Running London: all 12 South London Boroughs Completed!

I got given the 'Runners's Guide to London' by Hayden Shearman for Christmas, with its promise of  '300 pages, over 120 runs, 100s of photos, 100-odd maps, trails, parks, canals, pathways, athletics tracks, indoor tracks, races, clubs, history, interviews with local legends ... everything RUNNING and LONDON is in this book'.

It's a well-designed book, with full colour photos and maps on every page. But for me the test for a London book is whether its coverage extends to all parts the city, not just the usual tourist areas covered by various types of guide books. In particular, the South East London area where I live is often overlooked in 'London' books other than a brief mention of Greenwich. I'm glad to say that the 'Runners Guide to London' scores very postively on this score, with a decent South East section matching those for all other parts of London, each of which includes a mixture of recommended running hot spots (such as parks, hillls and woods) with longer routes. For South East London for instance the latter includes The Green Chain and The Waterlink Way from Sydenham to Deptford Creek. There is a also a section on the capital's greatest route of all - The Thames Path.  I  recommend this book whether you are a runner living in London, or you're just visiting and want to explore the city on foot - get a copy here.

Run Every Borough Challenge

One idea in the book is the 'Run Every Borough Challenge'. London is divided into 33 local government areas - 32 boroughs plus the City of London. The challenge is simply to 'Find somewhere beautiful  to run in every borough in London', in the process maybe exploring parts of the city that even the born and bred Londoner might not be familiar with.

I quickly worked out that I had run in 16 of the 33 boroughs, including 10 of 12 located south of the River Thames. So today I decided to complete the southern part of the challenge by running in the London Boroughs of Sutton and Kingston.

In the former I went for a four mile run along the River Wandle trail, starting out in Beddington Park.

A bridge over the River Wandle in Beddington Park

In the park, the river feeds a large pond and is also diverted into a narrow stream with some picturesque bridges.

Beddington Park

 I followed the river up as far as the wildfowl-rich Waddon ponds and then headed back.

Waddon Ponds

Afterwards I headed on to Malden in Kingston, where I ran  for a bit along another London river, the Hogsmill. The run was a little disappointing, mainly because what looked on the map like a good route along the river was actually interrupted by the impossible to cross A3 road. Eventually I found a subway but I spent much of the run on suburban streets trying to find a way to the river, and the section I ran had a muddy/slippery path.  But I did my four miles on the streets of Kingston borough, so that's another one on the list. 

The Hogsmill River in Elmbridge Meadows (behind Elmbridge Avenue).

So here's my progress in the Run Every Borough Challenge so far (runs completed in each borough in brackets):

South of the River-

Lambeth  (Streatham Common cross country, Clapham Common 10k, Brockwell Park)

Southwark  (Southwark parkrun, Peckham Rye parkrun, Dulwich parkrun, Burgess parkrun)

Bromley  (Crystal Palace parkrun, start of Assembly League race in Beckenham, Kent Vets XC at Sparrows Den)

Lewisham  (Hilly Fields parkrun, Ladywell track etc)

Wandsworth (Battersea Park Assembly League race)

Greenwich  (Greenwich Peninsula Assembly League race, start of London Marathon)

Croydon (Croydon Half, Farthing Downs cross country)

Richmond (Richmond Park 10k, Surrey League cross country, Bushy parkrun)

Bexley (Sidcup 10 mile)

Merton (Mitcham Common cross country, Wimbledon Common cross country)

Kingston (Hogsmill river)

Sutton (Wandle river run)

North of the River -

City of London  (City of London Mile, London Marathon)

City of Westminster (London Marathon finish, Regents Park 10k)

Tower Hamlets  (Victoria Park Assembly League race)

Hackney (Hackney Marshes 5k)

Newham (ran to Olympic Stadium during canal runs)

Camden (Parliament Hill cross country)

Still to do (all North of the River):

Kensington and Chelsea

Hammersmith and Fulham

Islington

Brent

Ealing

Hounslow

Havering

Barking and Dagenham

Redbridge

Waltham Forest

Haringey

Enfield

Barnet

Harrow

Hillingdon

Clearly going to have to get out to the far east and west across the river. Luckily there's a good google map showing all the boundaries, not to mention some good destinations in The Runners Guide to London.

Back to Parliament Hill: South of England Cross Country Championships 2016

The 2016 South of England Cross Country Championships took place at Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath on Saturday 30th January, with 3099 runners finishing 10 races for males and females of various ages.

