When my cousin text and asked me if I wanted to do the Thames Path Challenge I jumped at the chance! I love a good challenge especially when running is involved.
The Thames Path Challenge is an 100K Challenge that is run over 2 days. You can opt to do the half challenge of 50K which is exactly what we did. The Challenge was on Saturday 8th September and if you opted to do the 100k you would continue on the Sunday. The start line was at bishops park near Putney Bridge station, upon arrival we registered and headed straight to the bag drop.
At the start line there was complimentary teas, coffee, biscuits and plenty of water including hydration water which I made sure I had. We made sure we had some water before heading to the start line at 8:10 as our start time was 8:20am! We should have started a little earlier really as we joined with a lot of the walkers and spent quite a bit of the first part dodging them.
After a quick warm up and a safety briefing we were on our way. The route took us past Hammersmith, Barnes and then onto Kew which took us to the 7 miles point shortly after just before we hit mile 8 there was a mid point rest stop which we decided to by pass as we didn’t feel like we needed to stop. You do have to have your tracker scanned though so they know exactly where you are on the route, so we did that and we were swiftly on our way.
14km- 30.5km (Mile 9-19) took us past some beautiful places including Richmond, Twickenham, Teddington, Kingston and Hampton Court Palace which was absolutely beautiful. Mile 19 or 30.5km was the 2nd rest point in which we decided to stop at to re fill our water and have a quick loo stop. We didn’t stay for long and we didn’t sit down either as we didn’t want our legs to get stiff.
Mile 19 to mile 24 (37KM) took us up to the the next rest point and at this rest point we decided to tuck into the fruit they had on offer. The snacks they had at this rest point was absolutely incredible. There was every kind of snack you can imagine and they also had an entire table of pick a mix! We wish we took advantage of the pick a mix as we assumed they would have some at the end as well but they sadly didn’t!
The next 7 miles were the hardest miles of the entire course. At mile 29 I hit the wall and didn’t think it was ever going to end. A quick water stop and some jelly beans definitely helped and the support of my cousin along the way, I definitely couldn’t have done it without her!
Crossing the finish line was incredible especially as we were handed a glass of Prosecco to celebrate oh and my two sisters where there to cheer us in!
The race was perfectly organised and we honestly could not fault it at all! It isn’t the cheapest run to take part in but it is definitely worth every penny!
Overall we both had the most incredible time, so much so that we are even considering doing it again!
