since I don't actually live in London and therefore have no particular geographical loyalties, I opted to run for the north, partly because I prefer the colour green and partly because I wanted to be on Paula's team. (Paula Radciffe was team captain for the north and Sebastian Coe for the south, although Seb did let slip at one point that he was actually born north of the river!).
There were 35,000 participants in this year's race - yes that's not a typo, that really is meant to say 35 thousand! In a brilliantly effective anti-congestion move there were four waves of starts at four different times. We'd opted for the 11.05 start.
Arriving in Hyde Park was quite a buzz, being surrounded by a sea of shirts in only 2 colours. I actually really liked it because I felt it removed any outer differences between runners and brought forward a real sense of oneness in the crowd - after all, we were all the same (aside from the north-south rivalry that is....).
After a high-energy and very loud warm-up directed from the stage we headed down to the start line, bearing the Harmony Run torch (unlit for safety reasons) and flag. It was a sunny day and the mood was decidedly cheerful. As luck would have it we were right under the starting platform where Paula Radcliffe was standing, and in the general melee before the race start she found a few moments to hold the Harmony Run torch aloft and smile for a photo.
Then the hooter went and we were off. Of course everyone took off across the start line at a cracking pace. We'd had a general idea for the whole Sri Chinmoy AC/World Harmony Run team to run all together but it became quickly apparent that our paces covered a pretty broad spectrum.
One bunch did stay all together and finished in just over 46 minutes, with the added bonus of being able to run with Paula for 500 metres or so and have a bit of a chat before she went ahead, aiming for a 45-minute time which is still a pretty tidy pace at 5 months pregnant.
Natalia from Ukraine (right in picture below) couldn't be restrained and sped ahead, running a great race to finish first lady in our wave in 38:18.
Overall it was a great race. The weather was sunny and warm, the park is beautiful, the water station came just in time at around half way, and the course is fairly flat with just a couple of minor slopes. Despite the huge number of runners, the 4 waved starts and wide course meant that it mostly didn't feel too congested, apart from at a couple of narrower bottlenecks which even then weren't too bad.
After crossing the finish line everyone got a medal, a bottle of water, a very welcome sachet of Powerade, and a small bottle of deoderant (!). The crowds were well marshalled so it never felt too overwhelming, and we all managed to meet up quite easily under the billowing World Harmony Run flag.
It's a fun and friendly race and, although a bit pricey, the entry fee does include your wicking t-shirt. Amelia had said it wasn't a PB race because of the crowds, but then went ahead and ran a PB of 45:15.
