History

I rarely run the same race twice. It would need to be 1. Super quick (like Vicky Park), 2. Crazy fun  (Bacchus dressed as unicorns and drinking booze), or 3. So convenient it would lazy not to (Regents Park). After the year I got a shoe bag and no bling at the Serpies New Years race I chose the Race Organiser Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 10K as my first sortie of 2016 when my friend Alana was in London. And it would become my first race of 2018 too as the Katzenjammers planned to assemble in the shadows of the stadium to bash out a fast one with young Dan ahead of his surgery.

Now, I say planned, as in the end, we had four bailers, that left me and Coach Jen to run it together.

I am taking part in the #JOINJEN weekly challenges and Jen kindly created me my training plan for the Green Man Ultra so it was good to run with her in London in a situation where I was not dressed as an elf. Of course, running with your coach does mean that they want to stretch and take it seriously and so, after packet pickup and bag drop we sat in the café by the Orbital looking out at the warm up thinking, “it is cold, we can do that at the end.”

The Route

If you haven’t been to the Olympic Park then it is a well surfaced modern area built specifically for the 2012 Olympics. The different Olympic venues are dotted around, such as the pool, and the cycle park. You can race there with Runthrough.

The Race Organiser races and the Supernova run the same route. You start outside the café in the shadow of the Orbital and head east along the canal, across a footbridge down to a road bridge that crosses the canal, along the canal to another footbridge, across the bridge then along and around the canal that circles the Olympic stadium, then up and around the edge of the stadium car park to the start. Rinse and repeat 3 times.

#JOINJEN

How I did

I always like running with Jen, we have had crossover for 18 races over the last 3 years (out of my 120) and have run together for 9 of those. We pace well and this was no exception as we ran a comfy 57 minute run with close to 5:45 minute KMs the whole way around, including stopping at the water table twice.

Four minutes slower than 2016 when I was chasing Alana, but it did give me confidence enough to sign up for the Runthrough Vicky Park 10k the following week to test the legs and my pacing even more.

The Bling

Smaller than 2 years ago but it could have been worse, it could have been the same.

Summary

The Race Organiser, Runthrough, Fix Events and Nice Work run 5K, 10K and halves throughout the year. You can run Regents, Hyde, Greenwich, Richmond, Victoria, and QEOP every month. And these races you get out of them what you put in. This was my first race of the year, and was there to support JK and Dan. Having decided that I would go, I was glad that least Coach Jen made it, and we did have a good leg stretch. If you are starting out, or want to test the legs post break or injury, then I would recommend them. They are all well organised now, compared to when I first started running and they would run out of goody bags and medals, and you can pad out a race calendar with them.

WOULD I RECOMMEND THE QEOP 10K? Why not? It is what it is. A well organised local 10K.

WOULD I RUN THE QEOP 10K again? I had no plans to this time, so never say never.

NEXT UP: VICTORIA PARK 10K