I have wanted to run this route for quite a few years having watched several friends run it previously and as I live directly on it. I’m currently training for Spartathlon in September, so a long day out that included a lot of tarmac is an ideal training run. There was the added bonus of the UK currently experiencing a prolonged heat wave which would give me even closer to race conditions.
I plotted the route from my flat in Earlsfield in a clockwise direction which would take me through Wimbledon Park 2km in. This meant I needed to time the start of the run to coincide with the gates opening. Luckily the tennis is currently going on at Wimbledon so the park is open earlier than normal for ‘The Queue’ and I was able to set off at 6:20.
I really enjoyed the first 35k or so round to Harrow. There was a lot of park and runnable, shady, canal path and it was still only just heating up. By north London it was baking hot and I found it less enjoyable as a route with a lot more road crossings and I needed to stop to get water, coke and calippos more often! After a low patch that extended to about 80k and took me through the long-term Greenway diversion, I started to pick up again and by the time I ran through the nice, chilly Woolwich tunnel I was feeling much better. The last 40k or so were again a bit greener and it finally started to cool down which made the end of the run much more pleasant.
I could have run it significantly faster had I not gone out in a heatwave so I’m sure someone else will do so soon, but for my aims for the day I managed to tick all the boxes so am happy with that!