Headlines in terms of the results were that Jonathan Hay (Aldershot) won the men's senior title, ahead of Chris Zablocki (Chichester) and Thames Valley Harriers' Antonio Silva. Highgate Harriers - for whom Hampstead Heath is home turf - won the team competition, with Serpentine Running Club in 2nd  place and Bedford & County AC 3rd.

Senior women heading up first hill

Naomi Taschimowitz (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) was women's champion, with Svenja Abel (Highgate) nine seconds behind and Georgie Bruinvels (Aldershot) third. Aldershot, Farnham & District AC were winning women's team, followed by Serpentine and Herne Hill Harriers.

Good performances too from Kent AC (my club), with the men's senior team in 5th place  (out of 70) and the women's team coming 9th in our first ever year of fielding a full women's team. We also had success in the junior races with Ollie Bright coming 7th in the U13 boys and Isabel Bradley in  30th place in the Under-20s women (full results at South of England Athletics Association).

So at the front of the races there were some top athletes, but for the rest of us it was the challenge of doing our best over one of the most challenging cross country courses, in one the sport's spiritual homes.

Senior women's race start

I ran in the Nationals here last year, but found the Southerns tougher as it was over three laps instead of two - official distance was 15k (9.3 miles). Although my Garmin made it slightly less, in effort level terms it was up there with a half marathon. I love watching the races heading up from the start by Parliament Hill Lido with the city skyline behind them, but the famous long uphill start isn't as daunting as it seems when you're running. The adrenalin, the crowd and and the tightly packed field carry you up to the top.

Under-20s men on first hill

It's as the course heads downhill to the right that the going really starts to get tough with a long section of heavy, ankle deep mud that continues as the route turns and heads up the slope. There's another energy-draining section about half way round the lap, deep in the woods wading through slurry and leading straight onto a steep slippery hill. After that the rest of the lap is on relatively solid ground, albeit with some sticky patches, and rejoins the starting hill to begin  the next lap towards the top of the slope

On the third and final lap there's a long descent down to the finishing stretch, right by Parliament Hill Fields Athletics Track. Then you get to go to the pub... in our case The Assembly House in Kentish Town, not sure if it got drunk dry as it did last year after the Nationals, but they'd certainly run out of some beers by the time I left (and that was quite early on).

The course

Club banners on the hillside - pictured here include Highgate Harriers, Southampton Athletic Club, Luton AC, Herts Phoenix AC, Wells City Harriers, Torbay AC, Basingstoke and Mid Herts AC, Cambrdge and Coleridge AC and St Albans AC.

Kent AC camped out on the heath

The indefatigable Mark Hookway from Tonbirdge AC has posted videos of all ten races here. Cruelly the men's senior footage starts with the most difficult section - hell in the woods (actually this is the first lap, it got a lot worse as the mud became more churned up). My only thought at this point was just keep running, however slowly...

Parliament Hill Legends

There's a whole lot of history, folklore and legends associated with Parliament Hill. Is the mound to the north of the hill really ‘Boedicea’s Grave’? (No). Did Highwayman Dick Turpin hang out in the area? (Possibly). Is the Hill named after the Parliamentary/anti-Royalist forces who occupied it during the English Civil War? (probably).

But in athletics terms, the Hill has its own legends - Brendan Foster winning the  English National Cross Country Championships there in 1977, Mo Farah winning the Nationals Junior Men's race in 2003, and many more. 

Another legend was present on Saturday and said a few words - David Bedford, who won the National XC at Parliament Hill in 1973, as well as the London Cross Country champs there several times. There's British Movietone footage of him winning the London XC champs in 1973, crossing the line with his pet labrador, Snoopy:

... and also of another Bedford victory in the same competition, I believe from 1974:

David Bedford after winning at Parliament Hill in 1974 (?)

Surrey League Cross Country at Mitcham Common

The third match in this season's Surrey League men's cross country took place at Mitcham Common on 16 January 2016, with 196 runners from the nine Division One clubs. It was another victory for Kent AC (my club) - now top of the league having won it for the last three seasons-  with Hercules Wimbledon in 2nd and South London Harriers 3rd on the day. Kent AC's John Gilbert won the race, with a six second lead over Belgrave Harriers' Paskar Owor, followed by Chris Greenwood (Kent AC). 

