Laura: Fat to Fit: Great Newham London Run

Race Recap // Great Newham London Run 2017

7/04/2017

For full disclosure purposes, I received a free entry to the Great Newham London Run in return for writing about my experience. I was not paid to write this post and all opinions are my own.

This past Sunday was race day! It was the Great Newham London Run 10k race. I've done this race 3 times in the past and love the stadium finish, so I was looking forward to returning a 4th time! The few days leading up to the race were a little gloomy and I was actually pretty happy about it, it was super hot last year, so I was hoping for a cooler day.. I didn't get that!

The Day Of..
We didn't have to wake up so early for this race which is great. Phillips start time was 10:30AM - so we only needed to be at the start by 9-9:30AM. We also didn't have to catch any tubes, we drove straight to Westfield Shopping Center which is about 10 min walk from the park and the start. Super convenient!

It was already pretty warm, and we arrived a little earlier than expected, so had a longer wait. First stop was the loos.. which had non existent queues which is epic! They split up the baggage area and toilet areas between the 4 waves which worked out really well imo especially compared to the queues last year!

After a fairly long wait in the sun, it was time for Phillip to get into his starting pen at 10AM with the warmup at 10:15 ish and the start at 10:25AM. I then had an hour to wait for my wave to assemble and I headed into the pens at 11AM, by which time, it was already pretty hot... and Phillip had finished!

The Race..
The warmup was done about 5 mins before the start, nothing too intense as we were already pretty warm, but the warmup is so important and I enjoyed taking part in it.

The race started at 11:20AM for the green wave, it took a little while to cross the start line as it's quite narrow at the start but we got going eventually!

The course is much the same as last year with a couple of changes at the end, the start heads away from the stadium, with a couple of double backs where you can see runners ahead and behind of you on the other sides of the road. The route then takes you past the London Aquatics Center before heading up towards the Copper Box Arena, around Leo Valley Velo Park before heading back towards the stadium.

There was a shower at the 4KM mark.. which sadly, I couldn't go through as my phone on my armband isn't waterproof or covered! There were two water stations out on the course too, which were really well organised at 5K mark and 7.5KM. There were also lots of bands, steel drums and big speakers out on the course with some music to provide us with some motivation along with the usual charity support which were amazing!

The last part of the course at the after the 8KM mark dragged for me. I was exhausted in the heat and was praying to be finished! The last part of the course runs around a track outside the stadium, then there is a loop through the tunnels before exiting inside the stadium for a lap and a sprint finish.

The part inside the stadium is the part of the race I look forward to most as it's usually a spectacular atmosphere. I unfortunately didn't get that same pump this time round, there wasn't the roar from the spectators that there has been in previous years but it is still the highlight of the race for me, there's something about running into and around the stadium!.. Phillip did say he had a different experience said and said the crowds were very upbeat when he came through.

Overall Thoughts..
If you've never done this race before or if you want a hint of nostalgia looking back on the Olympic venues used back in 2012 then I definitely think it should be one for the list.

It is quiiite the undulating course, so it's well worth getting in some hill training if you plan on doing it next year! You can sign up for their reminder service HERE if you're interested in when entries open for next year.

You get some decent race bling, a nice tech t-shirt and some yummy goodies in the goodie bag - and the race entry I think is pretty reasonable at £32 too compared to other races!

Overall, it's an event I really enjoy and Great Run do a spectacular job of organising the event - kudos to sorting out the baggage and loo situation since last year!

Thank you again to Simply Health for the race spot! They're the sponsors for the Great Newham London Run and have an amazing campaign to get #millionsmoving! They're trying to encourage more people to get moving and make the most out of everyday by running, jogging or walking, which is awesome and something I am totally behind supporting!

Bonus Vlog..
Question: Have you ever done the Great Newham London Run before? Whats the best race finish you've ever experienced?

