St Mary's Clinic Host Training Run for Richmond Running Festival

St Mary’s Clinic, in partnership with Wimbledon Clinics, hosted the first in a series of training runs at St Mary’s University, Twickenham on Saturday 6^th June, as part of the build up to this year’s Richmond Running Festival. The Richmond Running Festival, held annually in September, consists of a half marathon, 10km and an afternoon of children’s races. Race Organiser at the festival Tom Bedford welcomed elite international athletes Jemma Simpson, Scott Overall and Mark Draper to lead the three training groups. Over 30 beginner and intermediate runners attended the session. Starting from St Mary’s, the runners took part in a training run around Bushy Park. St Mary’s Clinic Physiotherapist Rory Brown and Wimbledon Clinic’s Sports Medicine Consultant Dr Peter Thomson were on hand to advise runners on avoiding injuries and how to deal with little niggles as they start increasing their training. St Mary’s Clinic dietitian Louise Davey also spoke to runners about nutrition and hydration. Louise provided homemade isotonic drinks and energy balls; which proved very popular, with one runner stating, “It's refreshing to focus on practical food advice rather than sports supplements”. Following the run, attendees were able to network and discuss their goals in the build up to the festival and students from the BSc Sport Rehabilitation programme and the Sports Massage short course provided free sports massages. The next training run will be on July 11^th at St Mary’s Strawberry Hill Campus. The event is free and open to runners taking part in the Richmond Running Festival, please visit the booking website for further information.