Battersea Park Half Marathon

Pre-race team picture. From top left: Annabel Lake, Andrea Varazzi, Anthony De Lorenzo, Nadia Abraham, Jerome Scott-Blount. Bottom Row from left: Sha Hussain, Chessy Teng, Jess Fraser, and Phoebe Aldrich.

As we continue building towards our spring races—Brighton, Paris, and London—eight of my athletes and I took on the Battersea Park Half Marathon this past Saturday (08/03/2025).

The sun came out smiling, and off we went to complete 8.75 repetitive laps around a 2.4K loop. It’s been a great training block for most of us so far, with plenty of Zone 2 runs, interval training at half-marathon/marathon pace, as well as Fartleks and tempo runs.

We started with a 3K warm-up, practised some running drills under the bandstand, and then I gave my team talk, which went something like this:

“Drop the burden of expectation from your shoulders and focus on enjoying the journey of 21.1K. You’ve done the training—now is the time to embrace your victory lap with a smile. Relax your shoulders, be the best you can be, and that will be enough.

You are strong, you are capable, and you are enough!”

Off we went, each running the best we could on the day—and the results spoke for themselves: 7 out of 9 of us achieved a new personal record in the half-marathon distance.

Jerome Scott-Blount: knocked four mins off his previous best from Sept. 2024 at The Big Half.

Jess Fraser shaved off 2 mins and 30 seconds off her previous best from Sept. 2024 at The Big Half.

Chessy Teng shaved 14 minutes off her previous half time, coming in under 90 minutes.

New records of between 2 minutes and up-to 25 minutes were achieved during the race. 🤩

This bodes well for the upcoming marathons, and I cannot wait to see each of my athletes rise to their true potential when they reach the start line of their respective races.

Always grateful for the trust my athletes put in me!

Mindset & Run Coach
Sha Hussain 🩵