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** Twitter ** Instagram ** Pinterest ** Facebook ** Google+ ** Youtube **For full disclosure purposes, I received a free entry to the London Winter Run. I was not paid to write this post and all opinions are my own.

Great Newham London Run

Race Recap // Great Newham London Run 2016

7/20/2016

Original Photo before edit: Great Newham London Run

I had my second race in two weeks this past weekend. The Great Newham London Run - I've done it the last couple of years - apart from the year I had surgery. It's always been a good race, the course has been decent and it's nice to run around the Olympic Park and into the Stadium - plus, the entry price wasn't too bad either(£32), so we signed up as usual.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the race as much this time round, for the most part it was the heat that put a downer on the race for me, which obviously isn't GNLR's fault. I'll explain more below.

The Morning Of..
Thankfully, Phillip and I didn't have to be up as early for this race! There was no travelling on the tube which saved us some money and instead we just had to travel a bit further by car and parked in the Westfields car park for the day. We also decided to try having out breakfast in the car on the way, as typically we would eat breakfast several hours before the race before we had even left the house.

We had some porridge pots that we made just before we left and at on the way - mine was cold by the time I'd actually got round to eating it.

There was only a short walk from the car park to the Olympic Park which was majorly convenient. We left out belongings in the car so we didn't use the baggage drop this time, but it looked fairly simple, so our first port of call was the loos - the queues weren't too bad when we went, I noticed there weren't as many toilets this year though(considering there were 15k runners).

Afterwards, we made our way to the starting pens as it was almost time for Phillip to start his race. There was a decent warm up included and after Phillip started(15 mins late at 9:45), I went back for another toilet stop. Queues again weren't bad until I came out to see massive queues across the field - not sure how long it took others in the queue.

There was a fair amount of waiting in the sun/heat before I was able to enter the pens, and more waiting inside the pens to actually start. I suppose if you were running on your own you could adjust the time to suit your race start.

The Race
My wave was supposed to start at 10:30 and started at 10:40. I was dying from the very beginning as I'd already been out in the heat for a long time. They had changed the waves this year and there was about 15 mins between the first two waves and an HOUR before the start of my wave. Phillip had already finished his race before I'd even began. There is no shade out on the field next to the race start, so the heat was exhausting and didn't set me up for a good start or run.

The race starts just outside the ArcelorMittal Orbit, making it's way past the London Aquatics Center before looping back behind the Stadium and towards the Copper Box Arena.

At around the 7 km mark, we crossed over the River Lea towards Lea Valley Velopark and then it's back towards the stadium.

The course slightly changed from last year, we went through the tunnels on the outskirts of the stadium(they probably have an official name), before exiting, running around a track and then entering into the stadium again, this time on a running track.

There were 2 water stations out on the course, one at 2.5 km and one at 5 km. There were also 2 mist showers out on the course too.

The atmosphere, as always was fabulous in the stadium. There are tonnes of families and supporters of runners allowed into the stadium to spectate for the finish line and the crowds are roaring. It definitely gives you a boost to get to the finish line, something I definitely needed!

After you cross the finish line, you travel back out of the stadium to collect goody bags which contain your medal, tshirt, Lucozade, water and a snack or two.

Overall Thoughts
The time between the Orange/White and Green/Pink was far too long, especially given the heat. There was no need for an hours wait between the two.

There also needed to be an extra water station out on the course. There were stacks of water at entry to the starting pens which was great to keep hydrated before hand, however, given the heat on the day, there really needed to be a water station at around 7 km. 3 extra miles with no water after the 5 km point was not good!

As I mentioned above, your goody bag contains your t-shirt and medal - unfortunately, when things are done this way, there's a chance that the goody bag may not contain one of these items by mistake, like I found out.

Having got back to the car to travel home, I realised that there was no t-shirt in my goody bag and I've had to chase Great Run to get one sent out - had this been the medal missing(something I actually do the races for), I'd have been so upset - other races give you your medal as you finish, almost like a congratulations for finishing, though I understand that it cuts on queues at the end.

