It’s Global Running Day (3rd June), and as the name suggests, it’s a worldwide celebration of running and the benefits it brings – it improves aerobic fitness, builds strength, reduces stress and can help you sleep better, not to mention it gets you out and about in the fresh air. Many of you have taken up (or got back into) running during lockdown, so to keep you inspired, we’ve asked four big runners to share their fave routes in London. Read on then lace up and hit the road.
Alice Tate
GRENNWICH PARK
“I’ve never been good at just running around a park – I lose motivation fast – so I tend to always run to somewhere. As I’m in South East London, one of my favourite runs is to Greenwich Park and up that bitch of a steep hill to the Observatory. The views on a good day are worth it, promise. Otherwise, my new favourite thing is running to pick up pizza I run from ours in Nunhead to Theo’s in Camberwell, via a lap of Peckham Rye. Trust me, with an incentive that tasty, you’ll never run so fast.”
Check out Alice on Insta @alice_tate
Cory Wharton-Malcolm
SYDENHAM
“My favourite place to run in London is definitely a route I like to call the wedding cake. The route takes you from Lower Sydenham up to either Crystal Palace or Sydenham Hill and goes up in tiers just like a wedding cake. I love this route as regardless of how many times you’ve done it it still makes your legs tingle. I also love that it’s beautifully placed in the middle of a lots of other hills, perfect for training.”
Check out Cory on Insta @bitbeefy
Adrienne Herbert
SOUTHBANK
“My favourite running route is through the City of London, along the Southbank first thing in the morning (5am). The streets and bridges are empty and it’s a cool way to see the city before it wakes up. I used to run with a London running crew called the London Midnight Runners – it was years ago and the crew was less than 10, today it’s a global community with thousands of runners. I have great memories of running that route with them.”
Check out Adrienne on Insta @adrienne_ldn
Oliver Hooson
HACKNEY MARSHES
“Low pollution at the heart of this one: starting in Vicky Park with the swans then up over Hackney Marshes for some dog racing, once round the Wetlands for some proper countryside energy followed by the canal the whole way back down – top it off with some buttery goodness at Pophams Bakery in London Fields and that’s just about the perfect day out whether you walk, run or cycle ????????”
Check out Oliver on Insta @olvh
Image credit: Mike Powell