Race to Oxford

On a cold February morning, team GoodGym were not going to let some impending snowflakes get in there way of doing a run. The Race to Oxford was a concept of pitting the Southwest vs London sides of GoodGym in a sociable friendly challenge. The Race would consist of two cyclist groups, one from London and one from Bristol, they would set off at the same time alongside this there would be two sets of runs along the Thames all with the same destination in mind, The Punter Pub in Oxford all arriving around 3ish. Due to the unfortunate cold weather the ride was postponed however the runners were not put off and all in all 16 of us travelled alongside the River Thames.

The two runs started from either Culham (12.6 miles) or from Radley (6.2 miles). Both Courses went along the well-trodden Thames path, where we took in all matters of terrain including lush fields, woodlands, cycle paths all with some lovely views of the River Thames, oh and there was a little bit of mud. I initially led the Culham run before speedy map reader extraordinaire Rosie took the reins. Before we set off we had a special appearance from Bristols finest Matt Garnett who was meant to lead the Bristol bike ride but ditched the lycra for his runners to come along, pretty impressive stuff. Also on route we bumped into long distance specialist Becky Greenwood who thought 12.3 miles was not far enough and was taking on 20+ miles of Thames pathway.

Radley was led by Camdens Frances Powrie, where they also had a special guest of a swan joining them for part of the run. Despite the cloudy conditions we made swift progress through the path and although my previous estimates regarding the conditions of the path were slightly inaccurate we all made it round in and were welcomed into the Punter to a roaring fire and a lovely selection of beers and food which went down a treat. Although the conditions were far from warm (I mean February is meant to be warm right) the Thames looked stunning and had a blast running as always running with GoodGym Crew.

Before I sign off just want to say a massive thanks to Francis Powire for taking lead of the short run, Beth Hoskins and Jay for providing a support vehicle so we had dry clothes and shoes when we arrived, it was so useful thank you. Matt Garnett for his support coming along and helping out on the Bristol ride part. Fingers crossed we will see phase two nearer in the summer where bikes will take on the trainers. But for now the Thames Path is a corker, slightly muddy but a corker none the less

A cracking day out again GoodGym, nice one for being up for it. Tom