Regents Park 10k November 2016
Sunday 6th November at 9am
~ Kitty Hung ~
On Sunday 6th November, John and I did the Regents Park 10k Winter Series. It was an extremely cold morning starting at about 2 to 3oC. It was quite unusual to be that cold in November which is still considered to be autumn. Only a day earlier, I watched a very interesting documentary about climate change on YouTube called: “Before the Flood” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CkXVF-Q8M). It said due to the global warming, the snow on Greenland is melting and ice blocks are falling into the ocean in a very fast pace. As a result, the sea water temperature on the North Atlantic Ocean is dropping drastically. It is predicted that in the next 50 years, Europe and North America would be very cold in winter because the current is bringing very cold air to countries along the North Atlantic Ocean. With the decrease of ice and increase of water, the sea level would raise and eclipse the coastlines. This is really scary. If this prediction is true, it would be a disaster to those who live and work along the coastlines and sea ports. The documentary also said if people in this world stop eating beef and stop consuming diary along, the global warming will slow down tremendously because a cow produces 125kg Methane per year and Methane is 23 times higher than the effect of CO2 which is equivalent to 600 human beings.
While John and I were shivering in the cold awaiting the start of the race, what a nice surprise to see our fellow Comets RRC runner Hameera Darr and her 2 friends. Hameera had decided to pick the Regents Park 10K as her first ever debut 10k race. What a great honour to the Regents Park !
The Mornington Chasers Running Club had been organising this event since the 1990’s but about 2 years ago they outsourced to an external company called “NiceWork” to organise this race. It was chaotic and confusing at the beginning when NiceWork took over. Although NiceWork had rectified many of their mistakes, it was still not as good as when Mornington Chasers Running Club was organising it. In the digital day and age, runners naturally took their grief onto the internet particularly on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Google+…you name it !!
I gather Mornington Chasers got the message because this time I saw a new “supplier” taking over from NiceWork. It is a company called “The Race Organiser”. Since John and I both missed the last event last month, this was the first time we experienced the new “supplier”. Our impression is that the event was a lot better organised and there was a lot of improvement from the last one we did back in March this year. The bag drop area is now fully manned. Each runner is given a number tag with the number same as our bib number to tie to our bag. When we collect our back, the official would check our bib number before handing the bag to us. Under the NiceWork’s management, there was no number tag and there was no one manning the bag drop area. Anyone (runners or non-runners) could pick up any bag and dash. Another improvement is the medal. Before the outsourcing, Mornington Chasers did not give away medal as they only charge £6 per race. When NiceWork took over, they charged £16 per race and they started giving us medals. I must admit the medals looked like from Poundland. This time, with the same registration fee, I was very pleased to have received a very pretty medal which is a real quality. The post-race snacks were good too with bananas, healthy nut bars, low fat flapjacks, skimmed milk shake and plenty of bottle water.
I finished just under 56 minutes in 55’58”. John finished in 1:07’11” and Harmeera finished in 1:18’25”. For full results, please visit:
https://www.chaser.me.uk/tenk/results.php
For photo gallery, please visit:
I think I would struggle in the next Regents Park 10k in December because I have a Christmas event to attend the night before!!
Regents Park 10K November 2016