Adam in Runderland

You now how it is. You're messing about on Google Maps looking for a place you need to get to, when you spot a potential new running route. The Thames Down Link. I'd never heard of it up until that point. Apparently it was a 15 mile trail from Kingston, London to Box Hill in Surrey.  I have a friend in Kingston, and I love a good hilly run, so it wasn't long until I, and said friend, had arranged a time and date to run the trail. Matt lives in Kingston so I made my way over from Lewisham via Waterloo on a Saturday morning in January. It just so happened to be a very wet Saturday following a very wet week. The ground was saturated and mud was unavoidable. Did I mention I also love muddy runs. It was looking promising. We began with a parkrun, just to warm up for the trails ahead.  Kingston parkrun takes place along the Thames river. It involves a 500m loop of a park, before joining the tow path up to Teddington Lock with the river of your left, before another off road loop a...

Winter is a tough time to motivate yourself to run. The days are often grey, wet and windy. The streets are full of grumpy people and leaf strewn puddles. The lure of putting your feet up and eating something warm and comforting is tough to resist. However, once you manage to lace up your running shoes and start your watch perceptions are soon altered. If you accept that you will get wet, muddy and cold, those things don't bother you as much. In fact they become part of the enjoyment of the run. Today was one such day. I hadn't been out for a few days and was feeling that stuffy, lethargic sense of ennui and listlessness. I was determined to hit the trails and run in and through anything that I encountered. I would embrace the mud. I would fight the wind. I would appreciate the season for it's uniqueness.  My thoughts turned back to the heatwave we experienced just four short months previously. The forty degree heat, the impossibility of running through that thick, hot air,...

Christmas had been a disappointment running wise. What started as a head cold soon developed into a full-on bout of flu that lasted for two weeks. By the time I could breathe clearly again, and the fever had stopped, I was desperate to escape the confines of the house and my local area. During the days and nights confined to my bed I had been dreaming of all the places I loved to run in. Muddy trails, woodland and hills were the most popular locations to visit in my imagination. A chesty cough and sticky lungs lingered, but I figured I could run them off. Maybe the clean air would help?  There were a few options open to me that wouldn’t involve a ridiculous amount of traveling, especially important with constant train strikes taking place. I decided on North London. I could reach there by underground in less than an hour and with minimum inconvenience. The morning train from Hither Green took me to London Bridge, and from there it was a short ride on the Thameslink to Finsbury Park...