DPR November Newsletter
It’s when the dark nights arrive that you really appreciate DPR and the friendly group runs which keep your mileage up through the winter! We’ve got lots of wintry treats ahead with the new Parkrun Ladder, a film night, more cross country and our legendary December Tuesdays – get off the sofa and fill your diary up!
October wasn’t exactly quiet with an excellent, informative talk on nutrition from Ronnie – the slides are well worth a read. And a zillion people got a half marathon under their belts – congratulations to Nat and Gillian who did Cardiff, Lucy, Clare and Chris who ran Valencia, Anna did Manchester, Sally was in Oxford, Will, Xavier, Ian and Usman ran the Royal Parks, Jess ran Estepona, Andrea did Leipzig, and Chris also ran the Camino Epping 25k! But the award for most km ran went to Faheem who not only ran the Lyon Marathon but also the Maverick X-trail Jurassic Coast (a whopping 52K) just two weeks later – pic below. Congrats to everyone!
Our 5 mile Club Championship took place on a beautiful October morning – see pic below. We had 32 members running our Summer League route with thanks to our brilliant volunteer marshals. Our gold medal winners were Charlotte and James B-A, silver Alicky and Tim, and bronze Ib and Adam. Our age-graded medal winners were Rosemary with a stupendous 83.03%, then Alicky, Andrea B, Tim and James B-A. We also had our 10 mile Club Championship at the Cabbage Patch 10 with 53 members taking part on another lovely autumnal morning. There were many PBs but gold went to Tim and Alicky, silver James B-A and Martha, and bronze to Chris K and Ib. Our age-graded medal winners were Alicky, Tim, Susan, Andrea B, and Gillian. Full results of all Club races can be seen on our website here.
October saw us taking part in the first 2026/27 Surrey League XC fixture at Reigate Priory. It was a really great (and very un-muddy) start to the season with the women coming 5th and the men 7th. Hopefully we can keep it up and do even better as the season progresses. The same applies to the cake contributions!
Many thanks to everyone who turned up to help run with our Beginners who have now graduated. We hope to see some of the at the club in the near future, so please look out for them and welcome them into DPR. And finally a big welcome to our recent new members Jonny Tansley, James Astles, Rebecca Hodges, Hermione Gough, Jane Twibill and Anna Stevens.
Remember for November
We have a big group heading to Malaga this weekend to take part in the Half Marathon, enjoy sunshine, vermut and tapas, and hopefully avoid any public toilet or police related incidents. You can track them on the Generali Marathon Malaga app by searching for Dulwich Park Runners. Wishing everyone a super time and a great race on Sunday! On Saturday 7th November we have 10 members taking part in the London Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields. The women are running at 1.15pm and the men at 2pm. They’d love some support if anyone would like to go and give them a cheer. On Sunday 8th there’s the Beckenham Charity Trail 10k in Beckenham Place Park. This is an excellent run starting at 11.02am with tea and cake afterwards in aid of local charities. Entries are still open! https://www.beckenhamrunning.co.uk/races/trail
On Saturday 14th November it’s our second Surrey League fixture of the season at Morden Park which is our Cross Country Club Championship. Please note this is NOT Morden Hall Park – they are two completely different parks. The women are running 6k at 12 noon and the men are running 8k at 1pm. As always, please make sure you are wearing our standard (Scimitar) Club kit as this is a Surrey League requirement. And remember your race number if you took it home after the Reigate fixture last month! More details of the event can be found on the Surrey League website here
https://www.surreyleague.org/match/200/
Heads up that the Winter Parkrun Ladder begins on 21st November, who will take Ilaria’s crown – look out for more instructions on WhatsApp! And on Wednesday 25th November we have partnered with the RunNation Film Festival to bring you the best short films about running from across the world. The films span local legends, global journeys, and quiet moments of personal triumph. And we’ll be doing the London Marathon draw in the interval! It’s at the Crown and Greyhound at 730pm. The cross country at Morden is your last chance to get attendance points for the marathon ballot you can see details of the Attendance Award and how to earn your points in this doc FINALAttendance Award 2026 (002).
Finally in November is our Sussex Weekend – we have 20 people signed up for what should be a great weekend staying at the South Downs YHA 27th – 29th November and taking part in the RunRebel trail series on the Saturday morning. If you’re interested in joining please message Lucy Ross or email lucy.ross@gmail.com.
And never fear, DPR will be going strong in December with the Dash and our Coaching Surgery on the 1st – look out for sign up on WhatsApp nearer the time, or contact the coaches and run leaders on coach@dulwichparkrunners.co.uk. Later in the month we will have the Christmas Lights run and the Turkey Trot – look out for more details soon!
Looking ahead to 2027
If you’re someone who already has a diary for the New Year, you’re in luck! We also want to hear your views on how we can be a better club so look out for a short survey coming your way in the middle of November.
What better way to start the new year than the Tadworth 10 on Sunday 3rd January? 10k or 10 miles? That’s up to you. It’s a really great race starting and finishing at Epsom Race Course with good warm space to hang out in before and after and a lovely pub just across the road for a well-deserved roast afterwards. Sign up here
It’s our Annual Quiz with quiz master Susie at the Trevor Bailey Sports Club on 16th January! A rare DPR Triple will be available that weekend with parkrun, cross country and the quiz all on one day!
Sunday 7th February sees the return of the super fun Dash for the Splash on Wimbledon Common. This is an all-terrain 10k race with a little splash and a sticky toffee pudding at the end. It is £20 to enter until 11th January so get booking!
https://www.dashforthesplash.com/
And it’s our AGM on the 9th February at the Crown and Greyhound after our regular Tuesday run – as always we’ll also be looking for new faces to help us run the club. If you can offer some of your time we’d love to hear from you. Just have a chat with any of our lovely committee members.
