As part of our pedal to parkrun community series, Dominic Wallace shares his story of traveling to all the London parkruns under his own steam – completing Londone by Bike*.
The history
I’ve been a keen parkrunner for many years (although my shirt is still green – not earned the blue one yet), and I’ve always enjoyed “passive tourism”, in other words looking at where you happen to be (or have to be) on a Saturday morning and finding a parkrun nearby or en route. I also think bikes are a brilliant way of getting from A to B (albeit not if A and B are 7,000km apart – I remain in awe of people who do stuff like that!).
“Active tourism” – what I call making a special trip to a parkrun that isn’t the closest – is fun too, but I don’t really like driving if I can avoid it, so whenever I wanted somewhere different I started getting on the bike and going to some nearby venues. I live in west London so there are quite a few nearby ones to choose from, each with their own treats (Wormwood Scrubs for the mud, Northala Fields for the momos on Christmas Day, Southall for a brilliant samosa shop just down the road, you get the drift).
As I started to range further afield (NENDY-bagging is an easy habit to get into) I found I was often enjoying the journey there and back as much as the parkrun itself, and so I just carried on, really. Then one day I found I only had a couple left to do to complete the western half of Londone+ (everything inside the M25), so I did those and started thinking what to do next. NENDYs were normally to the east at this point, for obvious reasons, but I kept ticking them off and about a year ago found I’d reached 50 different parkruns under my own steam, at which point I did what every self-respecting person would do and asked the lovely Beccy at Oliversmamamakes to do me a custom T-shirt.
(OK, we need a slight confession at this point, which explains the asterisk. “Londone by bike” is actually a bit of a shorthand for “Londone under my own steam”: there’s a handful that I have run to – a nice way of tacking 5k of effort onto the end of a long run – but never actually cycled to. On the other hand, it’s a whole lot easier to ride somewhere than to run there, so I don’t really think I’m short-changing anyone with the abbreviation, so there).
Anyway, early this year I started wondering whether “Londone by bike” was possible and if it would be fun. (Spoiler alert: yes to both). I’d gone as far as Mole Valley (super route there and back, beautiful trail course albeit lumpy) but a handful of the London ones were quite a bit further than that. And then I was at Bethlem Royal Hospital in February (fantastic in every respect, from the people to the bacon rolls, although if you don’t like getting muddy you might want to do this one in the summer) and mentioned I was thinking about it. They said could they quote me on that – I told you they were lovely – and I said yes, so they did and at this point I was committed.
The rest sort of handled itself, really. I tried to do the furthest ones while the days were longest (6am starts are a lot more fun in the light), but holidays and Child Two’s wedding meant the last few involved pre-dawn departures. I saved Barking (definite PB potential, all the facilities) for last; can’t think why…
What I learnt
Firstly, there are some lovely parks in London, sometimes where you least expect them; I’m not talking about the obvious beauties like Richmond, Beckenham Place or Osterley. I’m sorry to pick on you, Ilford, and please don’t take this personally, but you are not very good-looking. Valentines Park, on the other hand, is lovely (flat, and the course comes complete with café, loos and yoga). Likewise I’m old enough to remember the Broadwater Farm riots, and the Lordship Lane Rec parkrun (ditto, except no yoga) was an uplifting reminder of how the area has changed since then.
Also, London – especially east London – actually has some decent cycling infrastructure. Some of it’s easy to find: you can get from quite near me to as far as Canning Town, Stratford or Greenwich on some pretty good and well-marked routes. In fact the Cable Street cycle path – pretty much the highlight of my old commute to Canary Wharf – has been overtaken in quality and now looks a bit dated. I like what this says about how standards have improved since my day. In other areas, they’ve been a bit more creative with what’s already there: Haringey take a bow, and I would praise Hackney too, except most of their little cut-throughs seem to have traffic lights every hundred yards, which the locals basically ignore of course. And signage elsewhere still has an annoying habit of vanishing at key junctions: guess wrong and you’re on your own.
I gradually got better at the route planning bit of Garmin Connect, but it’s a bit of a knack. It will send you on some ridiculously long detours if you just ask it to follow favourite routes, but it is definitely your friend once you get used to it (I assume the same applies to its rivals). Watch how the elevation changes when you tweak a route; much more important than the actual distance in my humble opinion. And if you can’t avoid a hill, try to make it a side road: crawling up the South Circular in Dulwich isn’t much fun when the cars are bombing past. (Not really a Londone-related thing, but Garmin also thinks a couple of canal towpaths are much more on-road than they really are!).
I think I knew this already, but I’m one of the people who prefers the smaller quirkier runs to the ones with so many people they turn into processions. I’ve already mentioned Bethlem Royal Hospital, but places like Beckton (flat but no facilities) and Sunny Hill (not flat at all – the clue’s in the title – but all the facilities) I loved. And not just because Beckton had so few people I got a single-digit finish. I suspect the regulars at the busy races know where to start, but as a tourist I don’t like to barge too close to the front, and so end up doing some very slow first kilometres. Especially important at Hampstead, where the start’s downhill and you really don’t want to waste that by walking.
The accidents
Remarkably few!
I discovered at Ally Pally (lumpy, nice views but no facilities) that waterproof gloves aren’t, but you probably knew that. This was basically heavy rain from when I left home to when I got back several hours later, and part of the course itself goes up a path with raised borders at each side, which in those conditions means you’re running up an ankle-deep stream. In a similar vein, I later found out that running shoes are not what you want on your feet for three and a half hours when it’s sub‑zero. And on my way to Roundshaw Downs (cross-country, undulating, no facilities, try to do this one in the dry) during Storm Eunice I embarrassingly had to get off and push – on the flat!
I’ve not totted up the miles I’ve cycled doing this, but it’s in the thousands and I’ve only had one thing go wrong with the bike (which is well over ten years old and has been abused mercilessly for most of that time): the saddle bolt sheared just after I’d left Hoblingwell (mostly flat, nice two‑lapper, bacon rolls) and left me with the choice of riding 40km home sans saddle or bailing out onto the train. (I chose option two). So thank you Boardman and of course Schwalbe (if you know, you know).
I can remember one real Garmin fail (tried to send me through a locked gate) and one due to user error (no idea, must have clicked and dragged my end point without noticing), both of which made me appreciate the contingency time I’d allowed. Also: if your route takes you down The Mall (as mine often did), best to check it’s not Trooping the Colour that day. Especially if the route’s over 40km each way even before the diversion.
And for those who like their faith in human nature restored, I can’t really recall experiencing much road rage the whole time I was doing this: one angry driver (to be fair, that was probably 60‑40 my fault) and one extremely foul-mouthed pedestrian (that one definitely not my fault!). There were probably others, but nothing that still sticks in the mind, and no near-misses.
Final gratuitous plug
I’ve mentioned Beccy (Oliversmamamakes) already – she did my Cowell T-shirt as well as the “50 by Bike” one – but if I can get away with it can I also mention Carly at Absolute Mug? Not really anything to do with this project (it was a “bike down the Loire” memento) but she did me a brilliant bespoke mug at a ridiculously reasonable price. Take a look at the mugs she does as race memorabilia (I have one of those, which is where I got the idea); they’re great and she can customise to your heart’s content.