PB potential Summer 10ks and Autumn Half Marathons ... recommendations please

Hi everyone,

After getting the marathon out of the way in April, I'm spending the rest of the year PB-chasing on the shorter distances. I'm looking for a couple of nice 10km races to do over the summer and a half marathon a few weeks after the Royal Parks Half Marathon (which is 7th October). Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you!

Hi there,

The Brighton Phoenix 10k on a summer's evening, Wed July 18th, is flat and fast and you'd have a nice day out in Brighton as well of course! I've started a discussion about it on the events forum and also full details via the Phoenix website if you fancy it:

http://www.brightonphoenix.org.uk

I've heard excellent things about this series:
http://www.purplepatchrunning.com/races/queen-mother-reservoir-5k10k-race-series

Check out the Battersea Park races too:
http://uk.srichinmoyraces.org/races/london

They are my favourite - flat, well organised, fast, proper races for about £5-10 that you can turn up and enter on the day

There is a series in Regents park too, but I'm not sure it is well organised having never done it, don't forget the many and mulitple free parkruns on Saturdays and there are races in most of the parks in London, including a 10k in Finsbury and Victoria park in hackney.

PB chasing over 10k and HM this Summer in the South East?  That rings a bell!

Looking at my racing calendar (it's full of ifs, maybes and definites, so I'm not doing all of these...)

18th July - Brighton Phoenix 10k. Very flat. Pretty sure a handful of us will be travelling down on a Wednesday evening for this one.
15th August - London Pride 10k, Victoria Park. Flat. Really well organised race, I've done this (and PB'd) a couple of times.
29th September - Orange Apeal 10k, Hyde Park.  I'm sure there are plenty of others in Hyde Park over the summer but this is one I've earmarked as a tune-up for my October HM...
7th October - Southend 10k. The course has changed slightly since I set my current PB here but it's still supposed to be flat and fast, out and back along the front.

There are a few fast Autumn HMs dotted around if you're prepared to go a little outside London.  I'm doing the Great Eastern Run in Peterborough, 14th October.  Flat and fast as they come.

Also if I hadn't already secured my VLM champs place (yay!) I might have looked at the Gosport HM as a back-up, 18th November. Pancake flat, possibly susceptible to coastal wind.

Thanks everyone, a lot of choices there!

Lance - thanks for the info. It does look like a fun race but unfortunately I'm going to a comedy gig in London on the 18th July. Maybe next year

Curly - I'll check out the Battersea Park races, I like the sound of something I can enter on the day with minimum fuss. Flat and fast courses also get a big thumbs up from me!

Phil - thanks very much for that wealth of information. I've heard excellent things about Gosport Half Marathon and as you say, the timing is pretty good. The Great Eastern Run is the week after Royal Parks, and I've never run two HMs in consecutive weeks (long training runs yes, but 'proper' races, no) so I think the Gosport Half Marathon would be the better bet. Cheers!

Another vote for Gosport - provided it's not windy it's very fast, quite a long way to go though... Maybe the Maidenhead half, but thats September if I remember rightly.