We spent quite the period of time journeying around the United Kingdom during 2019. That was lots of fun of course, but it did give us a thought: perhaps there are some fun running opportunities closer to home? Perhaps we don’t need to brave the trains, planes or automobiles to get our running freak on.
Everything needs a bit of branding nowadays, so we thought we’d label our new plans for 2020 under the exciting title of: The Daft Runners London Series (cue dramatic music)! As part of this series we intend to run in every London Borough (33 in all), preferably at an event such as a Parkrun. At the same time, we hope to find some other, local hidden gems to share with you all.
So our first park run of the year is….Burgess Park! Admittedly that was obvious from the title. We rocked up after a quick journey on the tube to find a refreshingly busy start line on a surprisingly sunny day. It then occured to us that it was the first Park Run of the year, which explained all the keen runners with their New Year resolutions!
After a quick verbal tour of the park run by one of the kind volunteers, and an internal pep talk, we were off. Burgess Park is…well…lovely. There’s a long straight to start and finish of around 1km that tapers to an underpass, bit of a choke point, midway through. Then you take a sharp left turn and circle round the lake and rejoin the straight. Very picturesque indeed!
We also had the chance to see the quick runners (you know who you are) loop back round. I find it’s always interesting to see the more elite types as they sprint their hearts out. The nominated speaker at the start of the race had suggested giving them a high five. They did not look receptive to such an idea! We also had some mid-race entertainment from the local wildlife.
Pugilistic geese aside, I was extremely proud of this result, not only because we explored a new Park Run, but because I personally passed three prams during the run. Usually it’s the other way round, so it’s nice to get my own back a little (I know, they’re still much fitter than I am).
To round things off, we then had an exploratory run deep into south west London, following the Northern line past all the Clapham Common stations. It turns out a busy London highway isn’t quite as pleasant running as Burgess Park. Something to work on in the future.
Until the next Park Run!
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Events mentioned in this episode:
Burgess Parkrun – Event Link
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Daft Runners 