The course was three laps (5.3 miles) of the eastern part of the Common - once upon a time the home of a number of football pitches, it was landscaped in the 1980s with the creation of some artificial hills which certainly make for a more interesting cross country course. None of the hills was particularly taxing, but they did have a cumulative effect. The ground still had the odd patch of ice before the race, but got wet and muddy in places as it thawed. As a guide to the Common puts it 'Around the foot of the hills, parcels of wetland have survived' and our feet certainly found at least one of those parcels.

Inspecting the Mitcham mountains and iced up Bidders Pond before the race

Changing facilities were at the Mill House Ecology Centre, where race hosts Clapham Chasers put on one of the finest post-race spread of cakes I have come across- Kent AC may have won the race, but the Chasers definitely won the cakes.

There's plenty of running history in this area. The following report describes an epic Boxing Day Hare and Hounds race in December 1868 organised by Surrey Athletic Club. The run, which started at the Greyhound in Streatham, covered around 16 miles including Tooting Common, Wandsworth Common, Wimbledon, Thornton Heath, 'round Mithcham Common to Beddington' and then back for  the 'plain but substantial fare placed before them by the landlord of the Greyhound Hotel'.

Burns Night Running Thoughts

I've had the (vegetarian) haggis and have the bottle of Bruichladdich ready to tuck into for Burns Night. Don't think I'll be doing any running, but pleased to see that in Westbrook, Maine (USA) they held a Robert Burns 10k Road Race  in the snow last night with more than 100 runners, some  kilt clad, raising money for a local school:

'"I like Robert Burns a lot," co-director of the 10k, Ned Swain, said as he explained why he chose to name the race after the late poet. "It's a holiday that doesn't have much associated with it aside from haggis and kilts and his poetry. How can you hate that?" (Runners don kilts for Robert Burns 10k)

Not aware of any Burns running poems as such, but I think these lines are inspirational enough for all those who 'drudge an' drive thro' wet and dry': 

'What tho', like commoners of air, 

We wander out, we know not where, 

But either house or hal', 

Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods, 

The sweeping vales, and foaming floods, 

Are free alike to all. 

In days when daisies deck the ground, 

And blackbirds whistle clear, 

With honest joy our hearts will bound, 

To see the coming year...


Think ye, that sic as you and I,
Wha drudge and drive thro' wet and dry,
Wi' never ceasing toil;
Think ye, are we less blest than they,
Wha scarcely tent us in their way,
As hardly worth their while?'

(Epistle to Davie, a Brother Poet) 

Bagpipes at the finish line (photo from Robert Burns 10k facebook page)

More running related literature:

Jack Kerouac running down a mountain

'These forms who hasten by' - runners on the Pilgrims Way, 1920s

'You just had to run' - Karl Ove Knausgaard

Morrissey - List of the Lost

Running in the Railway Children

A Midsummer Night's Running

Running to Paradise - W B Yeats

The Sky of a Saturday Morning - John Updike

The Road is a Strange Country - Rebecca Solnit

The Runner - W H Auden

Once a Runner - John L Parker jr

Louisa May Alcott - 'A Joy to Run'

NZ women reclaim the streets after runner is killed

A couple of hundred women took part in a 5k run last Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand, following the recent murder of a woman out running in the city. The organisers of the Run for Her event declared it was 'about getting together a crew of girls to reclaim the streets of Auckland. Let's run in honor, let's run with freedom and run because running is a gift that should not be limited by barriers'. Further events are planned. 

41-year-old Jo Pert was apparently stabbed to death while out running on January 7th. A man has been arrested in connection with her death. Jo, who leaves behind two children, had previously lived in London.

See 'We have a right to run on these streets – it's the rapists and murderers who are out of step' by Alice Peacock

Kent County Cross Country at Brands Hatch

Last Saturday was a big day in British cross country. There was the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country in Holyrood Park, with some fine performances including from Alex Yee (a member of my club, Kent AC) who won the junior race for Great Britain. On the same day, various 2016 County championships were taking place across the country. I took part in the Kent Cross Country Championships held at Brands Hatch.

The course was set up in fields next to the famous motor sport racing track, and while the speed might not have have been quite up with the golden age of Barry Sheene and James Hunt, there was some good running.

Start of the women's senior race (photo from extensive gallery at Kent & Sussex Courier)

The men's senior race was won by John Gilbert (Kent AC), with Max Nicholls (Tonbridge AC) in second place and Chris Greenwood (Kent AC) in third. As Max sometimes joins in the training sessions at Kent AC I am taking that as a clean sweep for the Ladywell track crew. In the women's senior race, Ashley Gibson (Tonbridge AC) was the winner, followed by Amy Clements (Kent AC) and Bryony Proctor (Aldershot Farnham & District).

