Lionel Stanhope Run (Ultra Marathon) - South
Lionel Stanhope is a London street artist. He has painted murals across the capital including a number of rail signs. I came across these while running and discovered that there were a whole series of them sponsored by Network Rail.
The idea came to me that I could to try and run to all of them. I used the Internet to search articles and images of the signs and plotted their locations on a map. It would be a long run! They stretched from Chislehurst in Bromley to Clapham in Lambeth and from South Croydon to Plumstead.
Altogether there are 19 signs. I divided them into four separate runs; South, East, North and West.
On Sunday 19th April I ran the South leg. This began with a dog leg to the East to Hither Green and Lee. There are two signs in Hither Green, a green one and another that has been made to look like a old faded one. From Lee I headed West on the South Circular. (I do go South eventually).
This brought me to Catford where two signs face one another under the bridge, and then to Forest Green. I finally began to head south towards Penge. I spent about half an hour running around Penge asking local people if they knew where it was. I checked every bridge and both East and West stations but to no avail. I later found out from Lionel himself that Penge hasn't been done.
I stopped to buy a bottle of Lucozade Sport and a Mars bar. While I was refuelling a man crossed the road and asked me about the bandage on my knee. He explained that he used to run parkrun (he had seen the 250 parkrun shirt I was wearing) but had stopped due to painful knees. His friends had advised him to stop and he expressed how much he missed it.
He told me of the joy it used to bring him, the mental and physical benefits that he had experienced. I told him that my view is that running strengthens muscles and bones and that I wore the bandage for preventative reasons. I had some knee pain recently but that has now gone. I urged him to go back to parkrun as soon as they started again. He is just a mile from the one in Crystal Palace.
After the disappointment of the no show in Penge I continued south in search of Selhurst. After a few miles I started to see Crystal Palace FC signs and knew I was close to their home stadium of Selhurst Park. Sure enough there was the Selhurst sign under a bridge in the centre of town.
Next was South Croydon. It was 3-4 miles away meaning up to an 8 mile round trip for one sign. I decided that I wouldn't want to come all this way again for one sign so made my way down the A213.
I was blown away by the size of Croydon. It was like a small city in itself with towering skyscapers, wide roads, tramways and international hotels. I arrived at South Croydon Station and checked all the bridges but couldn't find the sign anywhere. After half an hour I had to give up. No one knew what I was talking about.*
Whether it was tiredness, hunger or stress I don't know but I felt really angry that I had run all that way and couldn't find the sign. I stomped away from South Croydon under a cloud with a frown on my face. I didn't want to retrace my steps - weirdly when I think of going north I feel like it will be uphill - so I aimed for Addington to the west.
The sun was shining in a cloudless sky, it was just the right warmth to be cool running but not cold. Birds were singing amidst the fresh green foliage of trees and bushes. Why was I allowing this beautiful spring morning to be spoiled by a missing sign? I gave myself a good talking to and resolved to get back to the joy of the run.
This was helped by leaving behind the buildings and concrete of Croydon for the fields, woods and trails of rural Addington on the North Downs. I was now closer to the M25 than the River Thames. A steep hill led up to the village and Addington Palace. By now my phone battery was under 20% so I had to turn off the GPS and Google Map I had been using to navigate. I turned to the sun to guide me.
It was now 10am and I knew the sun was heading from East to South. I took every route that put in at my back knowing I would be heading North-West towards home. There were cyclists everywhere no doubt on the search for hills and empty roads.
Another elevated road aptly names Cork Screw Hill brought me into West Wickham. Here I stopped again for refreshment and had a good chat with a shop owner who told me all about his sons who were Regional Taekwando champions. He told me that he ran a marathon at 16 but now was married to his shop and spent all his time taking his sons to tournaments around the country.
West Wickham has dozens of stencils of a child in a face mask watering a rainbow. A beautiful sign for these times. I left the village pledging to return again soon. The road took me into Beckenham and back to Catford. I was on home turf. At this point I noticed that apart from the times I had stopped for fuel and to take photos I was on trach for a marathon PB. I sped up and gave everything until I hit 26.2 miles in a new best time of sub 3:20.
I jogged a warm down and then made my way home. I was on empty but finished the 29th mile unable to make it to 30.
*I now have directions to the one in South Croydon which will involve a special trip.
