Hyde Park - the whole nine yards!

After yesterday's poor effort I was well up for a decent run today and decided to treat myself to a circumnavigation of Hyde Park. What a truly fantastic place this is; over 350 acres of green space in the heart of London. Amazingly it was acquired by Henry VIII from the monks of Westminster Abbey almost 500 hundred years ago for use as a private hunting-ground; both pheasants and peasants probably! Anyway the sun shone brightly this lunchtime and I headed out as soon as I could:

From the GPS route, courtesy of my Forerunner 205, it's obvious how big a chunk of London the park takes up. Just by looping around the edge you can clock up a 4.5 mile run and I'm pretty happy to have knocked out steady 7-minute miles for the first three-quarters of my lap before finishing with a 6:30-minute mile down to the Wellington Arch and a jog back for lunch. As usual there were plenty of runners out enjoying the sunshine but the funniest bit was when I bumped into a colleague right outside the office on my return - she'd just endured 10K on the gym treadmill while I'd been out in the fresh air. I know which I prefer!

Distance: 8.2 miles

Time: 1h 0m 33s