A run by the Thames

I didn't get to startle this little fellow after all!

Anyway, enough of that. The real reason for this blog is to tell you about a run that I went on before the course started on Sunday morning. Whenever I am asked to deliver or review a course that is away from home, the first thing I think about is "Where will I run on Sunday morning?" I normally find out where the hotel is and then look for a few routes in that area but last time I went to a course at St. Mary's I ended up in a Premier Inn a long way from any nice running routes.

I decided to bargain with the manager of the budget: If I go on the 5.30am train and save a night in the hotel and a more expensive train fare, can I choose a hotel that may be a bit more upmarket than normal and stay there on Saturday night? The answer was 'yes' so I found a hotel a stone's throw away from Richmond Park. I have heard so much about Richmond Park and even had a few butterflies in my stomach as I was packing my running gear. I imagined myself startling the odd deer as I ran by and taking in the oxygen rich air through woodlands and over the heathland.

When we had finished day 1 of the course I made my way to the hotel, had a bath, a meal and an early night. As I started to think about the time I would need to run in order to shower, breakfast and get to the course on time, the next day, it began to dawn on me that, although we are on the right side of the winter solstice it was going to be pretty dark at 6.30am. If I went out at 6.45 and was back for 7.30 would I actually see anything in the park? I can't believe that I hadn't thought of that!

I was up and out the next morning at my planned time. I looked over to the gate and the blackness that was on the other side of it. I thought that maybe there would be lights in the park but it certainly didn't look like it and then when I got up to the gate I saw that it was all locked up. The sign said that the park would open at 7.30am. How disappointing! I wasn't going to get to run in Richmond Park after all that bartering!

Oh well, I would just run out, follow my nose and turn round after 20 minutes. I made my way down to the River Thames and was pleased to see that there was a path running alongside so that became my route. Perhaps it wasn't as good as Richmond Park would have been but it was, nevertheless, a lovely run. It got a bit dark towards my turnaround point but nothing that I couldn't handle. As I was running back, I remembered an interview that I did with Vassos Alexander, from the Chris Evans radio show. I had asked him his favourite route and I began to realise that it was probably that phone conversation that got me interested in running in Richmond Park. He had told me that when he first started running he had done his exercise on a treadmill and really didn't take to it, but once he took his running 'alfresco' he fell in love with it. He had told me that his favourite route was out along the Thames to Richmond Park, a full lap of the park and back. I realised that I was, in fact, on this route and wondered if I might come across him on his early morning Sunday run. I may well have done, a couple of blokes were out there running in the opposite direction but it was too dark to see them!

When I got back to the hotel I made my way over to the park that was, by now, open just to have a quick nosey inside and see what I'd missed. It did look tempting but I didn't dare to go for it in case it made me late. There were a few cyclists congregating at the entrance and one female runner went on her way along the Tamsin Trail. Oh well, maybe the next time I go to St. Mary's it will be summer time and I can see what I've missed then!