Weather: 20-24 degrees C, cloudy with intermittent bursts of sunshine and a cool breeze.
I’ve made it to Cheshunt YHA, not withstanding the endurance of not only the run at around 19 miles, but also the weight of my rucksack, which despite being packed, with I thought, the minimum of items to keep me going over the next 8 days, was alot heavier than I had anticipated. Hopefully it will get lighter as the days go by and I get through the energy gels, bars and jellies I’ve brought to sustain me each day. Anyway, it was never about speed, so running was definitely slow, with plenty of pauses.
I set off pretty much on time, just after 10am- it was perfect weather for running and a relief after Saturday’s practice run on one of the hottest days of the year. By now, this stretch is the one I know best as being the nearest to home, it’s the one I’ve been able to practice the most. The first half of the route to Tottenham Hale, winds its through the streets of London, first along the river to Southwark Bridge and then through the City to Liverpool Street Station, which is where I would normally catch the train to Cambridge. I have had to consciously bypass my normal entrance into the station to follow my route down the side of the station, onto Bishopsgate before winding through the smaller streets of Shoreditch towards Bethnal Green. At close to 10.30, I’d thankfully missed the morning rushour of people and traffic, but it was still pretty busy. Turning off down Folgate st was a welcome relief and it has been a real pleasure over the last few months to get to know my route through these small streets, where I really see the diversity of various different communities getting on with their day. This is what I love about London and why I still live there after over 30 years.
My aim has been to try and follow the railway as closely as I can and from Bethnal Green to Hackney Downs and then towards Clapton, some of the smaller streets really did take me beside and under the railway built at a height with its beautifully engineered red or sand-coloured brickwork and myriad of arches. At Hackney Downs itself the railway disappears through a tunnel and it was strange running across this now dry straw-like grass, to think that there might be a train moving beneath my feet. The last part of this section took me down the steepness of Backers Hill to the River Lee Canal, a welcome detour from the rail route , which you can’t really get close to at Walthamstow Marshes, so it’s the most direct way to get to Tottenham Hale. It was great to run along the towpath past the canal boats, a busy rowing club and some thriving community gardens, before turning off towards Tottenham Hale Station, after passing under the railway bridge and reconnecting to my commute route.
The station marked my half-way point, where I knew I would have a longer pause to recharge both myself and my 3 mobile phone devices (or at least connect them to my battery pack). This is usually straight forward, but I realised that one of my leads was the wrong lead and I had to undertake a complicated manoeuvre of taking my backpack off to retrieve the correct one inside a pencil case tucked inside it. This is usually straight forward, but I realised that one of my leads was the wrong lead and I had to undertake a complicated manoeuvre of taking my backpack off to retrieve the correct one inside a pencil case that was tucked inside it. After a bit of a fight with the mess of wires and the orientation of my phone doing the Facebook live feed, I managed to get some welcome sustenance in the form of some energy gel, bars and fluid and I was on my way.
This second half of the journey from Tottenham Hale to Cheshunt was alot more arduous, not least with the effects of the weight of my rucksack after almost 9 miles and the realisation that something uneven from the inside it was rubbing the right side of my lower back. I didn’t want to have contend with another rucksack saga, so I decided to put up with it and carry on, knowing I’d probably have a small sore to deal with later. The route took me north and across a railway bridge, along a suburban road past Northumberland Road station and round to the right onto the relentless, dusty and car ridden Meridian Way and Mollison Avenue, seemingly the northern gateway out of London. Although this was a straightforward and straight route with a dual cycle/ footpath that petty much followed the railway line all the way, it was dull and pretty relentless. It was also (for pedestrians at least), pretty unkempt, with unruly wild plants creeping over to the point of obliterating the paths at points along the way. I was pretty much the only pedestrian on it and I could understand why. I could have gone a different much prettier way via the Lea Valley Walk, but it would have taken me further from the railway that I was trying to keep close to. It would also have been further to run.
The highlight was reaching Brimsdown Station, which I knew was only 2 or 3 miles to my destination, and then Waltham Cross, just beyond the M25. A small nature reserve/ meadow lining the railway between the two could have been lovely, were it not for the unkempt nettle-ridden entrance to the footpath, that meant climbing onto a rubble-mound to get through (definitely only for the sure-footed).
The last stretch through the residential streets of Waltham Cross, seemed to go on forever, as by now my lower back was really getting sore, but it brought me to the best part of the route at a railway crossing near Theobalds Grove, to then join the Waterlily Walk footpath, past Boyers Water and other watery features at the edge of the Lea Valley. Here and at other points I was able to eat wild blackberries from hedges and brambles I passed every now and then- a treat that was also a marker from the recent heatwaves. This last mile or so was welcome relief from my aches and pains and I knew it woudn’t be long before I would reach the YHA at Cheshunt.