In terms of the overall race, it was still good. There isn't as much support out on the course itself, but there were bands and charity spectators cheering out on the course and the amount of runners out on the course made it interesting - the majority of the support is at the end inside the stadium, which as I mentioned is a fantastic experience.

Obviously, the things I've mentioned above will not stop me from doing the race again as it's a race I generally enjoy - hopefully they can sort out a couple of the niggles experienced this year and be ready again for next year!

According to the website, you can actually enter already for next year! So if you're interested in running the Olympic Park & Into the stadium, then you can already enter - HERE

Race Vlog
If you didn't see with last weeks race recap, I've started vlogging the races. It's taking me some getting used to and I keep forgetting to film he ending for the video but practice makes perfect. Find my running vlog below!

If you have any tips, comments for improvement or things you'd like to see in the vlogs then do let me know! and Subscribe to stay updated with new videos!

Question: Did you run the Great Newham London Run? Have you ever had a race you had high expectations of and then didn't quite enjoy?

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Great Newham London Run

Race Recap // Great Newham London Run 2015 - 10k

7/23/2015

I'm sure that if you read my blog on a regular basis, you'll know that I had a race this weekend. This past weekend was the Great Newham London Run. It's part of the Great Run series and I only good things things about them!

This is the first year that it's been run, but a similar run has been done for a few years that used to be with the National Lottery, this year, the sponsor has changed to Morrisons.

The last time I did this route/run was back in 2013 and it was the year that everyone got to run in the stadium after the spectacular olympics(see my race recap HERE). I didn't run last year as I was still recovering from surgery, so I was excited to be able to return to the stadium this year!

The morning of..
So, the morning of.. I was up at 5AM! KILLER! Phillip and I obviously had to have breakfast first and then we had to drive an hour to the tube station and then 30 minutes on the tube to the park. For breakfast, I had some Porridge Oats with a glob of PB and a cup of tea.

The drive was simple and straight forward, the tube wasn't busy and we had chance to put on our race bibs. I must mention Event Clips here! They're awesome! Rather than having safety pins that might come off or put holes in your shirts, these are simple little clips that fasten your bib to your shirt really easily!

We had a 10 or so minute walk from the tube station to the park and start area. We made a mad dash for the toilets before it got busy, which it did, VERY quickly! We then dropped of the bag we had with us, which was straight forward. There were pens for each of the starting waves, you just walked into the baggage pens and put your bag wherever you wanted. Marshalls were guarding the area the whole time so all the bags were in safe hands!

Ofc, after baggage was dropped off, we both took a selfie and some pics with the Stadium and Orbit in the background!

Afterwards, I went to find some of the #UKRunChat gang, which is REALLY difficult when there are so many people around! I met up with Natasha and Gill, we talked for a while before I went to see Phillip off into his starting pen. Afterwards, I met up with the rest of the lovely ladies, Michelle, Jenni, Natalie & Hanna for a lovely chat before we all wished each other luck and headed to our starting pens - where I ended up meeting Frankie!

The warm-up started not long after I arrived in the starting pens, it's always great fun to get involved in the warm-up and really important to make sure you get prepared for the race ahead. The sun came out too and it started to get warm! I wished there was some sort of water station at the start for people to top up on water before starting, it would have helped a bunch!

The Race
The race (at least for me in the green starting area) started 10 minutes later than expected, which wasn't too much of a problem.

When we first started, it was a little congested but soon thinned out. There were a few out and back loops on the routes and quite a few hills(compared to when I last ran in 2013). Coming from an area that has hardly any hills and can't really train for them, this was quite taxing on me but I managed to push myself and power up them rather than stop to walk which I was pretty happy about!

We passed the London Aquatics Center near the 2 km mark, looping back around behind the Stadium towards the Copper Box Arena. There were bands and speakers all along the route with power songs to keep people motivated(I found it really helped!). There was a mist shower around the 5 km mark, which was SO refreshing, especially with the heat, I almost wanted to stop in there for a while ;).