Men's top three: Chris Greenwood, John Gilbert and Max Nicholls

Almost as glamorous, Motorbike champion Barry Sheene and Formula One driver James Hunt at Brands Hatch in the 1970s,  with Sheene's partner Stephanie Mclean

In the men's team competitions there were two trophies up for grab: the '6 to score' (i.e. based on position of first six finishers for each team) and '12 to score'. The results were the same in both - 1. Tonbridge AC; 2. Kent AC; 3. Medway & Maidstone AC.

In the women's team competition, Tonbridge won the 'three to score' followed by Paddock Wood AC and Blackheath & Bromley Harriers, while in the '6 to score' Tonbridge were followed by Blackheath & Bromley with Kent AC in third.  There were also various Junior races - full results here. So well done Tonbridge, a club to beat for the rest of us.

The course

The course was over four laps (for the men) of a grassy/muddy field, at the top of a hill so fairly exposed to the elements. There was a stinging shower just after the start that was one of the most intense I've endured, and it was raining on and off for most of the races. Although there were no spectacular hills, there were a couple of long grinding ascents which took their toll. I finished towards the back but wasn't quite as sluggish as on my previous outing in the South of the Thames.

Anyway everyone has their personal race to run, and on the particularly muddy finishing strait I overtook a Beckenham runner who I had been gaining on, and hearing his efforts behind me to regain position spurred me on to a final sprint overtaking a Dartford Road Runner almost on the line. When I got my breath back I realized that the Beckenham guy was Paul who does the excellent Running Past blog, so it was a bit of a South London running bloggers face off! Of course from reading his blog I know that he would no doubt have beaten me at full fitness, given that he was almost killed when run over last year. Paul has written his own account of the race here. 

Kent AC's race report here

The course was just to the north of the motor racing track

History

I believe Saturday was the first cross country race to be held at Brands Hatch for some time, but in some ways it was a return to the early days of sport at that location. As Paul mentions at his blog, Brands Hatch started out as a cycling venue in the 1920s and several accounts mention that the first proper race held there was a four mile race between cyclists and cross country runners.  Racing Circuits Info dates this to 1928 and says that 'Rather surprisingly, the runners won, although they did have the advantage of having Australian world champion Jackie Hoobin among their number'. I'm slightly sceptical about this - the only Jack Hoobin I can find is the Australian 1950 cycling world champion

But there's no reason to doubt that a cyclists vs. runners race took part. There's some great Pathe news footage of just such a race in Walsall in 1925. On that occasion the cyclists won, but watching the film it is clear that it wasn't a foregone conclusion as the cyclists had to carry their bikes through some of the muddier patches and over obstacles.

Running on Screen (11): Running to David Bowie

Woke up this morning and shed a tear or ten on hearing the news about the death of David Bowie. Others have spoken very elequently about Bowie today - I particularly liked Robert Elms' contribution when talking to Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio London. I often think about Bowie when I'm running around the parts of South London where he lived earlier in his life, in particular in Beckenham (he once lived in Foxgrove Road, near the home of Beckenham Running Club)

I guess his most direct contribution to athletics was in the 2012 London Olympics where Team GB marched in the opening ceremony athletes parade to 'Heroes'. But there are a couple of very memorable running scenes in movies, both set to his 'Modern Love'.

The first is in Leos Carax's 1986 French movie 'Mauvais Sang' (Bad Blood - released in English as 'The Night is Young'), in which there is an amazing acrobatic dance/running sequence featuring Denis Lavant.

Denis Lavant goes for a run in Mauvais Sang

The scene starts with the lovers listening to the radio - Bowie comes in at around 2:28:

Incidentally there is another running sequence at the end of the film with Juliette Binoche sprinting across an airfield.

Juliette Binoche runs at close of Mauvais Sang

Mauvais Sang was presumably an influence on Noah Baumbach's 2012 movie Frances Ha, as the director chose to again use Bowie's Modern Love to soundtrack for an equally joyous run, this time featuring Greta Gerwig on the streets on New York

Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha

David Bowie, Let's Dance
'if you say run, I'll run with you'

Previously in the Running on Screen series:

Stick Man's Christmas Running Adventure

Run Lola Run and running Berlin

Walford Half Marathon (Eastenders)

Race Strategy in The (US) Office
Top of the Lake and The Fall
The Running Man (1987)
Muybridge's Runner, 1887

The Casual Vacancy

From Darkness

London Spy