To the 6 Boroughs

Day:         63

Distance: 29.07km

Time:       2:33:23 secs

Calories:  2,485

It's 6:45am. It's Sunday morning. This can only mean one thing - another long run. This time the training plan specifies "150 mins easy", which I estimate to be around 29km (or 18 miles for those Imperialists amongst you). As I enjoyed last Sunday's sightseeing tour I devised a similar(ish) route which takes in even more sights and takes me through six of London's 33 boroughs.

Before I get onto the actual run I'd like to briefly discuss hydration. For these longer runs I've generally been following the advice of other runners I know which says water is fine for runs up to 60 mins, but for those longer runs (which this most certainly is) you really need a sports drink. Up until this week I've been taking Lucozade Sport out with me, but my supplies had run out so I thought I'd make some bootleg sport drink mixture based on a recipe I found here:

"Marathon Moonshine" mix (makes 500ml)

125ml Orange and Mango squash (the brand is irrelevant but avoid sugar free)

375ml water

1/8 level tsp salt

It looks quite tasty up until the addition of the salt, but I guess that's in there to replace all the salts lost through sweating. I have to say, this moonshine is actually quite tasty (it dumps on Gatorade from a great height) and after the first couple of mouthfuls I can't taste the salt any more. Which is nice.

Anyway, onto the sightseeing tour. As with last week's run, I set off from home and run alongside Peckham Rye. I realised when I got to Rye Lane that I'd left a couple of landmarks out from this section of the run last week. Fans of 80s and 90s sitcoms will be pleased to know that there is both a Nags Head and a barbers called Desmonds in SE15. I'm not sure whether this is a case of life imitating art or vice versa.

My run followed the same route as last week until I reached the end of the Old Kent Road. Instead of heading through Borough towards the Millennium Bridge I instead turn towards Tower Bridge - possibly my favourite of all London's river crossings (yep, I'm sad enough to have a favourite bridge). 

Tower Bridge at 7:30am on Sunday 20th February 2011.
You don't normally see it this empty, let me tell you.

The bridge takes me from Southwark to Tower Hamlets and past the Tower of London - a favourite tourist attraction of mine when I was young (although I haven't been there in years). As I run past the Tower I enter the boundaries of the City of London head down Tower Hill and along Lower Thames Street where I catch the briefest of glimpses of the Monument on my right hand side. This flame-topped monument to the Great Fire of London was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and tourists are able to climb to the top of it and peer out over London for a mere £3. There's no time for that now though, as I've still got 21 kilometres to get through ...

I carry on past London Bridge and Southwark Bridge and then head down towards the river just before I get to the Millennium Bridge where I take this photo of the bridge and Tate Modern.

A view of the Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern from the North Bank
of the Thames. This photo captures the less than beautiful weather I
was running in.

Pretty much as soon as the photo is taken I have to take a slight diversion away from the river due to all the work that is going on at Blackfriars at the moment. I get back onto the Thames Path just past Blackfriars Bridge. I love following the Thames' meandering path through London and as I head West it takes me into the City of Westminster past the Houses of Parliament and down into Pimlico with its lovely garden squares and beautiful Regency houses. 

Around the 14km mark I stop very briefly to take another quick photo, which I'm really pleased with as it captures three iconic London images: the red telephone box, Battersea Power Station and a row of "Boris Bikes".

For the record, I'd have much preferred it if the new
bike scheme had been introduced under the former
Mayor and were known as "Ken Cycles".

I cross back over to the South Bank via Chelsea Bridge (not one of the most aesthetically pleasing of London's bridges) and find myself in Wandsworth for the briefest of moments before turning east and heading past Battersea Dogs and Cats Home towards Lambeth. I follow the curve of the Thames over to Blackfriars Bridge where I resurface from my riverside run and head for home.

With around 5 kilometres of the run left I can really feel my legs protesting and my pace slowing. Thankfully, the running playlist comes to my rescue. Now, Steve Jobs is undoubtedly a very clever man but I'm pretty sure that ipods don't yet have the capacity to judge moods and yet when I feel at my lowest ebb it rummages around the running playlist and plucks out the Vaccines' modern classic "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)". The song has the desired effect of reinvigorating a run which was in danger of collapse and helps me bring it all back home. 

Upon arrival my legs have turned to jelly - the first time they've felt like this in the 9 weeks in which I've been training for the marathon. I also discover, upon removing my trainers, that my left foot has been bleeding quite badly and although I'm too shattered to do anything about it I'm very lucky that Varoo steps in to help me out (and listen to me moaning about how much I ache). 

This was undoubtedly a challenging, but enjoyable, run. Being able to take in the sights of old London town is always a pleasure and to do it at such an early hour means that I have them all to myself. As well as the sightseeing I'm really pleased to see that Run Keeper has recorded my average speed as 5:17 mins/km - which is slightly quicker than the time I need to average in order to reach my goal of 3:40 mins for the London Marathon. I'm also pleased to see how many calories have been burned in pursuit of these 29 kilometres. According to Guideline Daily Amounts the average male should consume 2,500 calories per day. Seeing as I've burnt off 2,485 calories with this run does this mean I can gorge myself silly all day?