Richmond – London’s Little Brother

If you want to run a marathon in London, but don’t like crowds or you don’t get into the big one, Richmond it a good alternative. There are only about 1,000 marathon runners and a bigger bunch of Half runners, who start delayed and only share parts of the route. I like that the marathon start was inside Kew Gardens and the first miles went through it. The route then led us along the beautiful trail paths following the Thames to Kingston. Just lovely. It is a good mix of tarmac and flat trail, maybe ideal for someone who wants to dip a toe into off-road running. The organisation and friendliness was very good, as I almost start to expect it from running events in England. The last mile seemed a little bit sadistic: you are already entering the finish area having the finish line in front of you, when you realise there is still a big loop to do, which will go quite a bit out before it leads you back to the final stretch. But then you get a beer at the finish! I mean real beer, London Pride, with alcohol in it, not the pseudo non-alcoholic stuff, that some running events dare to hand out. It was one of the best beers I ever had. And I managed to stay under 4 hours for this one. Despite running low, zero training and temperatures around 20 Celsius. Awesome.