Sunday we all took part in the City of London Mile for the first time. This was a free event open to everyone.
The race itself was held in a number of different waves. We were in “Family Wave 3” which meant we didn’t need to be at the start line until 11:50am. Unfortunately, as we had to pick up our race numbers at the event we had an early start to get the train into London to make sure we did that without missing the race.
We managed to get into town earlier than planned, having jumped on a fast train that was waiting at Reading when we got there. We walked the short walk from Paddington to Lancaster gate through the drizzle and got on the Central line tube out to St. Paul’s Cathedral only to find that the rain was coming down a little harder now.
There was a little trouble getting our race numbers as Eventbrite – the people sorting out the tickets for the event – sent an email update a couple days before the event saying that we could just download their app and use that to get our numbers. Alas that didn’t work as they weren’t set-up to actually do that in the race tent!
We weren’t the only ones caught out like this but fortunately we had our race numbers in another email so that meant we missed the longer of the two queues. Piss-up/brewery sprung to mind!
Numbers picked up and a little time to kill before we met up with Alex et al, we strolled down to the Millennium Bridge. The view was pretty rubbish due to the weather but it was nice to have a stroll, even if the wind was cold down by the river.
Legs stretched, we went back to St. Paul’s Cathedral to meet up with the others, letting the kids have some fun while we waited for our wave to go.
Shortly before our allotted time we were herded along to the start line and before we knew it the starting gun went off – making everyone jump because it was a bit overkill with the children there – and we were off.
It was a flat course starting at St. Paul’s Cathedral heading out towards Mansion House before swooping down towards the Bank of England. You can see the route below if you’re interested.
Compared to the normal races we do without the girls it was pretty short, and it wasn’t long before we were all celebrating with our medals at the finish line.
As is traditional with our runs in London, we all headed to Wagamamas for our post-race nosh, this time at Covent Garden, which was just what the doctor ordered after the early start!
Food eaten, it was time to head home so that we were back in plenty of time for Alice and Elisa to be picked up by their mum.
It was a shame the weather wasn’t better but all in all I think the girls really enjoyed themselves. Better keep an eye out for more events like this for them hadn’t we?
Photos
Route Details
If you’re interested you can download the KML file and/or GPX file of the plotted route. Please be aware though that the route was hand-plotted and so may not be 100% accurate.
Route Map
Elevation Details
| Start Elavation (m) | End Elavation (m) | Max Elevation (m) | Min Elevation (m) | Total Climb (m) | Total Descent (m) | Climbs on Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 25 | 39 | 20 | 38 | -40 | 0 |
More information about climb ratings can be found at Map My Walk.