{"id":1314,"date":"2016-01-29T01:05:07","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T01:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/franz15\/?p=49"},"modified":"2016-01-29T01:05:07","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T01:05:07","slug":"ally-pally-lcl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2016\/01\/29\/ally-pally-lcl\/","title":{"rendered":"Ally Pally LCL (27\/01\/16)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">On Wednesday (it&#8217;s Friday today)\u00a0I participated in another London Colleges League race. This time, it took place in Alexandra Palace, or as others call it (myself included now), Ally Pally.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">This was the fourth and penultimate LCL race of the yearly series, but third for me.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.co.uk\/maps\/dir\/Imperial+College,+Kensington,+London+SW7+2AZ\/Alexandra+Park,+London\/@51.5506898,-0.2077433,12z\/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x48760567da220a01:0x31911b371c692e86!2m2!1d-0.1748772!2d51.4987997!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761bd5f846911b:0x9ec6bb878335452d!2m2!1d-0.1251525!2d51.5951505\">journey <\/a>there from South Kensington campus took about 50 minutes, including tube, national rail train and walking.\u00a0Upon arrival I noticed that the course already had red and yellow markers used to border the track. But what stood out most to me was the mud and slope of the terrain.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_53\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53\" style=\"width: 729px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/Cross-Country.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-53\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-53 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/Cross-Country.gif\" alt=\"Cross Country\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Imperial Ally Pally LCL race team. Credits: Harveen (club member &amp; friend)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">The run consisted of 3 laps around the marked course, each lap 2.2km long. This was my run, at least. The run for the girls consisted of 2 laps, same course.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">For this course, many of Imperial runners wore spikes, and I was one of them. They are new to me, as I never had to use them back home.\u00a0They come in varying sizes, but I feel my 9 mm spikes may not have been long enough.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">Throughout the race I tried to keep up with others beside me, who may be runners from the Imperial team or from other unis.\u00a0I find it motivating to keep going when another uni student is beside me, and as an Imperial representative, I don&#8217;t want to lose. As such times, I feel energy surging through me, and I feel energized to keep pushing.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">Just after finishing the race, a team mate of mine handed me a brownie, which was extra delicious at the time.\u00a0Our XC&amp;A club has the tradition to bring baked goods to races like this. I really like it, and I&#8217;ll try to bake something for the next LCL race.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">As expected, I was bathed in mud, or at least my legs were. I knew it would be a pain to wash everything when I got home, and it was.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_62\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/Imperial-Vest.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-62\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-62 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/Imperial-Vest-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Imperial Vest\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-62\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I had to change in the train station because I was so dirty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">After the LCL races, the club usually plans social events in places around London. Yesterday, the plan was to go to the Spoons (a pub) in Fullham Broadway, then for Karaoke at the Chelsea Pensioner, and finally to The Slug at Fulham, a bar, for late night drinks.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">Unfortunately, I had to wash all my clothes when I got back to my hall after the race, so I wasn&#8217;t able to make it to Spoons on time.\u00a0However, I did make it in time for the karaoke!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_54\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/12573930_10206941578395800_7970033797707958640_n.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-54\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-54 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/12573930_10206941578395800_7970033797707958640_n.jpg\" alt=\"12573930_10206941578395800_7970033797707958640_n\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-54\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It was a full room in the Chelsea Pensioner karaoke room. Credits: Anna (club member &amp; serious runner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_55\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-55\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/12647451_10206941580075842_2991945203589144467_n.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-55\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-55 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/files\/2016\/01\/12647451_10206941580075842_2991945203589144467_n.jpg\" alt=\"12647451_10206941580075842_2991945203589144467_n\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-55\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We run, we don&#8217;t sing. (We were horrible). Credits: Anna.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">It was very fun and it made me remember about last week Friday, where the Bioengineering Society organized a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/studentblogs\/franz15\/2016\/01\/31\/bioeng-dpt-winter-bash\/\">karaoke night<\/a> in our building.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">After the karaoke, I headed home, so I didn&#8217;t get to go to the Slug.\u00a0I heard that the rest that went had a lot of fun! As for me, I was glad to be in bed; I was very tired.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">The next race for me will be the British Universities &amp; Colleges Sport (BUCS) race in Gloucester. I have never been out of London, so this should be a new experience for me, and I am very excited! We will be leaving next week Friday, and arriving back in London in time for lectures on Sunday the 7th of November.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">If you&#8217;re interested in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.union.ic.ac.uk\/acc\/crosscountry\/\">Cross Country &amp; Athletics<\/a> (XC&amp;A) club, drop a comment down below and I&#8217;ll answer ASAP!<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">Until the next one,<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-GB\" style=\"margin: 0in;font-family: Calibri;font-size: 11.0pt\">Franz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a very muddy race, but then again, when are they not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1043,"featured_media":1300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179365,1],"tags":[8619,11630,182302,182676,182857,183131],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cross-country-athletics","category-uncategorized","tag-cross-country","tag-imperial-college-london","tag-lcl","tag-london-colleges-league","tag-muddy","tag-mudisgood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1043"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}