Royal Parks Half Marathon, 13th October 2024

Another year, another run in the capital for Cate Walker:

“This was my fourth time joining circa 19,999 other runners at Royal Parks Half Marathon, a race that manages to be both a city run and a parkrun in one. I think the amount that I talk about this race, people must have started thinking I’m working for the event organisers (I’m not!).

This year did not disappoint although it was a much cooler experience than last year, and it took around 5 miles for my Reynauds-afflicted fingers to defrost after 45 mins without my Claremont Hoodie, which had been safely stowed away.

The course comprises what could be a London tourist checklist in the first five miles of road running, followed by 8.1 miles of lovely Autumn colours in Hyde Park. The support along the way was fantastic as ever, with some great signs making me smile (my new favourite: ‘It’s a lot of effort for a free banana’) and the steel drum band at the entrance to Hyde Park a particular highlight.

I has been hoping to dip under 1 hour 50 mins this time, and had a strong start, but couldn’t quite sustain my pace for the full distance. I could tell I was in touching distance, and tried to speed up at the end, but just came in at 1:50:34. Still, I guess part of the purpose of a target is to keep you pushing, which it did, and it just means I’ll have something to aim for next year! I still got a Half Marathon PB by about 33 seconds (compared to my time in Gateshead in May).

I was especially pleased to take more than 5 minutes off my time from the event last year and to come in the top 1,000 women for the first time at number 995. I was the only Claremonter running it but I felt supported from a distance seeing all the lovely messages come in via WhatsApp (thank you :)) and of course it was lovely to know Laurie was waiting at the end, his place having been passed on to my friend Vanessa, who had a great run too. Maybe next year there will be a group of us! For now, I’m happy I had the opportunity to run this fantastic event again.”