Early Morning Runs In London

This is Tom blogging. I wanted to recount my experiences running through London in the wee hours of the day. I got up at 5:00am Monday morning, having been awake since 2:00am with a back so sore that I couldn’t find a comfortable sleeping position (standing just kills my lower back). I decided to do a bit of run-by sightseeing and see if I could run over to the palace. Turns out getting to Westminster from Kensington was a piece of cake. I loved watching the signs of the city just waking up. A few folks were out and about. A few intrepid tourists were about, too, identifiable by the maps in hand. I noticed that London doesn’t really put on a show until much later in the day as there were no fancy guards around the palace. Rather, the standard, run of the mill police officers were performing patrol. Still, it is amazing to wonder about the hundreds and thousands of years of history which have formed this place and that I have the pleasure to run amongst it in its modern form.
Today, I decided to get up and do a repeat run, having had such a great time on Monday morning. This time I got a bit of a later start (6:30), so that I got to see the London commute in full swing. The course this time was down through Chelsea until I hit the River Thames. Then left (east) until I hit Westminster. I trusted my sense of running south (towards the river), keeping the sun to my left. Once I hit the river, I was thrilled to see that I was one of many, many other runners. I even got into a bit of friendly competition as I would come upon a runner who was running my same pace. It certainly made the time fly by. The views of the river were stunning, too. The tide was way, way out, stranding the boat houses that line the upper river high and dry on the muddy bottom of the river. Once I turned back west to head home, I decided to follow the corridor of parks that run from the river back to Kensington (St. James’s, Green and Hyde/Kensington Gardens). Wow. What a display of human powered commuting that was. There was a veritable bike race of folks riding straight under the marble arch at Hyde Park Corner. I was thinking to myself, “Now this is a commute I wouldn’t mind in the least.” Seeing the joy in these peoples faces as they rode along with friends on a stunning late spring day made me happy and positive the remainder of the day.
I find that the best type of traveling is finding that unexpected moment that is never documented in a travel book, when you see how others live and share their lives with others. Thats when I remember that the simplest things in life (family, friends, health) really are the things that matter. I’d trade my simple morning runs for a trip through tourist infested Westminster any day of the week…