My 'Run home' competition entry!

Good Morning (cloudy and drizzle in London this morning, however, apparently sunny and 22 degs c tomorrow?! Mmmmm we'll see)

For those interested, here's my run home:

1 Start: My office on Bishopsgate in The City, aka the Financial District aka the Square Mile:

2 London Wall: London Wall was the defensive wall first built by the Romans around Londinium.

The wall appears to have been built in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, certainly between 190 and 225,

and probably between 200 and 220. This was around 80 years after the construction in 120 of the city's fort, whose north and west walls were thickened and doubled in height to form part of the new city wall. It continued to be developed until at least the end of the 4th century, making it among the last major building projects undertaken by the Romans before the Roman departure from Britain in 410. This photo is an example of a number sites around The City where the old Roman Wall is exposed.

3 St Paul's Cathedral: The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, all having been built on the same site since AD 604.

4 The Millenium Bridge and Tate Modern at the other end (with the chimney): Britain's national gallery of international modern art. It is the most visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, which was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

5 Barrister's Chambers at Temple (Located between Fleet Street and the Embankment)

6 One of the Dragons standing guard at the entrance to The City of London

7 London Eye aka Millenium Wheel: It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually.

8 Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column: The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The column was built to commemorate Admiral Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar. The whole monument is 169 ft 3ins (51.59 metres) tall from the bottom of the pedestal to the top of Nelson's hat.

9 View down Whitehall towards The Palace of Westminster aka Houses of Parliament. Downing Street is just on the right hand side. London's Cenotaph is just beyond the bus. I could cheat and upload images of No 10 and The Palace of Westminster but I don't actually run past them on this particular route, although I do from time to time if I change my route for variety.

10 Horse Guards Parade (The building on the far right of the photo is the rear of No 10 Downing Street): It was once the Headquarters of the British Army. The Duke of Wellington was based in Horse Guards when he was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. The site is used for annual ceremonies such as Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the monarch's official birthday, and Beating Retreat. It will be home to Beach volleyball during the London 2012 Olympic games!!

11 Buckingham Palace: Not sure what goes on there!

12 Eaton Square: If one could ever buy one of these houses or indeed apartments (rarely on the open market), they'd cost tens of millions. I don't live here!

13 Putney Bridge (view from): View west, away from London. The Oxford/Cambridge boat race starts immediately below the bridge. Boat houses are on the left hand side beyond the pier. The first bridge was opened in 1729. Putney Bridge is unique in that it is the only bridge in Britain to have a church at both ends.

13 Finish: Home. Wouldn't be wise to disclose my address, but it's in Putney.

The run is approx 8-8.5 miles (13.5km). It takes me approx 65 mins and I run it 3 to 4 times per week, either to or from work, depends on how much of a rush I'm in.

There you go, I've done my bit for London's tourism. Maybe that could be my new job. A running guided tour of London!

Have a super day
Ian

This year and beyond....

Good morning (sunny, bright but fresh in London - that's my weather report!)

Didn't manage to reserve the new ipad, will have to try again tonight.

The following is merely a list of  runs to contemplate over the next 12 months and beyond. They are all, apart from the odd one, marathon/ultra distance. The vast majority of them are UK based events which will be my focus whilst I hopefully build up to compete in 100 mile single stage races. If successful, I will then explore the possibility of may be entering some of the 'big uns' in the US. Key races are qualifiers for the Aug 2012 UTMB, a Racing the Planet event (poss Jordan or Sahara 2012) and then a longer term target of The Badwater 2014. Badwater is very difficult to get a place as it's invitation only. One can apply to be invited, if you catch my drift, there is no qualification points process or 'expected to have completed' list. So, it's important to have built up an impressive resume of completed races over a period of time and to maybe volunteer to act as a crew member for a runner. Get oneself known on the circuit.

Some of these can be shifted around. So 2011 races will take place in 2012, 2013 etc. For the purpose of the list, I've chosen not to repeat the same races each year.

I think I'll aim to target early 2012 as my first 100 mile attempt. Possibly the Thames Path 100.

