QueeNs Park Harriers

Saturday 28th February saw the last of the North West London Young Athletes XC League for the juniors in Perivale. A great spectator course had been laid out in Peartree Park, plenty of twists and turns and flat as a pancake. In the U’11’s (2km) Freddie Pytherchi Strobi (1st) had a blinder of a run. He stayed on the shoulder of the leader  pretty much the whole race, until the home straight when he kicked and stormed to a victory. Good races from Angus Baird (9th) along with

After a few uneventful Park Runs, I got to talk to a friendly Hoopster and joined the Harriers. It was one of the best decisions I made last year! Running on the track with friendly and supportive coaches gives you a great opportunity to work on and improve your running in all areas, especially if your current exercise regime has flat-lined. Like Alice in Wonderland, you may find yourself going into a world you never knew existed! Competing for a running club was not somethin

What a season! It started back in October in glorious sunshine in St. Albans and ended for us oldies (Masters) with sunshine in Watford last weekend.   At the start of the season my goal was to run more cross country races than I had in recent years; the bar was quite low as my record for the last five years was two before injuries forced me to stop. But a big-ish birthday had moved me up an age group and I thought if I could survive enough Chiltern Leagues I might possibly b

Sunday 1st Feb 2026 It’s been so much fun to run cross-country this season. Before this winter I hadn’t done a cross-country race since I was about 13, and it’s been great to rediscover the pleasures of running on mud. I’ve been enjoying it so much that when a large group of Harriers went to Watford for the half marathon, I went instead to Wimbledon Common where the Dash for the Splash race was 10k of the soft, squelchy stuff. It was brilliant.  This race is run by a venerabl

St Albans, 18/01/26   A mild and overcast (but thankfully dry) Sunday morning set the scene for the Fred Hughes 10 Mile in St Albans — a race I’d heard talked about a lot at track, always with glowing reviews. This was my first ever event with Queens Park Harriers, so it felt like the perfect one to jump in and see what it was all about (and yes, the t-shirt definitely helped seal the deal). The course itself didn’t disappoint, winding through lovely country lanes around St

Date: 1 January 2026 Location: Hyde Park, London Having spent 12 of the last 15 years working within a stone’s throw of Marble Arch, the race route felt very familiar. The event, organised by the Serpentine Running & Triathlon Club in partnership with Active Training World, takes place on traffic-free paths through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I’m hugely grateful to all the volunteers who made this wonderful event possible. I’ve long been aware of the Serpentine RTC, hav

Saikat Chatterjee Like many serendipitous things in life, this too began with a refusal.  My Bucket list is (was?) to run all the World Majors (4/7!). I don’t remember the exact moment when this morphed into an obsession, but I reckon this was around the time I ran the London Marathon for a second time in 2021. I saw some folks walking away into the sunset with a garland of six medals at the finish line, serenaded by some bugles and gun salutes. Tokyo 2025 was going to be the

Berlin: fast and flat, promising your ultimate PB! Well, no, not this time.   My road to Berlin had started with great expectations. But...

In all ways, it was the longest day of the year. I don't know exactly when I came up with the idea of a beer marathon. Consuming podcasts...

This was always going to be extremely hard. The Paddy Buckley round is the Welsh equivalent of the Bob Graham Round , with a goal of...

“It’s not for everyone”, one or two people said when I told them I was thinking about signing up for my first Green Belt Relay. Maybe not, but I was intrigued. A 22-stage team event covering 220 miles in one weekend? Circling London on footpaths, towpaths and quiet lanes, sharing van journeys between one stage and the next? Committed repeat runners, who keep their Queens Park Harriers membership after moving away from the area, purely to take part in this one event? Count me

Coming off the back of some really great progress in my 2024 marathons, I’d truly developed an appetite to see what more I can do. I came...

So the Original Marathon is a little known marathon, mostly because it has not been run that many times before and it's not a "race" for...

Ignore the Signs….Sometimes!   I wanted to sign up for an international marathon in the year I turned 60 to challenge myself. I was...

Having done this event a few times before, I particularly wanted to run it this time being twenty-five years after my first race of the...

I’ve always considered myself a fair-weather runner. As a rule, I don’t do hills or mud, I hate being cold and can convince myself quite...

In 2020ish I decided to try to go from being ‘someone that occasionally runs’ to being ‘a runner’. I had no intention of running becoming...

The Vitality 10K is one of my favourite races of the autumn, unique with live bands, great music and crowds. Leading up to the race, my...

I had been thinking of attempting this marathon twenty years ago. The idea came back with some amazing reviews from one or two Sudbury...

Home-made bin liner ponchos, 70% chance of thunderstorms, heavy rain and kit bags full of dry clothing for changing into after the...