Our half marathon Club Championship for next year is Paddock Wood on Sunday 14th March. Enter here with the early bird discount available until the end of this year. As a very worthwhile bonus we are offering a £15 subsidy which can be claimed once you have completed the race, for those who enter by 31st December 2026. Effectively this means a bargain £15 entry with your EA licence number! And if you’ve entered now is the time to start thinking about whether you are ready to start a training schedule. Talk to the coaches in plenty of time either by email or at the surgery in December.
DPR Sundays and Thursdays
Our 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 and levels of fitness are catered for and are 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!
Thank you to Lucy Ross for leading our October DPR Members designed route, and answering all the questions, including: “How much does a DPR Sunday run group weigh?” and “How long might it take said group to get to the centre of one of London’s largest mazes?!”. As fun and as informative as ever – pics above!
And on 22nd November Sarah McPoland leads her self designed and led run – Pictures in Motion: From Street Art to Old Masters – Inspiration in Reverse. Sarah writes: “Beginning at East Dulwich Station, this unconventional, art-based route weaves through local streets to explore highlights of Dulwich Outdoor Gallery. Discover striking murals and hidden works by street artists including Stik, Conor Harrington, Phlegm and ROA before enjoying a leafy final segment through Dulwich Park culminating at Dulwich Picture Gallery for well-deserved coffee, cake and chats!”. Make sure you’re added to the DPR Sunday Social Run WhatsApp group for more information about this, and all our Sunday runs!
Remember DPR also runs on Thursdays at Improver Sessions. Anyone running over 10 miles a week is welcome to join – 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. In November and December we’ll be off the track and onto the hills! 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.
WhatsApp Groups!
Some people love them, some people hate them, DPR has a lot of them. A quick primer on our various WhatsApp groups so you can decide what to join and what to mute.
The must have
The only one that you really need is our DPR Announcements group – content only comes from committee members, there’s no chat or reply function – it’s simply the must read announcements for the week. We won’t repeat messages put on here on any of the other groups.
The one which splits the room
Then we have our DPR General Chat which is the group where anyone can ask a question of the group and connect with each other. It’s fair to say all sorts of things get posted here, and quite often there are flurries of messages – there’s well over 100 people on it. If that’s not for you feel free to leave or mute – we promise you won’t miss anything critical. But if you’re happy to join in the fun, please get involved and post your medal pics, running brags and see how many crying-with-laughter emojis you can get on your bad jokes! We try and keep it vaguely running or DPR related though – we don’t want to turn into another East Dulwich Forum!
The ones for cross-country
As it’s the season a reminder to sign up for these – there’s a men’s and a women’s! A reminder that these are free (around 5 mile) races across South London over the winter months often in beautiful woods and parks, with a varied amount of mud depending on recent rainfall, and always a picnic (and more often a pint) afterwards.
The one for Sunday runs
Darren organises our weekly Sunday run routes and they are posted here along with logistics on the day, and the almost always mandatory Sunday Selfie Pic.
The one for Thursday Improvers
Our Thursday Improvers sessions run by Coach Susan are available to those running more than 10 miles a week and are either on Dulwich College track or on various hills around Dulwich. If you want to join email Susan at coach@dulwichparkrunners.com and she will let you into the group once you’ve attended. The group is only for last minute info about meeting – no chat, no photos and she chucks people out if you’re not attending – you have been warned!
The one for Tuesday 630pm runs
We always have Tuesday social runs at 630pm and 730pm and all paces are catered for at both. There is a specific 630pm WhatsApp group as some like to confirm who’s going to motivate them to turn up! No need to join though – just turn up at 630pm and you’ll always find friendly faces.
The ones for specific events
We will often set up a group for an event where lots of us are attending like Malaga, or the Sussex weekend, or for races like the Big Half.
And if WhatsApp isn’t your thing, you can always rely on the newsletter and our club events page on the website which we always keep updated!
Meet a Member
This month we meet Ruth Wise.
Tell us about your running journey
I started running about 10 years ago, initially running short distances on my journey to work in Woolwich. A couple of women I knew started running along the Thames pathway at lunchtimes and invited me to join them. It was a great de-stressor and I enjoyed being outside in the fresh air. I did my first local Peckham parkrun, in August 2016. I retired from work in 2020 and while everyone seemed to be out running during the pandemic, I stopped! I picked it up again a couple of years later, running 2-3 times a week on my own, always first thing in the morning. I also entered a few 10k races organised by ‘RunThrough’ and then in October 2024 ran my first half-marathon and was amazed and delighted to have completed it.
Mark Schofield, my neighbour (and long-standing DPR member) recommended I join DPR. I was very hesitant and nervous about running with others and not being able to keep up. He reassured me this wouldn’t be the case so I took the plunge and did a couple of trial runs in April 2025. I haven’t looked back.
What is your favourite thing about DPR?
My favourite thing about DPR is the friendly and welcoming people. I also massively appreciate the running and social opportunities the club provides. I could never have imagined that running in the dark on winter evenings could be so enjoyable!
What is your fave running tune?
I think I’m what is referred to as a ‘naked runner’! I have never listened to music when running.
What is your next running goal?
To run my first half-marathon outside the UK in Malaga!
When you’re not running what are you doing?
I like most activities such as walking and cycling that take place outside. I enjoy gardening and on Wednesdays am a garden volunteer at the Horniman Gardens.
What is your fave post-run snack?
Coffee with a peanut butter and jam sandwich.