Down to the (Welsh Harp) Waterline

Given the imminence of Joshua's birthday party, a giant sleep-over, this was destined to be my only run of the weekend - so I made sure that I arrived in plenty of time. Which is more than can be said for Mike MacManus as he swung into the car-park as we headed out! Maybe this is why he took over the reins and headed straight down towards the special joy that is Cricklewood! Actually that's maybe a bit harsh as he did lead us across the little-known open space of Clitterhouse Playing Fields and over to the perhaps more widely-know open space of Brent Cross shopping centre! No one can claim that this wasn't a route of two-halves but in the end the urban landscape gave way to the more rural vista of the Brent Reservoir -  colloquially known as Welsh Harp.

Most of us only know this area as a glimpse of water from the North Circular but it is, in fact, a fun place to run around and, not surprisingly, a hot-spot for water sports. You can tell that we were glad to, finally, get there:

Mike leading Daniel, Jonathan, Lawrence and Josie

What's interesting about Welsh Harp is that the reservoir was originally created not to provide drinking water but instead to ensure that the new-fangled canals in London didn't run dry. To this end it expanded to an area of over 400 acres at its peak although these days it's more like a bit over 100 acres in size - although if you include the Silver Jubilee Park to the north then there's a fair bit of open space available for running. That said it can get a bit boring just putting one foot in front of the other and we were all glad of Simon Bernstein's sterling effort to sustain us with repartee, encouragement and good old-fashioned discipline. Not only does Simon drive himself with a vigour that belies his years but he is also a tireless champion of worthy causes:

Simon Bernstein - legend

So it was with a heavy heart that we left behind this nirvana and arced our way across the A406 via the Brent Cross Flyover - concrete monstrosity and crime-scene in-waiting that it is. One can only wonder how many shopping trolleys have met an untimely end in this moral wasteland! Luckily just round the corner Jonathan and Darren were surging hard up Hamilton Road and so I had to submit to a long chase up the suburban streets; it might not have been Bullitt but the pursuit was exciting enough. In fact so exciting was it that Darren went again through Golders Green and I really had to put myself to the sword to catch up - only closing in on the very final stretch past the Old Bull and Bush. It's amazing what you can do when you try!

Distance: 10.5 miles

Time: 1h 30m 42s