I think I was out the door about 7:30am, perhaps the earliest departure in London to that point. I was pretty excited as I had planned an hour and a half run along the side of the Thames and various landmarks in London city. First I trained to Elephant & Castle tube station, ran up London Rd and over Waterloo Bridge to the Westminster tube station. Waving goodbye to Big Ben and the London Eye over the river I ran along the Thames to the east following a similar router that our Thames ferry journey had taken. As you can see by the photos it was a beauitful day …

 

I began to wonder what was going on when I noticed that some of the roads were closed so I asked someone and found that the 10 km London run was to take place that morning starting at 10am. It was already getting hot and it was only about 8:30am. I’d be long gone before the event which I thought would be terrible in the hot sun but kind of cool if I could have taken part in it like the run in Barcelona. Thanks to that event the main road along the Thames, I think called the Victoria Embankment, was closed and better still there was a row of Portaloo’s which I could make use of! It was as though they set this whole place up just for my humble run …

I continued along passing Blackfriars Bridge, and then the Millennium Bridge (built for the millennium celebrations and closed the next day due to instability – when too many people walked on it at the same time it began to swing dangerously). I then passed London Bridge (which I think personally should have a tonne of money spent on it to make it fancier), waved to the HMS Belfast as I passed it and finally I reached my mid-way point, the London Tower. At that point I was very satisfied as I wasn’t sure I would make it to the Tower of London. I ran around the edge of it and over the magnificent Tower Bridge to the other side of the Thames, I think called the Southside. Now that I was on my return trip I could tell myself that it wasn’t too bad and I had to keep going.

When I reach the Millennium Bridge again I decided to run over it, the sides of the bridge didn’t seem high enough so I kept away from them in case a gust of wind blew me over. Back along the Thames westward I ran and then after a quick visit to the Portaloo’s again (which were so hot inside by then I wondered if people needed to leave the doors open for safety) I decided to join another guy running on the main road. That was a good move as we had a pleasant chat (I was surprised I could talk and run at the same time) and the conversation took my mind of how tired I felt. We made it to the Westminster tube station at which point he had planned to walk a while so I caught the tube home. It would have to be one of my favourite runs on this trip on a par with Venice and Rome. Here I am outside our house having just walked quickly home after my run. I look pretty skinny here, maybe I need some more muffins …

(Sunday, 27 May 2012)