Reason 1: Mile End parkrun with Fortnight Flo. 3.1 miles, 33:56, 10:45 min/mile
Another brand new parkrun today, this time in Mile End. It starts at the south end of Mile End park, and is twice around a lollipop. The design of the course gives you plenty of opportunity to see the other runners, to shout encouragement at your friends and to monitor the progress of your rivals. It’s all tarmac, undulating and already has a (male) course record of 15:23.
Reason 2: Mile End to Hyde Park with Fortnight Flo and Plustenner. 7.3 miles, 1:27:33, 11:56 min/mile
After the parkrun, we ran along Regent’s Canal to the Thames, along the Thames to Parliament Square and then up through various parks to the Hyde Park band stand for the post Janathon meet-up. The Thames Path may not be completely along the Thames, but the stretches of road are fairly short, and the route is very well sign posted.
As we ran along Victoria Embankment, we had a short game of “I went to London and I…” to help to take our (or at least my) minds off our feet / ankles / knees / hips / breathing. Our selection went something along the lines of:
I went to London and I brought back a blister, some great memories, Febulous runs one and two, a beefeater, some new route ideas, a runny nose, a tourist, a man with a nice bum, a great view of the London Eye, a miniature big ben, victory over the Victoria embankment, a lambourghini, a london bus, sore shoulders, ???? and amnesia. Though quite where we put all this stuff remains a mystery.
Reason 3: Round the Serpentine with Fairweather Runner and I Like to Count. 2.3 miles, 23:12, 9:51 mins/mile
While Jog Blog, Moving Along, Fortnight Flo and Trainers in the Rox waited for the other ‘athoners to arrive, three of us went for a swift (for me, in light of my earlier runs) run around the Serpentine. We successfully avoided the cross country (roller) skiers and managed to resist the temptation to go for a swim in the ice-capped lake.
We got back to find that Hels Bels, Running Better and Travelling Hopefully had arrived, so it was off to the pub for a swift half and then to the restaurant for pizza.
Yay.
*I have also been known to listen to Ian Dury.
abradypus 
Sounds fantastic. Well done all of you. Enjoy the pub and pizza!
So pleased that you all had such a good time and a little sad that I couldn’t make it – I’m going to go off and hit myself with a rhythm stick! 🙂
Wow! That’s a lot of running! And sounds like a lot of fun! 🙂
Love that song! Great to see you as always, was quite pleased with the park run time given the mahoosive hills and the fact that it didn’t feel hard!
Never do Ashton Court, Bolton, Ally Pally, Hampstead Heath or Heaton Park. They’re reeeeeally hilly.
Lovely to finally meet you today! Hope the knee is better tomorrow, and I’ll see you at a parkrun soon (or for an autumn half followed by pizza!)
thanks for a brilliant run through London, and a wonderful game for getting us up the embankment 🙂
Oh! I wish I could play “I went to London and…” for REAL! “I went to London & met up with you all for runs in the park, at the pub & for pizza!” Darn that gigantic Atlantic Ocean that keeps me away 😉
Sounds like it was a lovely day!