At the 5.5 km mark, there was the only water station - I don't know about anyone else, but I needed a drink way before then with the heat - I think there should have been at least two water stations on the route - the one we did have was really organised though and I was able to just grab a bottle whilst running past, previously on water stations, I've had to stop or almost collided with people so this was great.

I took a couple of little sips from the water and ended up tipping the rest over my head to cool me down a little.. afterwards I just ditched the bottle.

At around the 7 km mark, we crossed over the River Lea towards Lee Valley VeloPark.. then we made our way back towards the stadium. As with the run in 2013, the route took us under and into the Stadium tunnels which lead out onto the track. I must say, the atmosphere when I came out onto the track was almost overwhelming, all the spectators were cheering everyone on, it was fantastic!

I crossed the finish line in 1:06 dead on. I must say, I was a little disappointed and upset not to have gotten a PB as I felt like I tried SO hard and I didn't walk a single bit of the route! but then I had to remember that I haven't been back into running long since my injury, so I was quite happy with my time in the end.. and I've got plenty of time to get a PB.

After finishing, I followed the crowds to get out finishers packs - which weren't bad! There was the Medal of course, a water, Lucozade, some nuts, fruit and some type of nut/yoghurt bar - there was also a t-shirt in there, which I was alittle disappointed in as it was cotton - I would have much preferred a technical t-shirt which would have allowed me to run in afterwards - me, cotton t-shirts and running don't bode too well - so I don't have that much use for it.

I met up with Phillip after the race and took photos with our medals and then headed back towards Westfields for a ~~little~~ long walk round. Phillip said that baggage collection was very straight forward, you just went back to where you placed your bag at the beginning - very straight forward!

Overall Thoughts
The day itself was fab, the race was very well organised and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, the route was great too. As I mentioned, there are a few tweaks that I think would be more than welcomed next year like an extra water station and technical t-shirts instead of cotton - but other than that, I couldn't fault it.

I'd definitely recommend this race to anyone if you haven't run it before - running into and around the stadium is a spectacular experience. Entries are actually open for next year already on 17th July 2016(See HERE) and I will most likely be running it again!

Question: Tell me, whats your favourite race? What about it is so special?

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#backtothestadium

Race Recap: The National Lottery Anniversary Run #backtothestadium

7/23/2013

This is going to be a long one.. so get comfy.

The Morning Of..

Me and Phillip woke up bright and early at 5am on Sunday. We got something for breakfast.. In my case, I had a Fruit and Oat Bagel with Peanut Butter and Jam. I only ate half of it. I wasn't hungry at all. I had 1 pint glass of water too.

We packed the remainder of our things including race numbers, safety pins, water bottles.. and head off at 5:45 to go and pick up Phillips Mother from work (who was running the race too). She works nights.. she worked from 12 till 6 am and then was coming running with us.. Mad.

We made the one hour journey to Epping Station, got out tickets, boarded the train.. and 30 minutes later arrived at Stratford. I've never been into London before except for getting off and on a coach at the Theatre.. so this was a whole new experience for me.

The Olympic Park was clearly sign posted from the Station, it took us about 10-15 minutes to get into the park. We arrived pretty early into the park, we had 2 hours to kill until race time. We had a look in the stadium, walked round the stadium, took pictures, located baggage areas, toilets and had a look at the starting area.

We put our belongings together in Phillips Bag as he was in the Red wave and he would be first back to pick up his bag. I had my energy bar and took a quick toilet break and then we headed down to the start area about 30 minutes before the start of the race.

Race Warmup and Start..

The Starting Area was very organised. There were 4 different waves with 4 different start times based on the predicted run times we entered. As I mentioned already, Phillip was in the Red Wave, His mum and I were in the White Wave.

Phillip headed off to get a good spot in the Red Starting area and Me and his mum headed to our area. We were right in front of the stage for the race warm-up.

