Here Comes the Run

Day:         70

Distance: 31.41km

Time:       2:42:07 secs

Calories:  2,389

If you've read yesterday's post you'll know that I was having difficulty sorting out a route for today's run. In the end, and with a little help from Varoo, I went with a new route that takes me round some more of London's tourist sights. It's not wildly different to other long runs that I've been doing, but the 5km long diversion into Westminster is new.

My preparation for this run started earlier in the week when I happened to speak to a colleague who ran the London Marathon last year. Rather than sports drinks (like the "Marathon Moonshine" I made last week) she uses gels. On her recommendation I thought I'd give them a go so I popped to the London Marathon store on Old Bailey one lunchtime. While there I picked up two Lucozade Carbohydrate Energy gels, which are what they dish out during the Marathon so it made sense to go with those. I also picked up a Lucozade cereal bar. I don't normally eat before heading out for these runs as I start so early, but these seemed like a convenient option.



Mmm ... carbohydrate gel and carbohydrate bar.
Never has the consumption of calories felt more
like a simple refuelling exercise.



I creep out of the flat at 6:45am leaving my wife fast asleep. It turns out later on that she was in such a deep sleep she didn't even hear me leave. I won't spend too long on the early part of the run as it's much the same as in previous weeks. Instead let's fast forward to around the 6km mark. I'd just run past Druid Street (which always makes me think of Getafix from the Asterix books) when I decided to go with a different river crossing this week. Despite being tantalisingly close to Tower Bridge I instead hang a left down Tooley Street which gives me a good view of how construction of the Shard is progressing. This building - which will be the tallest in the EU - is dividing opinion but I really like it and think it will be a prominent London landmark when it's completed in 2012.

The Shard, as it looked at 7:20am on 27th
February 2011.

Tooley Street takes me really near to Borough Market - one of my favourite parts of London - but it is London Bridge that I'm interested in today so I turn right and cross the oldest bridge in London. There has been a bridge on this site from the time of the Roman occupation (c.50 AD) and it stood as London's only bridge until one was built at Putney in the 18th Century.

Once on the north bank I head West into the City, past Bank and St Paul's and the Church of Scientology on Queen Victoria Street. It must have been too early For Tom Cruise, Beck et al as I don't see any celebrities heading in to pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster or whatever it is they believe in. Just past Blackfriars Bridge I head down towards the river, but unlike previous weeks I'm only going to be following it for a short distance because just after Embankment Station I turn right onto Northumberland Avenue. This road affords a splendid view of Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column - and all for just £160 in Monopoly money. Bargain.

Nelson surveying the scene over Trafalgar Square.
The National Gallery is in the background - go and
visit it. It's great.

At the end of Northumberland Avenue I turn left onto Whitehall, which takes me past Downing Street and down towards the Houses of Parliament. I am officially in what political commentators (and literally no-one else) call the "Westminster Village" but there's no fetes on the green, or vicars taking tea just some anti-war protesters maintaining their impressive vigil.

Turning right I head towards St James Park along the intriguingly named "Birdcage Walk". It's at this point, around an hour (or, 12km) into the run, that I decide to break out the first of the Lucozade gels and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that they're actually quite tasty. The consistency is odd, I'm not even sure how to describe it, and it needs to be washed down with a glug of water but all in all a not unpleasant experience.

At the end of Birdcage Walk I reach Buckingham Palace. I'm no Royalist but in the beautiful early morning sunshine the palace does look very impressive. Unlike the ridiculously early rising tourists with their cameras I'm not here to stand and admire it though, so I plough on up Constitution Hill and turn right onto Picadilly. This is where the Asics London 10k run starts, I've taken part in that event in each of the the last two years and would recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting, well organised 10k in London. After passing the Ritz I turn down St James's Street and onto Pall Mall which takes me back to Trafalgar Square where the Westminster loop concludes.

I've already written loads, so I won't dwell for too long on the remainder of the run. After Westminster I ran alongside the river to Vauxhall Bridge, crossed back over to the south bank and then headed home. In the last few long runs it has been during the last couple of kilometres when I've really started to feel the strain, but on this run I still felt good. In fact, when I arrived back home Varoo even said that I didn't look like a broken man this week. High praise indeed. I have no idea whether I feel good because of all the training I've done, the use of the Lucozade gels or something else but I think I'll be getting some more of those gels just in case.

This run means that I've now completed 10 weeks of the Guardian's 12 week marathon training guide. I've also raised more than £800 for Diabetes UK so far, but if you would like to help me to reach my goal of £1,000 worth of sponsorship please visit my JustGiving page.