DPR September Newsletter
New shirt, new shoes, new ambitions for the term ahead. And if summer busy-ness has meant it’s been a while since you came for a run with us, remember that you can join our beginners courses for free as a member! They start this Saturday – an 8 week course for Beginners, 5 week course for 5k-5milers. Full info on the website. Please encourage your friends, neighbours and colleagues to sign up! We also need your help in supporting these new runners at 8am and 9am each Saturday morning, and 5k-5milers at 10am. There’s a briefing and route plan immediately prior to each session (which in total lasts 45-60mins), so all you need to do is run gently, chat and encourage. Come for as many or as few sessions as you like, and besides the opportunity to ‘give back’, you also get a free breakfast on week 8. You don’t need to commit in advance, but if you’d like to register your help, or just want more info, please chat with Susan or Di or email us Beginners@dulwichparkrunners.com
A note on our Clubhouse
You will remember that we have been exploring the possibility of moving our clubhouse to the SMCC pavilion and we hope members have enjoyed seeing the pavilion on some of our Tuesday runs. After careful consideration and discussion with the cricket club the Committee has concluded that a move to the pavilion isn’t financially viable and so won’t be taking forward further exploration. Both clubs are keen to maintain our relationship and look at how we might come together as a community and use the space on an ad hoc basis. We will also be looking at how we make the most of the Trevor Bailey clubhouse. If you have any questions do get in touch with one of the Committee.
Race Achievements
Above is a pic of our bi-annual ‘Mobmatch’ (thanks Helen MB for your AI skills!) with Crystal Palace Fun Runners which we won convincingly 53-13. The test will be our away leg early next year (date TBC) when we are at Crystal Palace parkrun. The rest of the month was reasonably quiet with us seeking out the shady woods on more than one occasion! But Zach and Sara B started the month with the Islay Half Marathon up in a cooler Scotland – congratulations to Zach who managed an impressive PB (1:21:47) and broke his own Club Record by 5 seconds, and to Chris Knights who was 4th at a hot Noss Mayo Regatta Mini Marathon down in Devon. Chris Ince did the Streetchild Craft Half Marathon on Wimbledon Common, and Jamie Gibbs ran a couple of halves – in Richmond and then a meditative 13 laps of Dulwich Park!
Lots of us enjoyed in the ‘Seven Hills of Sydenham’ race (whilst celebrating Mark S’s birthday), with some participants prioritising hills and others prioritising hydration breaks! I’m sure we will be back next year, it was a super fun event.
Summer Parkrun Ladder
And a hugely impressive 131 members have been playing Parkrun Ladder. We started with our 5k championship on 9th May and covered 10 parkruns with the results from everyone’s 8 highest scoring weeks used to calculate the final count and the winner of the Summer 2026 edition. Tantalisingly close at the top – the top 3 will be announced at our Pizza social next Tuesday! Come along to find out who won – sneak preview that joint fourth went to….Chris Ince and Andrea Bauer – congratulations! An impressive 45 Dulwich personal bests were set with special congrats to Nuala who got 4, and Ilaria and Tamzin with 3 each. If you didn’t take part this time watch out for our Winter Ladder coming later in the year – it aims to provide a social focus, especially for newer runners from the Beginners Courses, and to add a bit of variety, bonus points are added for running at events further afield, celebrating member milestones and other random dates or place related themes. Thank you Gillian for organising such a fun event!
Upcoming Races
This Sunday is The Big Half with 25 members running and a special Sunday Run being organised to go and support. Download the Big Half app where you can track runners and there’s a WhatsApp group for anyone who wishes to chat re travel or the pub afterwards – we’ll be heading to The Admiral Hardy from 12 noon to recover and celebrate (runners and supporters welcome!). We will be celebrating with pizza at the Clubhouse next Tuesday after our social runs plus giving out long overdue medals for the 5k, 1 mile and 10k Club Championships, the parkrun Ladder awards and Summer League Attendance medals. Lots of us are running the Vitality 10k on 27th September and that’s also the date of the Eridge 10 for anyone who likes a trail run.
Autumn brings a flurry of Club Championships! Sunday 4th October is our 5 Mile race in Dulwich Park at 9.30am. The route will be the same as for our Summer League event which you can see here on Strava. We need a few volunteers – please let Lucy Ross know (WhatsApp or email lucy.ross@gmail.com) if you won’t be running and could help on the day. Sunday 18th October is our 10 mile champs at the Cabbage Patch 10 with over 90 of us entered. It’s one of the rare races where you can swap entries if you can no longer make it, so do watch out for any spares going on What’s App! And if you’re in the market for a training plan you’ve just about got time to ask the coaches at coach@dulwichparkrunners.co.uk.