At 9:45, the race warm-up began. It was great fun and definitely got us all warm. it was quite cold and muggy at the beginning of the day but was supposed to warm up.

Red Wave took off at just after 10 am and our wave was moved up to the start line. We had a nice pep talk from Chris Hoy and then we were off!

The Race..

It took us about a minute to reach the start line after our wave had been started. Chris Hoy was at the start line and he waved and smiled at us (and I had a little fan girl moment ;) ). I started my phone for route tracking as soon as we passed the start line. There was a guy in Fancy Dress Running in a Green Dragon Costume which was fun. During the half a mile, a guy ran off the track to take a piddle.

There wasn't 'much' to the course itself. The Queen Elizabeth Park is still under construction until Spring next year so the course was like a construction site. A majority of the route was roads with sand and rubble parts.

Some parts of the route were fun, there were steel bands playing at certain points on the route which helped to motivate me to run. There were colourful lanterns on part of the route, Lots of Marshall's shouting words of encouragement.

At lots of points, the course double backed on itself so we could see the faster runners and first wave running around the course and it also allowed me to see where I would be running next.

There was a water station at the 2 mile point. I was OK, but took a bottle of water to pour over my head as it was SO hot when we were running.

There were a few big slopes during the course too. In Cambridge, we don't have hills or inclines so I was NOT used to this bit and I struggled and my pace slowed. But what goes up.. must come down.. and my pace was a little faster on the downhill parts.

There was a 'mist' shower at mile 3, I wasn't overly impressed, I ran through it and it didn't really cool me down that much.

At about 3.5 miles, I lost Phillips Mum, she ran ahead and I just couldn't keep up. It was quite tightly packed in some areas as the road bottle necked.

At about .5 miles to go, we started heading under the stadium for the last home stretch. We had to run in a tunnel under the stadium and it was SO HOT in there.

FINALLY, I got out of the tunnel and was on the last 400 m stretch to the finish line. The spectators were amazing and I got such a boost running out there even if they weren't cheering for me in particular. The green Dragon guy had managed to get in front of me from the tunnel. I was NOT about to let a guy in a costume beat me to the finish line.

So.. at the last 100 m.. I gave it my all and pushed to run past him and over the finish line. As soon as I crossed the finish line and started slowing down.. I just felt incredibly sick.. I ended up heaving 3 times and almost sick on the track. I managed to hold back.

I met with Phillips Mother further down the end of the track, we had to go back into another tunnel to exit the stadium. We picked up our runners packs and made our way back up the stairs to meet with Phillip.

My official time for the race was 45:47 which is a PB for me as I have never run a 5 mile race before. I am extremely proud of what I have achieved with my running and I'm very happy with my time.

The After..

There was a MASSIVE queue for red baggage collection so we went into the stadium to watch people still coming in. Little Mix were performing on Stage so we sat and watched them perform and then went to get our bag.

We then went on a hunt of the Mo Farah Cutouts.. and eventually found them after following some very bad signs for about 15 minutes. We had a profession Photo took and then decided it was time to go and find some food.

We walked around a couple of the shops first.. Ones we'd not seen before in Cambridge. We didn't buy anything.

We eventually found a YooMoo Frozen Yoghurt Stand inside Westfield Shopping Centre. £6 EACH for our ice-creams. We tried to guess the prices of them to get them free but to no avail. It was yummy though.

YUM!.. But 6 QUID?!!

After we'd finished, it was home time. I had to drive back, Phillip and his Mother fell asleep in the car leaving me to try and find my way back with no SatNav.

Overall, it was a really great day and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I'm hoping there might be another next year when the Olympic Park is fully finished and open properly. We will see.

Phew.... that really was a long post. I hope you all stuck around to read it! :)

I'm on the hunt for another race to do now.. but we are going away in September when a lot of the close races fall. We will see.

I hope you had a fabulous weekend. Enjoy the sun whilst it lasts!

Have you done any races recently? What were they?

Laura x