I have found a reason for running!

I found myself in the office at 6am this morning and decided that as I hadn’t managed a run yesterday evening as hoped that I should go for a decent one this morning. It was dark, but there was a light in the sky as the sun was coming up – so I headed down past Blackfriars to the river and decided to run along Victoria Embankment. I haven’t really run down here before and certainly not this early in the morning. It is amazingly peaceful, a few cars – although you block them out, a few joggers and a couple of cyclists. That’s it. And you can hear the river. There is something magical about the sound of moving water – even if it is the Thames! And then there was the light on the buildings. Sunrise is a magical time, but when you are out running and the sun comes up to hit the London skyline and Big Ben suddenly shines in a golden glow of early morning rich almost treacly light then I guess you realise that rather than being a chore as this running seems to have become – it is a pleasure, a rare treat no less to see these things and experience them with very few other people around you.

Ran down to Westminster Bridge, across it and then up the other side of the river passing under the still slow moving London Eye, eventually crossing again at Blackfriars Bridge and then back to the office. Great run – something like 5km I guess in about 30 mins. I have to say that I must come down one morning and do this again but a little further – I’d love to run all the way down to Vauxhall Bridge and back up Albert Embankment – that should be quite nice. I have walked the other way to Wapping before – and that could also be a nice run – but I think this way was probably better.

I was walking pas the Axe building on Warwick Lane next to the Old Bailey yesterday and was quite surprised to find privet hedge clippings littering the pavement. Obviously the top of this building has some form of topiary on it – and this is another thing that I guess running brings you – not hedges – but seeing things that you otherwise wouldn’t see. When I run to the office – I often take some random odd route taking some left that I have never been down before in order to lengthen the run. It is this very act that brings me face to face with a London that frankly I just otherwise wouldn’t see. I love discovering new places, new routes and new sights – and I guess this mornings sights alone have reminded me of why I do, at least when in the act, love running.