2011

• The South Downs Marathon. 26/6/11
• The Kymin Dash. 31/7/11.
• The Lakeland 50. 30/7/11. This is a 50 mile race in the Lake District or 100 mile version
• Centurion NDW 50. 13/8/11. This is a 50 mile race (there is also a 100 mile and marathon distance race on the same course) along the North Downs Way (Farnham to M25 South East of london), orgainsed by James Elson (guy I met running the Country to Capital 2011)
• Ultra Race peaks. 21/8/11. This is a 40 mile race around the Peak District, starting and finishing in Derby.
• Northumberland Ultra. 27/8/11. 62 miles.
• * Entered - London to Brighton. 11/9/11. 56 mile race. UTDMB 2 points. Would need to complete this race to ensure qualification points for 2012 UTDMB
• Atlantic Coast Challenge (Cornwall). 30/9/11. 79 miles over 3 days.
• Pembrokeshire coast. 18/11/11. 79 miles over 3 days.
• The Breacons Ultra. Nov 11?. 45 miles.

2012

• Country to Capital. Jan 12. 45 miles
• Thames Path 100. 3/3/12. Richmond to Oxford. 100 miles.
• The Wye valley Ultra. March 12. 50 miles.
• Racing the Planet (RTP) Jordan. 13/5/12. 155 miles in a week.
• Fan Dance Breacon. May. 5 hour race up and down Pen Y Fan.
• Cardiff Ultra. May 12. 50 miles.
• RTP Gobi. 10/6/12. 155 miles in a week
• Round the Island (Isle of Wight). June 12. 70 miles over 2 days
• Lakeland 50/100 (Lake District). July 12. 50 or 100 miles
• UTDMB. End Aug 2012. 100 miles around Mont Blanc. Start and finish in Chamonix. Will need to complete qualifying races in 2011. I already have 3 of the 5 points required from The Atacama crossing.
• RTP Sahara. 28/10/12. 155 miles in a week.

2013

• RTP Gobi. 2/6/13. 155 miles in a week. 
• Others to consider: 100 mile races in USA

2014

Compete in and/or 'crew' (2013) in The Badwater (July each year), USA

That'll do for the time being. I will target a few of these events with the aim of treating them as training for the bigger stuff, such as UTMB, RTP, Badwater, 100 mile races.

Please feel free to pass comment on my race selection and offer up ideas for any others. Something to maybe consider is multi disciplined (cycling, swimming, kayaking, climbing etc) adventure races rather than just purely foot races. And team races too.

Have a super day
Ian

Attempting to reserve new ipad...

Under normal circumstances I wouldn't be inclined to post a blog comment/report at 9.22pm on Sunday evening. However, I am attempting to reserve the new ipad online via either Covent Garden, Regent St or White City stores. As you can imagine all web pages are moving at a pedestrian pace so whilst I wait for them to load I thought i'd make some sort of comment.

Well, I took some photos on Friday evening of my run home so I'll upload them, as my competition entry, when I get a little more time this week. How's everyone else getting on? I'm just going to pretend others are participating! It's a sign of sanity apparently!

I have entered the London to Brighton trail race on 11th September 2011. Actually, literally just dawned on me that will be the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It's a 56 mile qualifying race for the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTDMB). If I complete the course I will have enough points, along with AC 2011, to be able to apply to enter the 2012 UTDMB (UTMB for short!). This is usually run in August - 26th Aug this year. It's approx 166km foot race around Mont Blanc with 9500m of positive altitude change. Starts and ends in Chamonix France, passing through Italy and Switzerland. Should be fun! Ask the right sort of questions! All in the mind I believe!

Right, I'm super tired. Although my spelling and grammar (is that supposed to be with an e? Don't know, don't care) is not particularly flash at the best of times please forgive any glaring errors this time of the evening/weekend. 

Good evening

Ian

Anyone up for a competition?

Terribly sorry to drone on about my run home from work - very tedious. Anyway, whilst running home last night, I had an idea for a global competition. Clearly, as it's only me, my mum (she probably just says she reads it to humour me!) and may be a couple of others who read this blog, the reach for a global competition is reasonably limited. So, may be a running magazine or website could pick up on the idea. Feel free to steal it.

As I was running home (here I go again), it dawned on me that the route I take and the places I see are probably amongst some of the most historically significant and iconic sites (and/or sights) in the world. So, here's the competition. Open to anyone anywhere. Who has the best (not really sure how to define 'best' in this context - maybe most picturesque, scenic, inspiring, exhilarating, historically significant etc etc) run home from work. It has to be a regular route from a place of work to a fixed abode. The entry needs to be supported by photographs and a brief description. Then everyone can vote and the winning 'run home' is the one with the most votes. Now, as my mum doesn't run home from work (as far as I am aware), that only leaves me. So, I guess I have a great opportunity to win my own competition. I'll kick it off with my own entry. I'll take some photos of parts of my run, upload them to this blog with a brief description and we can take it from there. Feel free to join in.