Of course, autumn also heralds the return of mud – Saturday 14th November is our cross country championship at Morden Park and our first fixture is on 10th October. If you’ve never run cross country, all paces are very welcome. Races are normally around 5 miles and we always have a fantastic picnic afterwards. And finally a heads up that our Half Marathon Club Champs is at Paddock Wood on 14th March 2027 – enter here with early bird discount until the end of this year.
Lucy is firming up arrangements for our Away Weekend – we will be staying at the South Downs YHA from Friday 27th – Sunday 29th November and participating in the multi-distance RunRebel Sussex Downs Trail Runs. See last month’s newsletter for more detail and email/what’s app Lucy to express an interest in going or with any further questions.
Overall Attendance Award 2026
A reminder that in order to enter the DPR ballot for our England Athletics London Marathon place(s) 2027 you must have scored a minimum of 4 points by the time the ballot takes place (exact date tbc but still the chance to score at least 2 or 3 points beforehand). All the rules are here Attendance Award 2026 and the award will be presented at the Annual Dinner in 2027.
Thursday Improvers and Sunday Runs
Remember as well as our Tuesday Social Runs, we also get together on Thursdays and Sundays. Anyone running over 10 miles a week is welcome to join on Thursdays, please email coach@dulwichparkrunners.co.uk beforehand for full information and if you need help increasing your mileage so you can join us, also get in touch. This month we are back to “proper” running, hopefully using all the techniques we practised over the summer months. We’re on the track working on endurance speed, so great for slightly longer runs, including the Cabbage Patch 10. If you have any questions, or would like general coaching advice from any of the Coaches or Run Leaders, please email Susan, Tom, Katia or Zach at coach@dulwichparkrunners.co.uk
All are welcome on Sunday mornings – our DPR Sunday Social Runs are a brilliant, relaxed opportunity to get some miles in and run with other club members. We meet every week at 9.30am at Dulwich Park Café, with an invitation to join for coffee afterwards. We have a rota of 8k – 10k route suggestions, and whatever route we choose each week, shorter or longer versions are also available. All speeds & levels of fitness are catered for & equally welcome – we always have at a least a couple of people who will very happily run / jog / trot as gently, or as speedily, as required – nobody runs on their own! A huge thank you to Dominic Collard for leading an excellent August DPR members led route – with some joyful cross country (South London style) hills and equally joyful hill coaching ta’boot – remarkably colour co-ordinated pics above!
This month we have two DPR member-led and designed Sunday runs – alongside our usual weekly gentle and social Sunday jaunts! This Sunday as already mentioned Mark S will be leading DPR supporters all the way to Greenwich to cheer on our Big Half-ers, and of course to kindly help them celebrate after! And our second special run will be on September 20th when we join Oghene for Catford to the Creek. Oghene writes: We’ll meet at Catford Station, warm up our legs in Ladywell Fields, then head through Lewisham and Deptford via Brookmill Park and Greenwich. Once we reach the Thames, we’ll follow the river for a while – with the direction dictated by our legs and mood on the day. Why decide where we’re going when we can just keep running?! And, of course, after our 5-mile / 8km adventure, we’ll hunt down a well-deserved coffee and cake to finish…
More details about all our Sunday runs on the Sunday WhatsApp group – so make sure you’ve joined the DPR Sunday Social Run group!
Meet a Member
This month we meet the host of August’s Sunday Special Run, Dominic Collard!
Tell us about your running journey
I started running to follow a girl I fancied who was running the New York Marathon. She didn’t go, I did, the rest is history (minus the girl).
What’s your favourite thing about DPR?
My green hoodie. (ed: get yours here…)
Any tunes on whilst you run?
I never listen to music when running. Just the sounds of nature.
What’s your next running goal?
Having done the London Marathon this year I’ve been taking things easy. I’ve got the Fulham 10k in November, with wife and 2 sons.
When you’re not running, what are you doing?
Trying to keep my garden alive. Failing, albeit for a little pink rose hanging on for dear life.
What’s your fave post-run snack?
Ice cream. Post race, pre race, no race.