Hello all,
Quick question to all the Londonders on here.
Due to work duties, I'll be living in Hammersmith for three weeks in August and working near Kings Cross. I've google mapped it and it's about 5.6 miles.
Rather than waste my heard earned Yorkshire pennies on a tube fayre each day, and for reasons of exercise and sanity I was thinking of running in every morning and running back after work.
It's August so should be nice, and won't be running in the dark, too short a period to justify taking my bike (not to mention the dying issues) and I thought a nice run every day will ward off the 'no-exercise shakes' I get from time to time.

So my question to the gritty Londonites is: Is this a ridiculous idea. Are London's streets so rammed with the teeming masses on a weekday morning that I'll be absorbed into the mass of writhing bodies and emerge bruised, naked and fifteen miles away, two hours later.

Distance wise I think it'll be ok, I live in Sheffield and do a few fell races of a similar distance, and London doesn't have 1500' of climbing in it.

Will central London smog shorten my life considerably?

Will I be absorbed into the mind of that green guy from the Mighty boosh?

Thanks all.

Buy and fixie with no brakes and vedry narrow bars, they seem to be the in thing at the moment

You'll be fine. Pick up the (free) cycle maps – they mark out all the quiet streets so you can probably pick out a nice route away from the masses anyway.

A friend often runs from home in Finsbury Park to work in Hammersmith – quite nice as you can do a chunk of it through Hyde Park.

you can do it no probs, but may need to opt for a backstreets route, as the main roads will be pretty rammed with pedestrians and so may make for stop/starty running. also, make sure you get your shoes resoled for the surface here, due to the streets being paved with gold.

If you do it, make sure you get a couple of others and run 3 abreast on the pavement, making sure that everyone moves for you.

Just don't do it on the undergound, especially if there are armed police behind you…

Be a nice run across Hyde Park.

Bear in mind if you're usually an off road runner, you might find it tiring running on hard flat surfaces.

Unless you went too far south and went across Soho, I can't really see anywhere that it'll be too crowded to run except maybe right near Kings Cross, depending on where you are finishing up. Running in crowds is fun anyway, think of it as a challenging obstacle to get around.

Joe

Thanks guys! Looks like it's a goer, right now I need to start a 'what soles for streets paved with gold?' thread.