Twenty Miles River Thames and Richmond Park

The plan for today was to get up at 6 am and run ten miles before work and then another ten after work at 1 pm.

The morning alarm managed to wake me up but it failed to get me out of bed. I mean it was still dark. Whose idea was that?

So to make up the twenty miles I chose to double the length of the post-work run.

And it really was a fantastic run. I left work in Ladbroke Grove with no real plan of where I was heading. I had the intention of being on my feet for around three hours. Other than that I was busking it.

I headed south and west from Ladbroke Grove through Holland Park and Shepherds Bush towards the river at Hammersmith. I was vaguely thinking I might head downriver and cross over at Wandsworth Bridge when I realised I had never gone along the north bank in the opposite direction. So that's what I did.

I headed upriver, through West London and away from the centre. It's interesting that the further away the river gets from central London the more like a river it is. In some parts there were houseboats and boating clubs and boatbuilding and repair yards all along the banks. Anyway I just kept running, not forcing the pace at all, just running how I felt, and stopping now and again to scratch my head and puzzle out signposts and diversions. I got lost at one point and ended up following the Grand Union Canal, then I had to cast about to find the river again.

I crossed the Thames to the south side at Richmond Bridge and headed up Richmond Hill towards the Richmond Gate of Richmond Park. That's right, I got as far as Richmond.

I turned right into the park and took the long way round to Roehampton Gate. By the time I got home I had been running for three and a quarter hours. That's gotta be 20 miles.

It's been a long time since breakfast. And I had run out of porridge so I hadn't had my usual start to the day. 20 miles is a long way to go on three Weetabix.

Time for lunch.